oil gusher in california

[mdn2000]

Oil discovered it an old oil field, and its a gusher, a bitter pill for peak oil theorist. I know the argument the fools will give, this discovery will only last the USA for 20 days, yet Kern oil fields have been some of the most production in the USA since the last century, this oil field continues to surprise us with production and now a gusher.

I posted this in another thread but the significance is Peak Oil shattering

That the gusher is situated in a hydrocarbon basin that has been picked over for 100 years validates the philosophy extolled by Oxy President Steven Chazen and Chief Executive Ray R. Irani: The best place to find new oil is in old oilfields.

Within two years the field could be producing 100,000 barrels a day, putting it among the busiest five fields in the U.S. That would be enough to generate net income of $1 billion a year, a nice bump for a company that already boasts higher net margins than any other big oil company, with $3 billion earned on $18 billion in revenue last year. "This find is a real game changer," says Douglas Leggate, oil analyst with Bank of America ( BAC - news - people ), "and not just for Oxy." He thinks the reservoir is 20,000 feet underground and could stretch 50 miles to the north through acreage controlled by Chevron ( CVX - news - people ) (which has a minor stake in Oxy's find) and Aera Energy (a joint venture between ExxonMobil ( XOM - news - people ) and Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSA - news - people ))

Al Gores family once owned Oxy. Gore gave strategic oil reserves to Oxy during the Clinton administration.

The secret to Oxy's success: no wildcatting. "We're in the oil recovery business, not in the oil discovery business," says Chazen, 63. Nearby the find is a 100-year-old field called Elk Hills, which Oxy bought from the federal government in 1998 for $3.6 billion. The deal was sponsored by then Vice President Gore as part of his "Reinventing Government" initiative--that is, getting bureaucrats out of the business of operating oilfields

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0329/outfront-oxxy-irani-oil-exxon-energy-oil-oil-everywhere.html

 

[JiggsCasey]

You've learned nothing. Still no mention of proven reserve total... And of course, no link.

Fail.

 

[andy753]

Could someone please explain "Peak Oil" to me, and just the facts, please. And the short version please. I've gotta say, I don't know much about it.

 

[Mr. H.]

Proven Reserves:

an estimated quantity of all hydrocarbons statistically defined as crude oil or natural gas, which geological and engineering data demonstrate with reasonable certainty to be recoverable in future years from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions. Reservoirs are considered proven if economic producibility is supported by either actual production or conclusive formation testing. The area of an oil reservoir considered proven includes those portions delineated by drilling and defined by gas-oil or oil-water contacts, if any, and the immediately adjoining portions not yet drilled, but which can be reasonably judged as economically productive on the basis of available geological and engineering data. In the absence of information on fluid contacts, the lowest known structural occurrence of hydrocarbons controls the lower proven limit of the reservoir.

Proven reserves

It's a figure used mainly for balance sheets and IRS reporting, in cases where depletion allowances are calculated.

I don't know why you're so fixated on the term, Jiggs.

 

[JiggsCasey]

Could someone please explain "Peak Oil" to me, and just the facts, please. And the short version please. I've gotta say, I don't know much about it.

Peak oil refers to the maximum global extraction and production rate of light crude oil, which we have reached (2005-2008). All oil extraction from any field follows a relative bell curve, with terminal decline following the apex. Peak production comes 40 years after peak discovery. It is axiomatic that the sum of those fields also follows the same bell curve, as global discoveries peaked 40-45 years ago, and new discoveries are not coming close to keeping up with existing dying capacity. No "alternative" is remotely ready to replace what light crude does for complex societies, and won't be for decades, if ever. The IEA has (finally) joined the Joint Chiefs, the U.S. Dept. of Energy, Oxford Univ., the German, British and Australian governments, Lloyds of London, ASPO, Total Oil, Dick Cheney, and countless petroleum geologists in admitting peak is here, and terminal decline will begin by 2015, and likely much sooner.

Oil will never "run dry," as the rising cost will effectively crush demand. The ramifications of that crushed demand, however, is major dislocation of the global food conveyor belt, and ever-increasing civil disruption (perpetual recession all the way to great depression... and, if things get too desperate - war).

Dick Cheney admitted the coming oil depletion crisis in London in 1999, and his actions in office supported that policy from the moment he was sworn in and created the very secretive NEPDG using tax-payer funding. So desperate was he to hide the details of Bush League energy policy, an unprecedented move, he fought it all the way to the Supreme Court, and won.

Peak oil explains almost everything happening in global conflict zones, and western geopolitics today - from 9/11 to the housing/lending bubble to Iraq to Deepwater Horizon to the desperate horizontal fracking and strip mining of the U.S. and Canada. If it wasn't happening, our leaders wouldn't be doing the incredibly dangerous and violent things they do.

But to admit this geological certainty openly in the mass media would lead to the collapse of global markets for a ponzi scheme which is utterly dependent on the illusion of confidence.

 

[uscitizen]

I will bet that MDN runs around saying no more poverty everytime he finds a quarter in the sofa.

 

[JiggsCasey]

Proven Reserves:

an estimated quantity of all hydrocarbons statistically defined as crude oil or natural gas, which geological and engineering data demonstrate with reasonable certainty to be recoverable in future years from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions. Reservoirs are considered proven if economic producibility is supported by either actual production or conclusive formation testing. The area of an oil reservoir considered proven includes those portions delineated by drilling and defined by gas-oil or oil-water contacts, if any, and the immediately adjoining portions not yet drilled, but which can be reasonably judged as economically productive on the basis of available geological and engineering data. In the absence of information on fluid contacts, the lowest known structural occurrence of hydrocarbons controls the lower proven limit of the reservoir.

Proven reserves

It's a figure used mainly for balance sheets and IRS reporting, in cases where depletion allowances are calculated.

I don't know why you're so fixated on the term, Jiggs.

Incorrect. It is "estimated" and 'technically recoverable" reserve total figures that are used for balance sheets and share-holder buoyancy.

All that matters is what you can get to. You should be more fixated on the term, yourself, and not relying on guesswork and hope-based totals.

I can tell you I've found 5 trillion barrels of crude 500 miles below the north pole. That doesn't mean jack squat if no one can ever get to it.

 

[Old Rocks]

There is a very good explanation of peak oil here.

Peak oil primer and links | Energy Bulletin

 

[RadiomanATL]

FYI [.b] doesn't work on thread titles.

 

[uscitizen]

Buy your Peak Oil at Amazon.com

 

[Oddball]

oil gusher in California

There's so much oil oozing out of the ground in the Santa Barbara area, that you could strike a gusher if you chunked your approach shot at the local golf course.

But even propose drilling more wells there and the granola heads would collectively poop themselves.

 

[Mr. H.]

Proven Reserves:

an estimated quantity of all hydrocarbons statistically defined as crude oil or natural gas, which geological and engineering data demonstrate with reasonable certainty to be recoverable in future years from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions. Reservoirs are considered proven if economic producibility is supported by either actual production or conclusive formation testing. The area of an oil reservoir considered proven includes those portions delineated by drilling and defined by gas-oil or oil-water contacts, if any, and the immediately adjoining portions not yet drilled, but which can be reasonably judged as economically productive on the basis of available geological and engineering data. In the absence of information on fluid contacts, the lowest known structural occurrence of hydrocarbons controls the lower proven limit of the reservoir.

Proven reserves

It's a figure used mainly for balance sheets and IRS reporting, in cases where depletion allowances are calculated.

I don't know why you're so fixated on the term, Jiggs.

Incorrect. It is "estimated" and 'technically recoverable" reserve total figures that are used for balance sheets and share-holder buoyancy.

All that matters is what you can get to. You should be more fixated on the term, yourself, and not relying on guesswork and hope-based totals.

I can tell you I've found 5 trillion barrels of crude 500 miles below the north pole. That doesn't mean jack squat if no one can ever get to it.

From the IRS:

PROVED RESERVES:Quantities of reserves that, based on geologic and engineering data,appear with reasonable certainty to be recoverable in the future from known oil andgas reserves under existing economic and operating conditions.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-mssp/oilgas.pdf

 

[JiggsCasey]

From the IRS:

PROVED RESERVES:Quantities of reserves that, based on geologic and engineering data,appear with reasonable certainty to be recoverable in the future from known oil andgas reserves under existing economic and operating conditions.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-mssp/oilgas.pdf

You can trot out all the definitions you want that spin it the way you desperately need. I don't see your point, as "reasonable certainly" being the key phrase that makes your angle a semantics argument.

Now man-up and provide the definition of "technically recoverable" and/or "estimated" reserves.

 

[JiggsCasey]

oil gusher in California

There's so much oil oozing out of the ground in the Santa Barbara area, that you could strike a gusher if you chunked your approach shot at the local golf course.

But even propose drilling more wells there and the granola heads would collectively poop themselves.

Yes, you mentioned this irrelevancy before. What is the total there? What is the USGS's summation? It might "look like" a lot, but it's not when considering our 86 million barrel per day appetite.

 

[Oddball]

What were the projections about what the Alaska pipeline and Prudhoe Bay would be producing today, versus reality, by the enviroloon naysayers back in the '70s?

That aside, we know where the reserves are and it would take little more than a matter of a few months to put them into full production.

Then again, there are those dippy, granola munching Fornicalia enviroloons getting in the way, as per usual.

 

[loosecannon]

What were the projections about what the Alaska pipeline and Prudhoe Bay would be producing today, versus reality, by the enviroloon naysayers back in the '70s?

That aside, we know where the reserves are and it would take little more than a matter of a few months to put them into full production.

Then again, there are those dippy, granola munching Fornicalia enviroloons getting in the way, as per usual.

you are being intentionally obtuse right?

 

[KissMy]

I went to the gas station today & pumped 40 gallons into my truck. All the pumps around were pumping full blast. If there was a shortage no gas would come out of the hose. I look at the EIA website & it shows the largest oil glut on record. This Peak Oil sounds a lot like Global Warming. Colder & wetter seasons forced them to change to Climate Change.

 

[Oddball]

What were the projections about what the Alaska pipeline and Prudhoe Bay would be producing today, versus reality, by the enviroloon naysayers back in the '70s?

That aside, we know where the reserves are and it would take little more than a matter of a few months to put them into full production.

Then again, there are those dippy, granola munching Fornicalia enviroloons getting in the way, as per usual.

you are being intentionally obtuse right?

The irony of you asking that question of anyone has me wiping beer spray off my monitor.

 

[loosecannon]

What were the projections about what the Alaska pipeline and Prudhoe Bay would be producing today, versus reality, by the enviroloon naysayers back in the '70s?

That aside, we know where the reserves are and it would take little more than a matter of a few months to put them into full production.

Then again, there are those dippy, granola munching Fornicalia enviroloons getting in the way, as per usual.

you are being intentionally obtuse right?

The irony of you asking that question of anyone has me wiping beer spray off my monitor.

Yeah well I figured you were smarter than tarded but apparently not.

Do they let you fly planes with engines? Passengers?

 

[loosecannon]

I went to the gas station today & pumped 40 gallons into my truck. All the pumps around were pumping full blast. If there was a shortage no gas would come out of the hose. I look at the EIA website & it shows the largest oil glut on record. This Peak Oil sounds a lot like Global Warming. Colder & wetter seasons forced them to change to Climate Change.

Yeah well half the people on earth survive on an income sufficient to buy one gallon of gas/day if they forego all other spending.

Shortage is relative.