PowerLine alerts us to a new website called Energy for America. It appears PowerLine, this blog, and Energy for America are all on the same page when it comes to America's energy resources.
When you go to the link they have a nice graphic showing America's utilization of its oil drilling rigs. I used to think about that, worry about that, post those statistics (utilization of drilling rigs), but it turns out that's only one data point. Newer rigs are more effective than older rigs, and simple utilization rates are meaningless. In the Bakken, long lateral technology theoretically cuts in half the number of rigs needed (just two years ago, the general consensus was 640-acre spacing in the Bakken; the NDIC has now set the spacing at 1280-acre unless otherwise requested/approved).
This is not an original thought. When I first started blogging, someone pointed that out to me.
A digression.
Years ago some folks might remember the US president taking the Soviet leader Krushshev on tour of the cornfields in Iowa. At that time, the goal was grow corn as high as it could be grown. I remember stories about corn stalks seven feet tall. Then someone noted that four-foot stalks were producing, on averge, about as many ears as a tall corn stalk: three. All that extra water and fertilizer was just being used by the plant to grow taller, not make more ears. Now, the goal is to grow smaller plants with as many ears.
Likewise, it's expensive to drill a well, and the few rigs it takes to get the job done, the better. When I see US oil production going up, and the number of rigs going down, that's a nice graphic. All things being equal, I want rig utilization to go down, and production go up.
Anyway, that's enough for now.
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