A Fracking Revolution

Back in 2008 some web sites were saying the Bakken was over-hyped. They said that daily production from the Bakken would never amount to much, on  a percent basis of total daily global consumption. They were missing the bigger story: the Bakken as a laboratory.

Proving the point:

Conservative estimates are that oil and natural gas produced through “fracking,” as the process is better known, could amount to 3 million barrels a day by 2020. “We have a revolution here,” said Larry Goldstein, director of the Energy Policy Research Foundation in New York. 'In 47 years in this business, I’ve never seen anything like this. This is the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane.'

From the Washington Times via Carpe Diem.com. 

Incidentally, doesn't that 3 million bbls/day sound a bit low? Some predict the Bakken will be producing 1 million bbls/day by then, and the Eagle Ford slightly more. That's more than 2 million bbls/day -- just those two basins.

Hey, on another note, something you can use as cocktail chatter at your next social event. Remember the "Dead Cow" formation? See this post, November, 2011. It turns out that the "Dead Cow" formation in Argentina is mentioned in the Washington Times article.

But the prize for energy companies is potentially huge. Repsol estimated this year that a cross section of the vast Dead Cow formation here in Neuquen province could hold nearly 23 billion barrels of gas and oil. That followed a U.S. Energy Information Administration report that said Argentina possibly has the third-largest shale gas resources after China and the United States.

“All the top-of-the-line companies are here,” said Guillermo Coco, energy minister of Neuquen province, including ExxonMobil, Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell. Although only about 200 wells have been drilled, Coco said companies here talk of drilling 10,000 or more in the next 15 years.

To put this in perspective, some are predicting for the Bakken, 50,000 wells over 20 years.