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Monday, February 4, 2013

Peak Oil? What Peak Oil? NY Times Article on Monterey Shale Oil in California

Link here to the New York Times.
Comprising two-thirds of the United States’s total estimated shale oil reserves and covering 1,750 square miles from Southern to Central California, the Monterey Shale could turn California into the nation’s top oil-producing state and yield the kind of riches that far smaller shale oil deposits have showered on North Dakota and Texas.
For decades, oilmen have been unable to extricate the Monterey Shale’s crude because of its complex geological formation, which makes extraction quite expensive. But as the oil industry’s technological advances succeed in unlocking oil from increasingly difficult locations, there is heady talk that California could be in store for a new oil boom.
Established companies are expanding into the Monterey Shale, while newcomers are opening offices in Bakersfield, the capital of California’s oil industry, about 40 miles east of here. With oil prices remaining high, landmen are buying up leases on federal land, sometimes bidding more than a thousand dollars an acre in auctions that used to fetch the minimum of $2. 
Note that opening line: the Monterey Shale comprises two-thirds of the United States' total estimated shale oil reserves.  

Peak oil? What peak oil? 

A huge "thank you" to a reader for alerting me to the article. 

4 comments:

  1. Where are they going to get the water?

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    Replies
    1. Great question, and this is why I post non-Bakken, non-oil stories at the blog.

      1. They will get the water from the same place they get all the water they use for agricultural uses, golf courses, and urban requirements.

      2. Water required for fracking is a small percentage of that used by the agricultural industry in California.

      3. And here's the good news. Just a few days ago, I posted the story about all the farmland being taken out of production in California to make way for solar farms (http://www.milliondollarwayblog.com/2013/02/agriculture-solar-wind-oil-and-honey.html). All that land, formerly used for agriculture, will no longer need water; and that water can be used for fracking.

      Again, as noted, a great question. And now you know why I post stories about solar farms. All energy stories lead back to the Bakken. Smile.

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  2. Fraccing? In California? I wonder how Hollywood and the environtmentalists will let that happen? If anyone can screw up a monetary gain its that bunch in California. Whatever money they get will probably go to that superfast raiload debacle.

    Gary

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    Replies
    1. I'm not holding my breath on this one. The governor wants onshore drilling, but it will be an uphill battle. It will be interesting to watch. They may be able to use the track for the "bullet train to nowhere" to route BNSF and/or UNP trains with fracking sand.

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