Somewhere, In This, There Must Be Some Sweet Irony -- August 19, 2014

A reader sent me a link to this story. The Lincoln (Nebraska) Journal Star is reporting: Southwest Nebraska is experiencing a mini oil boom  --

Jim Gohl has seen oil booms before in Nebraska.

The early 1960s brought a big boom, and there was another one in the late 1970s and early 1980s, said Gohl, who lives in the Hitchcock County town of Culbertson and is a commissioner with the Nebraska Oil and Gas Commission.

What's happening in his neck of the woods these days could be the best thing to come along for the state's oil industry since the last boom ended.

"I guess this would be the next best thing since that," Gohl said.

While hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracking, is spurring oil booms in North Dakota, Texas, Colorado and Wyoming, the oil boom in southwest Nebraska is of the more traditional variety.

Companies are using a technique called three-dimensional seismic imaging, which bounces sound waves off underground rock structures to reveal areas that might contain oil and gas.

That allows oil companies to see previously hard-to-find deposits of oil.
Bill Sydow, director of the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, said the 3-D seismic technique has played a big role in the increase in oil exploration and production in southwest Nebraska.

"The prices have helped, but I think the success of the 3-D is a big part of it," Sydow said.

Sydow did not have final statewide production numbers for 2013 as of last week, but he estimated there were around 2.8 million barrels of oil produced in the state. That would be a more than 10 percent increase over 2012 and the best year for oil production in Nebraska since 2001.

Pipelines? Who are they gonna call? TransCanada. LOL.