The Future Of Domestic, Unconventional Oil -- EOG CEO -- September 12, 2014

This is a must-read article in the most recent issue of Petroleum News Bakken: EOG Resources CEO Thomas on the future of domestic, unconventional oil. This is a very, very long article, jam-packed with information about the subject. One cannot really do the article justice by cutting/pasting a few items.

Some data points:

• the article was based on the CEO's keynote speech at Barclays CEO Energy Power conference, New York City, September 4, 2014
• 95% of all horizontal oil produced in the US comes from just six plays
• Eagle Ford: 39%
• Bakken: 30%
• Permian Basin: 15%
• Midcontinent plays: 5%
• Denver-Julesburg Basin: 4%
• Powder River Basin: 2%
• Almost 70% of all horizontal oil production comes from two fields
• both the Eagle Ford and the Bakken are starting to slow down in production -- "it is like all fields do"
• the CEO does NOT see another Bakken or Eagle Ford out there
• world-class oil fields that are 15 billion to 20 billion bbls of recoverable oil
• Permian: one of the bigger plays but probably won't grow as fast as the Eagle Ford

This is a key data point and explains why we may not be seeing shale development elsewhere globally:

"... for pure shale fields, only the highest quality shales are economically feasible to develop. There are not that many shales that are capable of producing oil."

This is another key data point; it has been touched upon rarely in the blog; some operators have tested the "theory" in the Bakken:

The EOG CEO is optimistic about the potential for vertically stacked plays involving a combination of formation types such as tight sandstones and tight carbonates "because the frack technology works there just as well as it did in the shale."

He provides, as an example, the Delaware Basin:

• southeast New Mexico and western Texas
• stratigraphy is similar to the Bakken
• high-quality shale intervals overlying overpressured sandstones, which, in turn, overlie other shales
• the upper shale in that play: the Leonard; estimated oil content of 50%
• it overlies the Bone Spring sandstone with an estimated oil content of 70%
• under the bone Springs sand is the Wolfcamp shale with an estimated 31% oil content

Another stacked unconventional play: the Denver-Julesburg Basin:

• northern Colorado
• Niobrara shale: 71%
• deeper Codell sandstone: 78%

(For comparison purposes: much of the Bakken is 94%+ oil content.)

Powder River Basin

• Wyoming
• Parkman sandstone: 69% oil
• Turner sandstone: 34%

Again, more at the link.

A huge "thank you" to the reader sending me this link.

Note: Petroleum News Bakken spells it ("frack") with a "k."

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"Big Bang Theory, Season 7"

$34.99 on Amazon.com

Available September 16, 2014

On Blu-Ray

Speaking of Blu-Ray, I wrote this in my journal on March 29, 2006:

First item of interest: HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray.

Toshiba will release HD-DVD next month, and Panasonic will release Blu-Ray in  September – battle lines have been drawn.

This will be very interesting to follow.

To summarize:

HD-DVD (15 – 45 GB): Microsoft, Intel (moved to Blu-Ray, Jan 06), Universal, Paramount (switching back and forth)

Blu-Ray (50 – 100 GB): Panasonic, Apple, porn industry (as of Jan 2006), Sony, Disney, Sharp, Fox, MGM, Time Warner, Dell, H-P.

Note: Microsoft has delayed – again – its new operating system, called Vista – many issues.

EU unhappy with MSFT trying to imbed Google-like and PDF (Adobe)-like applications – trying to shut down Google and Adobe!! But now, I wonder – MSFT is delaying Vista until after 2007 – I wonder if MST realized Blu-Ray most likely – and either Blu-Ray has to be added to Vista or at least thought about.

I predicted Blu-Ray would ultimately win out based on two data points -- both of which are noted above.

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Warning: explicit lyrics.

Flower of Carnage, Meiko Kaji