Shale Boom in Texas Could Increase U.S. Oil Output

CATARINA, Tex. — Until last year, the 17-mile stretch of road between this forsaken South Texas village and the county seat of Carrizo Springs was a patchwork of derelict gasoline stations and rusting warehouses.

Now the region is in the hottest new oil play in the country, with giant oil terminals and sprawling RV parks replacing fields of mesquite. More than a dozen companies plan to drill up to 3,000 wells around here in the next 12 months.

The Texas field, known as the Eagle Ford, is just one of about 20 new onshore oil fields that advocates say could collectively increase the nation’s oil output by 25 percent within a decade — without the dangers of drilling in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico or the delicate coastal areas off Alaska.

There is only one catch: the oil from the Eagle Ford and similar fields of tightly packed rock can be extracted only by using hydraulic fracturing, a method that uses a high-pressure mix of water, sand and hazardous chemicals to blast through the rocks to release the oil inside.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/28/business/energy-environment/28shale.html

Texans have been drilling and fracking for a long time. The first modern shale play, the Haynesville, is in Texas.

Texans have been drilling and fracking for a long time. The first modern shale play, the Haynesville, is in Texas.

equate to lower prices at the pump. The price of gas is dependent on international markets which are continuing to climb in demand.
Additionally we are left with the environmental clean up costs and health care issues that the oil companies pass on to tax payers.
Fracking has not proven to be at all safe for the environment and if the drillers were subject to the rules regarding air and water protection they would not be using this method. The rules were changed for them by Bush/Cheney and need to be re-instated before any more fracking is done.

If so you may not appreciate the burden high gasoline prices impose on people in a more rural environment.

provided they run on a regular schedule on an hourly or bihourly basis.

An rural area would be one in which reliable alternative transportation was not available and a major grocery store would not be located nearer than 20 miles from your home and you also would be unable to find a worthwhile job closer than 20 miles from your home.

Obviously a urban area would have alternative transportation and access to major stores in the immediate area as well as good jobs locally which you could access.

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Because any oil produced here is sold on the world market increased production in the USA wouldn't DIRECTLY help US gas prices.

There would be some jobs available, but couldn't those jobs be created in some alternative energy field as well? You also HAVE to look at the enviromental downside and balance that against the jobs.

To dump it into the atmosphere causes climate stresses and ocean acidification. And it will run out anyway.

We should not do with less, we should switch to renewables.

--imm

Only oil companies benefit.

First, it increases energy security considerably. The move to electric cars/high MPG vehicles helps with gas, but we will need diesel for transportation and heavy work such as growing food. This gets us much further toward that goal. We also import a lot our oil from Canada, so this greatly increases national security and buys us margin so that we are not forced to fight oil wars.

Second, it will help the economy quite a bit because importation of oil and oil products accounts for quite a large fraction of our trade imbalance, and the trade imbalance is what is making our living standards go down. The higher the line on this graph, the closer we are to closing the trade deficit:


Third, it gives us more freedom with our currency; the more of our energy we generate internally, the less we are subject to inflation shocks on dollar-traded assets. For example, since we increased domestic natural gas production so much, natural gas prices have not gone up like oil has. This is a huge benefit to households and companies that are in areas with high heating needs and are able to use NG for space heating.

Fourth, it does reduce oil costs, because the US is still the largest single oil consumer in the world. Oil usage in the US has been dropping for some time (we don't use it to generate electricity, for example), but the world cost of oil is influenced by marginal supply. If the US continues to drop net imports, it will tend to reduce world oil prices:


See the latest BP statistical review (2009, 2010 coming soon). The US uses about 22% of world oil:
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/reports_and_publications/statistical_energy_review_2008/STAGING/local_assets/2010_downloads/statistical_review_of_world_energy_full_report_2010.pdf
Every time we drop imports, which we have steadily been doing, it takes price pressure off globally. Net imports are currently down 8% so far this year. Dropping imports 20% five years from now from current levels would really affect the world price of oil. I think this disappoints some people.

Finally, it will greatly help to increase future internal production, which we must do in order to increase jobs. Living standards in the US were much better when we produced or manufactured far more of what we use. We are on the way to increasing net manufacturing/production in this country, but transportation alone will mean that we need to use more diesel.

It can. You have to do it properly. But fracking has been going on for a long time, and many of the places with the "poisoned" drinking water had bad drinking water before.

It's not as simple as a many seem to believe. I think we need new safeguards, but the reality is that more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps and we can't go on as we are.

Big Flats, N.Y, resident Joseph Todd turned to bottled water after his well water suddenly turned murky and smelly, shortly after gas drilling began
http://shale.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/news/environment

For the first time, a scientific study has linked natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing with a pattern of drinking water contamination so severe that some faucets can be lit on fire.
http://shale.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/news/environment

The hard fact of the matter is that we have got to get off our oil addiction. It is destroying our planet. The vast majority of economic benefits only accrue to the already rich. And all that these deposits will do is put off the inevitable for a few months, or years.

We already have the potential to power our entire country using clean, green renewables. It is time that we started developing them, rather than continuing to try and satisfy that monkey on our back.

Something to consider. When they stopped fracking, the earthquakes dropped to almost nothing. Good read below.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/28/950968/-Arkansas-earthquakes-due-to-fracking-disposal

http://cleantechnica.com/2011/03/10/are-arkansas-earthquakes-related-to-fracking/



Annette