Shale Oil and Gas

[Sparky]

What's the GSUS consensus on this as a revolutionary energy source? There appears to be lots of it. What's the real story on cost to extract and environmental impact? Is this the energy solution for the next 100 years?

[skid]

I posted an article last week where the province of Alberta has as much shale oil as it has extractable tar sands oil (which is a lot). There certainly is lots of it elsewhere in North America as well. Enough that it could push peak oil off several decades if it can be extracted efficiently. It is a relatively new resource, and the technology to extract it is developing, so the jury is still out on the long term impact.

[Black Blade]

It's what I do. Currently working in the Bakken Shale, North Dakota. The cost is roughly about $70/bbl to produce and ship.

I worked in Utah, Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota (shale oil and shale gas):

http://peakoilpetroleumandpreciousmetals.yuku.com/topic/12808/Oil-and-Gas-Fields

We will probably produce from the Bakken and the underlying Three Forks formations for several decades and beyond. The area is like the gold rush. Probably the only place creating jobs in America now. Good thing is the land and mineral rights are privately held and the feral government can't muck it up so easy. Many dirt poor farmers with mineral rights are now multi-millionaires.

http://peakoilpetroleumandpreciousmetals.yuku.com/topic/17939/North-Dakota-hard-tell-oil-millionaire-regular-Joe

The Bakken is rockin as they say:

http://peakoilpetroleumandpreciousmetals.yuku.com/topic/2964/3-43-Billion-Barrels-Technically-Recoverable-Oil-Assessed

The jobs are there but winter here is usually very brutal. Finding a job is is one thing - finding a place to live is another:

http://peakoilpetroleumandpreciousmetals.yuku.com/topic/15305/Life-on-an-oil-field-man-camp-not-for-everyone

For an interesting but long read on the "oil rush" and jobs, etc. See this thread:

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1255400_A_boom_once_fueled_an_oil_field_talent_sea rch__Now__we_worry_about_a_bust___DEFACTO_OILFIELD _FORUM_.html&page=1

Shale oil and gas is the real deal.

- Black Blade

[woodman]

Black Blade, what if a guy towed a 33 foot travel trailer out there? Maybe to work and stay in or maybe to sell.

[Sparky]

Thanks, BB. At $70/bbl, it seems to establish the new floor on oil prices. Are you able to give us a sense of negative environmental impact, or do you look past that because it is your livelihood? My understanding is that it requires massive amounts of water. And what is the environmental impact of fracturing the ground over extensive areas? Is it equivalent to a large mining project?

[Dogman]

Things would be great and dam near perfect if they can ever solve the problems with ground water contamination.

There is a bunch of slant drilling going on south of longview tx and north of Houston. There are some big ongoing battles over the fresh water contamination that is happening at some locations.

[Golden]

What BB said. Got Utica?

[JohnQPublic]

It's what I do. Currently working in the Bakken Shale, North Dakota. The cost is roughly about $70/bbl to produce and ship.

I worked in Utah, Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota (shale oil and shale gas):

http://peakoilpetroleumandpreciousmetals.yuku.com/topic/12808/Oil-and-Gas-Fields

We will probably produce from the Bakken and the underlying Three Forks formations for several decades and beyond. The area is like the gold rush. Probably the only place creating jobs in America now. Good thing is the land and mineral rights are privately held and the feral government can't muck it up so easy. Many dirt poor farmers with mineral rights are now multi-millionaires.

http://peakoilpetroleumandpreciousmetals.yuku.com/topic/17939/North-Dakota-hard-tell-oil-millionaire-regular-Joe

The Bakken is rockin as they say:

http://peakoilpetroleumandpreciousmetals.yuku.com/topic/2964/3-43-Billion-Barrels-Technically-Recoverable-Oil-Assessed

The jobs are there but winter here is usually very brutal. Finding a job is is one thing - finding a place to live is another:

http://peakoilpetroleumandpreciousmetals.yuku.com/topic/15305/Life-on-an-oil-field-man-camp-not-for-everyone

For an interesting but long read on the "oil rush" and jobs, etc. See this thread:

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1255400_A_boom_once_fueled_an_oil_field_talent_sea rch__Now__we_worry_about_a_bust___DEFACTO_OILFIELD _FORUM_.html&page=1

Shale oil and gas is the real deal.

- Black Blade

How would you go about getting a job out there if a person wanted to? Especially in engineering?

Do you see a lot of chokeberries and choke cherries out there? Do you eat them? (totally separate question).

Thanks

[skid]

It's what I do. Currently working in the Bakken Shale, North Dakota. The cost is roughly about $70/bbl to produce and ship.

Shale oil and gas is the real deal.

- Black Blade

Blackblade,

I followed your links and was extremely impressed with your series of posts and your amazing pictures about your work. The scenery reminded me of the many years I lived and worked in Alberta. I was in the downstream end of the business (gas pipeline work) but worked in the field in that beautiful but unforgiving landscape before I took an office position in downtown Calgary.

I have family that are in the drilling industry from rig managers to directional drilling specialists (an uncle of mine helped develop that technology with Sperry Sun which was bought out by Halliburton I think), and yes working in the oil industry is and has always been quite lucrative except for the always looming bust. Reminds me of bumper stickers I used to see that wished for another oil boom so they could save some money instead of pissing it all away. Thanks for the memories...

[Black Blade]

Fracking takes place at around depths of over 10,000' (that is over 9,000' below the water table and separated by impermiable cap rock). The surface casing set to maybe 2,200' and is cemented. Then smaller casing is set to depths around 10.000' and cemented. It is virtually impossible to contaminate the aquifer. Waste water is either set to evaporate in holding ponds and any residual waste is disposed of in clay lined landfills. Some waste water is produced brine from formation. Sometimes waste water is disposed into injection wells into deep formations (usually sandstone).

As for living conditions. There are more people than places to live. Some employers provide housing or quarters at a man camp. Walmart's parking lot used to be filled with RVs, campers, vans, buses, etc. but they finally had to evict everyone (lots of shoplifters, etc.). Campgrounds are filled and landowners charge people to set up camp on their property for a price. It's a boom town (Williston, Watford City, etc.).

I have an engineer working as a contract directional driller (makes over $240K/year). McDonald's pay their burger flippers $17/hr and a $2,000 signing bonus plus medical. Similar wages elsewhere like Walmart. Still can't fill those jobs. The cities hire cops from out of state and within a couple months they quit to make 3X more in the patch. It's not quite as good as it used to be though when people would show up at the train station with only the clothes on thei back, walk into the strip club and walk out with a job in the oil patch. It's easier to call some service companies like Haliburton, Baker Hughes, Sanjel, etc and see who is hiring for what positions. Check out web sites like the "career" section at Rigzone.com.

The boom may last for a while here but then again the boom can go bust. I worked in the precious metals exploration side for a few years and when that went bust I went to coalbed methane boom. When coalbed methane boom went bust I went to the Bakken oil boom. The good thing is that Barack and Salazar took 1.6 million acres of federal land off the table for oil and gas. It's good for me because the Bakken Shale is private land with privately owned mineral rights. As the competition is shut out by Barack and friends, we are generally untouched. The bad part is that all the newly unemployed oil and gas workers will come here looking for work and add more competition for jobs. If Barack and friends crash the economy then precious metals will take off with a vengence and I may go back to Nevada and the PM exploration game.