The oil story is also being rewritten. Net petroleum imports have fallen from 60 percent of total consumption in 2005 to 42 percent today. Part of the reason is on the demand side. The improving gasoline efficiency of cars will eventually reduce oil demand by at least a couple of million barrels per day.
The other part is the supply side — the turnaround in United States oil production, which has risen 25 percent since 2008. It could increase by 600,000 barrels per day this year. The biggest part of the increase is coming from what has become the “new thing” in energy — tight oil. That is the term for oil produced from tight rock formations with the same technology used to produce shale gas.
Tight oil is redrawing the map of North American oil. At the beginning of this year, North Dakota overtook California as the nation’s third largest oil-producing state. It didn’t stop there. It just overtook Alaska, to become No. 2 after Texas. Tight oil could reach more than four million barrels per day by 2020.
What really brings home the new reality is a milestone attained last year: In 2011, the United States registered the largest increase in oil production of any country outside of OPEC. (NY Times)
Fracking and Water
The fight is now over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. I talked to a geo-engineer a few weeks back and he told me the biggest issue with fracking was not accidentally drilling into an aquifer and polluting the groundwater, but that it was a water-intensive process. It uses a lot of water, and it’s got to come from somewhere, usually a fresh water source. He said the smart way to go is to tap brackish aquifers when available since they contain unusable water.
The other issue is what do you do with the sand and chemical-tainted water once fracking is complete? If you used a brackish source, you could pump it back in. Right now, they dispose of it in an EPA-approved well, treat it in municipal water treatment facilities where approved, or recycle it to be used in other fracking operations.
Here are some facts taken from the pro-fracking EnergyFromShale.org:
The fight is now over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. I talked to a geo-engineer a few weeks back and he told me the biggest issue with fracking was not accidentally drilling into an aquifer and polluting the groundwater, but that it was a water-intensive process. It uses a lot of water, and it’s got to come from somewhere, usually a fresh water source. He said the smart way to go is to tap brackish aquifers when available since they contain unusable water.
The other issue is what do you do with the sand and chemical-tainted water once fracking is complete? If you used a brackish source, you could pump it back in. Right now, they dispose of it in an EPA-approved well, treat it in municipal water treatment facilities where approved, or recycle it to be used in other fracking operations.
Here are some facts taken from the pro-fracking EnergyFromShale.org:
The drilling and hydraulic fracturing of a horizontal shale gas well may typically require 2 to 4 million gallons of water, with about 3 million gallons being most common.
"To put shale gas water use in perspective, the consumptive use of fresh water for electrical generation in the Susquehanna River Basin alone is nearly 150 million gallons per day, while the projected total demand for peak Marcellus Shale activity in the same area is 8.4 million gallons per day."
When the Ground Water Protection Council studied the environmental risk of hydraulic fracturing, they found one complaint in the more than 10,000 coalbed methane wells reviewed – an Alabama well where problems were not related to fracturing according to the EPA. The EPA initiated its own study of environmental risks from coalbed methane hydraulic fracturing and, again, no significant environmental risks as a result of proper hydraulic fracturing were identified.So, like everything in life, I see fracking as a tradeoff. Sometimes it is worth making, sometimes not, depending on the place. In an arid area that has population centers that sometimes must endure water restrictions, it does not make sense unless an alternate water source can be found. Also, if there is a reasonable risk of damaging a water supply, that too should be avoided. Finally, contracts should include strong liability language. If the drillers mess it up they must clean it up.
