Check out a new video from Colorado by Anadarko that follows the life cycle of a well using advanced hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling – through the lens of the workers at each stage of development. Starting with discovery, the video captures the engineering, planning, site development, drilling, fracking and completions that result in safe extraction of oil and natural gas.
Posted September 16, 2014
Steve LeVine (Quartz): Oil prices continue to plunge today despite the beheading of another western hostage by the Islamic State, tensions between Russia and the West, and mayhem in Libya. As Quartz has reported, one of the main reasons is surging US oil production, which has made up for supply disruption almost barrel for barrel—and is also a bad sign for the leaders of petrostates.
Now we have an estimate of where oil prices might have been absent the American oil boom—a sobering $150 a barrel, former BP CEO Tony Hayward told the Financial Times (paywall).
That’s 55% higher than the current benchmark price of $96.27 that was trading in Asia this morning. If Hayward’s number is right, it means that the US boom is saving the global economy about $4.9 billion a day in oil spending.
Posted September 15, 2014
(Wall Street Journal): Skeptics of the U.S. energy boom say it can't last much longer because it requires drilling an ever-increasing number of wells.
But the boom already has lasted longer than anyone would have imagined just a decade ago and has more room to run. That's because oil and natural-gas wells have become more productive—an unrecognized but potent trend that should keep the fuels flowing.
Posted September 9, 2014
One way to measure the positive impact of America’s oil and natural gas industry is the 9.8 million jobs it supports nationally, accounting for 5.6 percent of total U.S. employment. Another way to look at our industry’s economic breadth is the size and diversity of supporting businesses, reaching into every state in the union and the District of Columbia.
That’s what you see in a new vendor supply survey unveiled this week, listing 30,000 operators, contractors, service companies, suppliers and other vendors that support oil and natural gas operations. Even if there isn’t an oil or natural gas well site near where you live, chances are good a business that supports the oil and natural gas industry is.
Posted September 8, 2014
A final word on a recent op-ed attack on hydraulic fracturing by a Natural Resources Defense Council policy analyst – an especially glaring example of the way the anti-fracking crowd often kicks the facts to the curb while trying to undermine public support for safe, responsible drilling, the No. 1 reason for America’s energy revolution.
Quick review. We’ve already shown that federal and state regulatory regimes – with industry standards – are protecting the environment, drinking water supplies and communities. We’ve detailed how horizontal drilling has been around for decades, that advanced fracking is safe and beneficial, and that the resulting surge in natural gas production and use is largely responsible for reducing U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions to their lowest level since 1994.
Now let’s talk jobs – one of our favorite subjects because the oil and natural gas industry supports 9.8 million of them, or about 5.6 percent of total employment in this country.
Posted September 3, 2014
Following up on last week’s rebuttal of a truth-challenged attack on hydraulic fracturing in a USA Today op-ed, in which we detail how federal and state regulation, combined with industry standards are protecting the environment, water supplies and communities.
The op-ed by the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Amy Mall opens by posing a false choice for Americans: economic and energy security from development using fracking or safety. It continues:
… a controversial new extraction technology known as "fracking" — combined with unprecedented exemptions for the industry from bedrock federal environmental and public health laws — has fueled a recent explosion in domestic oil and gas development. And safeguards have not kept pace.
Fracking isn’t new. Earlier this year the U.S. marked the 65th anniversary of the first commercial use of hydraulic fracturing. Fracking pre-dates McDonald’s, diet soft drinks, credit cards and more – even Barbie. It’s a fact, and saying otherwise is dishonest.
Posted August 29, 2014
Supply matters. The impact of the U.S. energy revolution on global supply, with real benefits reaching consumers, is seen we head into the Labor Day weekend. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports the U.S. average retail price for gasoline on Aug. 25 was the lowest price on the Monday before Labor Day since 2010. EIA explains:
This parallels another EIA report, crediting the surge in U.S. crude oil production with a more stabilized global crude market:
Record-setting liquid fuels production growth in the United States has more than offset the rise in unplanned global supply disruptions over the past few years … U.S. liquid fuels production, which includes crude oil, hydrocarbon gas liquids, biofuels, and refinery processing gain, grew by more than 4.0 million barrels per day (bbl/d) from January 2011 to July 2014, of which 3.0 million bbl/d was crude oil production growth. During that same period, global unplanned supply disruptions grew by 2.8 million bbl/d. U.S. production growth, the main factor counterbalancing the supply disruptions on the global oil market, has contributed to a decrease in crude oil price volatility since 2011.
More simply, supply matters. Because crude oil is traded globally, every additional barrel of U.S. production going into that market has impact.
New York Times: THREE RIVERS, Tex. — Whenever overseas turmoil has pushed energy prices higher in the past, John and Beth Hughes have curbed their driving by eating at home more and shopping locally. But the current crises in Ukraine and Iraq did not stop them from making the two-hour drive to San Antonio to visit the Alamo, have a chicken fried steak lunch, and buy fish for their tank before driving home to Corpus Christi.
“We were able to take a day-cation because of the lower gas prices,” said Ms. Hughes.
The reason for the improved economics of road travel can be found 10,000 feet below the ground here, where the South Texas Eagle Ford shale is providing more than a million new barrels of oil supplies to the world market every day. United States refinery production in recent weeks reached record highs and left supply depots flush, cushioning the impact of all the instability surrounding traditional global oil fields.
Posted August 28, 2014
Despite the hyper-partisanship currently flourishing in Washington, there is a potential tie that binds: American energy.
Thanks to advanced technologies, entrepreneurial risk-taking and abundant oil and natural gas reserves, U.S. energy is on the rise: We’re the world’s No. 1 producer of natural gas and likely to be No. 1 in crude oil production next year, according to the International Energy Agency. Our energy revolution is creating jobs, boosting the economy and increasing America’s energy security and influence in the world. It’s also a bridge to bipartisanship.
API Executive Vice President Louis Finkel touched on these themes in a recent op-ed for the Reno Gazette-Journaland in a presentation before the Nevada state convention of the AFL-CIO.
Posted August 28, 2014
A USA Today op-ed this week on hydraulic fracturing by the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Amy Mall is such an achievement in dishonesty it’ll take multiple posts to unpack it all. So stay tuned. For now, let’s look at the opening, tone-setting paragraph of Mall’s piece and the way it deploys a false choice to try to undercut public support for fracking, the very basis of America’s ongoing energy revolution. Mall writes:
We all want economic and energy security. But recklessly ramping up U.S. oil and gas production is not the answer.