Not because of some humongous breakthrough in alternative energies but because of new ways to access two sources widely used today: oil and natural gas. The recent news story about China’s national oil company, Cnooc, purchasing a stake in Chesapeake Energy’s Texas shale oil and gas fields and agreeing to pony up most of the capital to develop them underscores what an amazing transformation is taking place in the U.S.’ energy picture.
The word “revolution” is overused, but it’s truly appropriate when applied to these technological breakthroughs: hydraulic fracturing–a.k.a. fracking–and horizontal drilling. With fracking, drillers inject water, sand and chemicals deep underground to crack gas-bearing rocks. The technology, which has been around for a long time, has advanced dramatically. Literally trillions of dollars’ worth of shale oil and gas can now be economically extracted.
Horizontal drilling is another impressive breakthrough that allows us to get to oil and gas that was previously unattainable.
The implications are staggering. Within a decade the U.S. will be a major natural gas exporter. In those Texas Chesapeake fields alone production will reach the equivalent of 400,000 to 500,000 barrels of oil a day. Pennsylvania and upstate New York will also become major gas producers.
Oil production, too, in the U.S. will increase far beyond what experts thought possible a few short years ago.
China made that sweetheart deal with Chesapeake Energy precisely because it wants to learn more about these technologies so it can enormously increase its domestic oil and gas production.
Environmentalists worry that fracking might poison our water, even though the drilling takes place thousands of feet below the water table. Fortunately the technology is there to get at these reserves in an extremely safe way.
The Earth is awash in energy.