Frack the USA? Hell YEAH!

[Goodman]

The 21st Century may be American after all, just like the last.

Since getting started in energy production a few months back I've had an idea that we as a nation were in a stronger position than many realize. I HOPE this pans out!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/8844646/World-power-swings-back-to-America.html

[Schuetzenman]

Yes we can be independant of Saudi / middle east oil with very little effort. Mostly we just need the douche-bags at EPA and Obama to FOAD. That means get the hell out of the way and let the Oil companies have free reign to explore and develop without being shackled by bullshit regulations.

[O.S.O.K.]

This is the single positive report that I've seen in quite a while. And its from a UK paper...

And while I am encouraged by the information that it relates, I am also mindful of the huge debt bubble that hangs over not only the US but the entire world.

While the fed govt is denying inflation, we all know that it's happening - food and energy are definately at elevated levels - anybody that shops at the grocery store can tell you that.

And if inflation continues, then inevitably, interest rates will have to be increased and if that happens, then the debt will go up too as the short term bonds that our federal debt is comprised of are re-financed at the higher interest levels.

Nothing so far has stopped this from happening - slowed it down? Yes, but not stopped it and the bailouts are at an end - there simply is no one left to bail anybody out...

And then there's the issue of the EPA as Schutz points out - you can bet your bottom dollar that obummer and his crew will do everything in their power to slow and stop the expansion of oil and gas production. I am basing this on what they've done so far... and I am convinced that obummer is out to cripple our country to increase the odds that we will change in the direction that he and is ilk want.

The things that are reported in that link are good and could very well mitigate the total impact on the US, and shorten the length of the depression, but I don't think they can stop it at this point.

[Gun Toting Lefty]

i thought fracking was supposed to do real crazy shit to the water supply.

[Sherman]

i thought fracking was supposed to do real crazy shit to the water supply.

The environmental wackos and the media love to point that out. Does it happen, unfortunately yes. Is it a common occurrence today? No! Actually it is very rare these days. Drilling and fracking technology today has improved greatly over the years to insure that it doesn't happen. Fracking companies also have very sophisticated systems in place that monitor all the pressures on the well as it is being fracked and shut down the whole operation if anything doesn't seem right. I have witnessed several NG wells getting fracked and not one has leaked off in to the water table. Most of the complaints come from people that had bad water wells to begin with and after a well is drilled, fracked and completed, the home owner screams that their well was fracked in to or they are a land owner that doesn't have mineral rights to their property and trying to squeeze money out of the company that owns the well and the mineral rights.

[El Laton Caliente]

i thought fracking was supposed to do real crazy shit to the water supply.

Fracking is done at 5,000 feet to 30,000 feet deep. Most of the time at the deep end of that. Almost all water wells are 50 feet to 500 feet deep. The deepest water well I remember was about 2,000 feet.

And Sherman is right. I have well water at my place that has copper (brown colored) and a slight HS2/Sulfur smell unless allowed to sit or aerate. People with that kind of water will try and extort money out of the oil companies if they can. Many times the oil company just sends a water well driller WHO DRILLS DEEPER into clean water. If the fracking had ruined the water it should be bad all the way to the depth it was fracked.

[imanaknut]

Another thing about getting out of the way of oil companies and let them do their job as long as it is responsible, is adding new refineries. I heard one of the standard idiot reporters ask an oil company exec why it takes almost 10 years to build a refinery. His response was priceless, and the idiot reporter didn't follow up.

The oil exec said that he could have a refinery up and running in 9 months. The rest of the time is spent filling out regulatory paperwork, getting permits, and all the other stupidity that goes with an out of control government.

Yes there was a time that oil and other companies forced regulation on themselves, but I really believe that with minimal oversight we could tell the arabs to take their oil and shove it and be truly independent.

[Goodman]

People with that kind of water will try and extort money out of the oil companies if they can.

Around here Chesapeake has begun taking well water samples before well pad construction begins.


i thought fracking was supposed to do real crazy shit to the water supply.
I work for a company that does work which supports quality control (logging). Believe me, the other posters here are spot on- if something is wrong the show gets shut down until it is fixed. The cowboy style of drilling is not tolerated here.

Edit: "well development" would be a better term than drilling. Fracking is done after drilling is complete.

[El Laton Caliente]

http://www.conservapedia.com/images/thumb/c/c2/Alaska-oil.jpg/300px-Alaska-oil.jpg

That little dot at Prudhoe Bay is what we have developed on the north slope of Alaska. The whole north slope to 100 miles off shore at least has oil and gas from The Canada border to Nome.

The oil companies were forced to REMOVE well platforms from the West Coast, not allowed to Drill the East Coast or the Florida Gulf Coast. The USA could survive 400 or 500 years on known oil, gas and coal reserves the government has not allowed industry to develop.

[Sergi762]

"...The USA could survive 400 or 500 years on known oil, gas and coal reserves the government has not allowed industry to develop".
while I all for telling the Saudi's to shove it (and shove it hard) is that figure good even after population growth and demand after economic recovery sets in?

[El Laton Caliente]

Pretty much. Fracking is allowing a much greater recovery rate. One oil shale deposit in Wyoming and Colorado has more oil than Saudi ever had, but recovery is going to be like the oil sands and fuel prices will have to go up a little for it to be viable.

The North Dakota find is huge. There is another deep find in Texas that is about as big.

Then there are the areas I mentioned above.

Natural gas can be converted to liquid fuels and so can coal. The Germans were converting coal in WWII.

You figure all this together and yea 400 to 500 years is possible.

[El Laton Caliente]

Oh, and this doesn't count the fact that "pumped dry" wells are filling back up. Forget anything you ever learned about "fossel fuels". The oil is NOT dead dinos and plants. It is carbon, hydrogen and compounds like methane that were trapped in the earth's core since it was formed. This is one thing the Russian were right on.It perks up throught the crust and becomes coal, oil and natural gas. We really have no idea how much is down there.

They have screamed "peak oil" since around 1910 and can't prove that we have reached it yet. It is about as valid as global warming and has the same solution. "Give me your money and I'll save you from _______ . " (Choose one: Global Warming, Peak Oil, Ice Age, Capitalists)

[Goodman]

To add to El Laton Caliente's list of reserves it appears there is an oil deposit under the Marcellus shale which, while is not a new discovery, IS said to be beyond anything that had been imagined in size. Rumor is that it outshines the Saudis by far. Oddly, it had been dismissed and would probably have not gotten special notice if not for fracking for natural gas.