Fracking

[Halberto]

Beneath new energy abundance, a slow-boil oil crisis

The disconnect between the still sluggish economy and the stock market which keeps hitting new highs is one indication that dangers lurk in the world economy.

On the energy front, new hydraulic fracturing technology combined with horizontal drilling is being touted as the answer to high oil prices. But oil prices remain stubbornly elevated. And, the technology itself is designed to harvest oil from shale layers thousands of feet below conventional reservoirs, layers which are far more difficult and expensive to exploit. In a way, our extraction of shale-based oil should be considered an emergency measure, one designed to forestall a decline in world oil production and one that would never have been taken if the easy-to-get oil hadn't already been gotten.

Likewise, attempts to exploit oil under the Arctic Ocean (http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Arctic+Ocean) (so far unsuccessful (http://www.ktuu.com/news/news/shell-suspends-2014-arctic-drilling-in-alaska/24197086)) are opening a new front in the era of "extreme oil" and should also be classified as emergency measures.

But the public and policymakers generally do not view these developments in oil exploration with concern. On the contrary such efforts are touted as evidence of humankind's inevitable advance through clever manipulation of the environment using technology. It is just this idea of inevitability which holds the public mind in thrall regarding the economy with a promise that conditions will return to normal sometime soon--normal being defined down to include all sorts of emergency measures.

As long as we ignore the role of climate change and resource and energy depletion, we can delude ourselves that somehow things will return to the way they used to be--before the long emergency began--that political or ethnic factors are the main problems and that it has ever been thus! So, we tell ourselves not to worry too much since these problems are really local or regional; as long as we can stay out of the way, we think we can safely ignore them.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2014/0729/Beneath-new-energy-abundance-a-slow-boil-oil-crisis





LOL WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS ARTICLE?!

Is it acknowledging the undeniable necessity to drill our petroleum reserves or claiming that it isn't environmentally worth the trouble??? Boutons do you even read what you post?

[TeyshaBlue]

No. Its just another worthless spam thread now.

[boutons_deux]

No. Its just another worthless spam thread now.

you wish

[TeyshaBlue]

I know.

[boutons_deux]

Confirmed: Billions of Gallons of Fracking Waste Contaminate Drought-Ravaged California's Aquifers

Almost 3 billion gallons of oil industry wastewater have been illegally dumped into central California aquifers that supply drinking water and farming irrigation, according to state documents obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity. The wastewater entered the aquifers through at least nine injection disposal wells (http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/california_fracking/pdfs/20140915_State_Board_UIC_well_list_Category_1a.pdf ) used by the oil industry to dispose of waste contaminated with fracking fluids and other pollutants.

The documents also reveal that Central Valley Water Board testing (http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/california_fracking/pdfs/UIC_WaterWell_Results_8-7-14.xlsx) found high levels of arsenic, thallium and nitrates — contaminants sometimes found in oil industry wastewater — in water-supply wells near these waste-disposal operations.

“Clean water is one of California’s most crucial resources, and these documents make it clear that state regulators have utterly failed to protect our water from oil industry pollution,” said Hollin Kretzmann, a Center attorney. “Much more testing is needed to gauge the full extent of water pollution and the threat to public health. But Governor Brown should move quickly to halt fracking to ward off a surge in oil industry wastewater that California simply isn’t prepared to dispose of safely.”

The state’s Water Board confirmed (http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/california_fracking/pdfs/20140915_Bishop_letter_to_Blumenfeld_Responding_to _July_17_2014_UIC_Letter.pdf) beyond doubt that at least nine wastewater disposal wells have been injecting waste into aquifers that contain high-quality water that is supposed to be protected under federal and state law.

Thallium is an extremely toxic chemical commonly used in rat poison. Arsenic is a toxic chemical that can cause cancer. Some studies show that even low-level exposure to arsenic in drinking water can compromise the immune system’s ability to fight illness.

“Arsenic and thallium are extremely dangerous chemicals,” said Timothy Krantz, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Redlands. “The fact that high concentrations are showing up in multiple water wells close to wastewater injection sites raises major concerns about the health and safety of nearby residents.”

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2014/fracking-10-06-2014.html

[boutons_deux]

State Commissioner: If You Oppose Fracking in North Carolina, Your Comment "Doesn't Count

“About half are repetitive ‘don’t frack’ comments,” said Commissioner James Womack. “They don’t really count, if you know what I mean.”

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/10/11/state-commissioner-if-you-oppose-fracking-north-carolina-your-comment-doesnt-count

the Confederacy! what a fucking joke

[boutons_deux]

Report: New York Governor’s Office Altered And Delayed Fracking Study (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/10/06/3576356/cuomo-fracking-report/)http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/10/06/3576356/cuomo-fracking-report/

Cuomo is in Wall St pockets, looks like he's in BigOil pockets, too

[TDMVPDPOY]

State Commissioner: If You Oppose Fracking in North Carolina, Your Comment "Doesn't Count

“About half are repetitive ‘don’t frack’ comments,” said Commissioner James Womack. “They don’t really count, if you know what I mean.”

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/10/11/state-commissioner-if-you-oppose-fracking-north-carolina-your-comment-doesnt-count

the Confederacy! what a fucking joke




if this pos and anybody like him/her wasnt in politics, would they give a shit about protecting t heir own interests $$$ in these companies...

just another POS who says one thing to get voters votes into politics, then selling them out cause of the money they receive under the table

[boutons_deux]

if this pos and anybody like him/her wasnt in politics, would they give a shit about protecting t heir own interests $$$ in these companies...

just another POS who says one thing to get voters votes into politics, then selling them out cause of the money they receive under the table

politicians implement the policies paid for by their (big) donors, not by voters.

[boutons_deux]

fracking kills, just collateral damage, nothing to see.

In Texas, Traffic Deaths Climb Amid Fracking Boom

The death toll on Texas highways had been falling for decades, as car companies built safer vehicles. But that trend shifted into reverse as the boom in fracking began to heat up.

The Texas Department of Transportation says that between 2009 and 2013, the state's traffic fatalities rose by eight percent, even as those in most other states continued to fall. And deaths linked to commercial vehicle crashes, like trucks, soared by more than 50 percent over the same period.

The boom has triggered a huge demand for both tractor-trailers and drivers.

"People who've never been in the seat of a truck before go to school for two weeks, and they graduate, and now they're a truck driver, you know," says Larry Busby, the long-time sheriff of Live Oak County in the Eagle Ford shale region of South Texas. "Well, they're not a truck driver yet. They've just passed the school."

http://www.npr.org/2014/10/02/352980756/in-texas-traffic-deaths-climb-amid-fracking-boom

[MultiTroll]

"People who've never been in the seat of a truck before go to school for two weeks, and they graduate, and now they're a truck driver, you know," says Larry Busby, the long-time sheriff of Live Oak County in the Eagle Ford shale region of South Texas. "Well, they're not a truck driver yet. They've just passed the school."
Or how about have not gone to trucking school at all.
Twenty-One Defendants Charged for Corruption at Two Southern California DMV Offices

United States Attorney Laura E. Duffy announced today that employees at the California Department of Motor Vehicles (“DMV”) in San Diego County were charged in a criminal complaint for their involvement in a long-running bribery conspiracy that resulted in the production of hundreds of fraudulent driver licenses for applicants who had failed—or not taken—the required driver license tests.
The complaint alleges that DMV officials at the El Cajon DMV office, located at 1450 Graves Avenue, El Cajon, California, and the Rancho San Diego DMV office, located at 1901 Jamacha Road, El Cajon, California, falsely entered both “passing” written and “passing” driving test scores for applicants in exchange for bribes ranging up to $3,000 per license.
In addition to the DMV employees, 16 other defendants were charged in the complaint. According to the charging documents, these 16 other defendants are applicants who paid bribes to receive fraudulent driver licenses, or recruiters who brokered the corrupt deals for fraudulent licenses by getting money from the applicants and paying the bribes to the DMV employees. According to court documents, the corruption scheme involved the fraudulent production of both Class C (regular) and Commercial Class A driver licenses. Hundreds of applicants paid recruiters approximately $400- $500 for each fraudulent Class C license, which the conspirators produced at the El Cajon DMV. The complaint alleges that the DMV employees named in the complaint accepted bribes paid by these applicants despite the obvious public safety risk posed. For example, one DMV employee admitted to a recruiter that an applicant taking a driving test was so dangerous that she was “gonna kill someone.” The DMV employee, however, provided a fraudulent license to the dangerous applicant in exchange for a bribe the recruiter because he “need[ed] cash.”
According to the complaint, applicants seeking Commercial Class A licenses, produced at the Rancho San Diego DMV, typically paid recruiters $2,500-$3,000. Commercial Class A driver licenses allow the licensee to drive commercial vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds, which can cause enormous harm to the public if operated incorrectly by an unqualified driver. The complaint further alleges that DMV employees entered false passing test scores that allowed applicants to fraudulently obtain additional certifications for specific operations of the commercial vehicles, such as transporting hazardous materials or towing multiple trailers. The United States Attorney emphasized that these fraudulent certifications posed a significant threat to public safety, given that an unqualified driver could then transport hazardous materials or tow multiple trailers on the public roads.
For both Class C and Commercial Class A licenses, the recruiters told the applicants that, if they paid the fee, they would not have to take any of the required tests in order to receive a license. The complaint alleges that the recruiters made good on their claim as Jim Lynn Bean, Jeffrey Thomas Bednarek, Scott David Friedli, and Marco Beltran took advantage of their positions as DMV employees to enter fraudulent passing written and driving test scores into the DMV database. These DMV employees were responsible for conducting driving tests for driver license applicants, but by entering false information, circumvented the DMV’s driver license application process.
All 21 defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and to produce unauthorized identification documents, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371. In addition, defendants Bean, Bednarek, Friedli, and Beltran were charged with one count of bribery, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 666(a)(1)(B). The operator of the U.S. Driving School in El Cajon, Kuvan Adil Piomari, was charged with one count of bribery, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 666(a)(2). The defendants taken into custody today are expected to make their initial appearances before United States Magistrate Judge William V. Gallo on May 3, 2012.
United States Attorney Duffy commented that this criminal complaint and arrests are the result of an active, ongoing criminal investigation. If anyone in the community has information about corruption at the DMV, they are asked to contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation at 1-877-NO-BRIBE (662-7423), or the DMV’s Investigations Branch-Office of Internal Affairs at 626-851-0173.
Criminal Case No. 12MJ1576


Defendants



Jim Lynn Bean
Age: 33


Kuvan Adil Piromari
Age: 42


Jeffrey Thomas Bednarek
Age: 53


Scott David Friedli
Age: 32


Marco Beltran
Age: 41


Gabriela Villanueva
Age: 30


Bashar Asaad Azaria
Age: 34


Reenan Esa Kuza
Age: 29


Usman Aliyev
Age: 29


Abdulmajed Alhokair
Age: 21


Ahmad Alarbeed
Age: 20


Mohammed Alsuwaidi
Age: 18


Ali Rashid Al-Sowaidi
Age: 22


Khalid Abdulaziz Al-Sowaidi
Age: 22


Talal Bass Almousharji
Age: 19


Virginia Pena
Age: 32


Yontar Gizem
Age: 19


Douri Zafer
Age: 43


Asiel Bahjat Tomika
Age: 30


Angel Salvador Astimibay
Age: 50


Bekzad Mirhanov
Age: 31



Summary of Charges

http://www.fbi.gov/sandiego/press-releases/2012/twenty-one-defendants-charged-for-corruption-at-two-southern-california-dmv-offices

[boutons_deux]

heard a guy on NPR say oil at $80 means no more fracking wells.

Saudis Deploy the Oil Price Weapon Against Syria, Iran, Russia, and the US (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/10/saudis-deploy-the-oil-price-weapon-against-syria-iran-russia-and-the-us.html)


Asian stock markets continued to fall today (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-14/asian-stock-index-retreats-amid-rout-in-global-equities.html), propelled at least in part by the adverse reaction to the Saudi announcement yesterday that they would let oil prices fall to $80 a barrel (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/10/dropping-oil-prices-send-shockwaves-energy-sector.html). And further reports indicate that the Saudis intend to keep oil prices low enough to force a realignment of prices not just among various grades of crude, but also for intermediate and long-term substitutes.

It is critical to remember that the Saudis have no compunction about imposing costs on other nations to maximize the value of their oil resource long term and hence the power they derive from it. The 1970s oil shock produced a nasty recession in the US and most other advanced economies and gave a further impetus to inflation, which was already hard to manage and dampened growth by discouraging investment.

The current alignment of factors gives the Saudis the opportunity to make life miserable for a long list of parties they would like to discipline, including the US.

The sharp rise in the dollar means that lowering the price of oil in dollar terms is unlikely to leave the desert kingdom worse off in local currency terms. But it

undermines US energy development, both fracking and development in the Bakken, as well as more development by the majors, who were regularly criticized by analysts for how much they were spending on exploration when the math didn’t pencil out well at over $100 a barrel.

Countries whose oil is output is mainly heavy, sour crude, like Iran and Venezuela, find it hard to sell their oil when prices are below $100 a barrel (or at least when the dollar was weaker, but the $80 price point, even with a strong dollar, may be low enough to cause discomfort).

In other words, this is a classic case of predatory pricing: set your price low enough long enough to do real damage to competitors (http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/13/us-oil-saudi-policy-idUSKCN0I201Y20141013), and reduce their market share, not just immediately, but in the middle to long term.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/10/saudis-deploy-the-oil-price-weapon-against-syria-iran-russia-and-the-us.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capi talism%29

[Th'Pusher]

In other words, this is a classic case of predatory pricing: set your price low enough long enough to do real damage to competitors (http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/13/us-oil-saudi-policy-idUSKCN0I201Y20141013), and reduce their market share, not just immediately, but in the middle to long term.


Sounds like amazon's business model.

[TeyshaBlue]

Amazon doesnt run, screaming like a 9 year old child when the missles fly tho. $80 bl will vaporize immediately when hostilities escalate.

[Das Texan]

heard a guy on NPR say oil at $80 means no more fracking wells.

Saudis Deploy the Oil Price Weapon Against Syria, Iran, Russia, and the US (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/10/saudis-deploy-the-oil-price-weapon-against-syria-iran-russia-and-the-us.html)


Asian stock markets continued to fall today (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-14/asian-stock-index-retreats-amid-rout-in-global-equities.html), propelled at least in part by the adverse reaction to the Saudi announcement yesterday that they would let oil prices fall to $80 a barrel (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/10/dropping-oil-prices-send-shockwaves-energy-sector.html). And further reports indicate that the Saudis intend to keep oil prices low enough to force a realignment of prices not just among various grades of crude, but also for intermediate and long-term substitutes.

It is critical to remember that the Saudis have no compunction about imposing costs on other nations to maximize the value of their oil resource long term and hence the power they derive from it. The 1970s oil shock produced a nasty recession in the US and most other advanced economies and gave a further impetus to inflation, which was already hard to manage and dampened growth by discouraging investment.

The current alignment of factors gives the Saudis the opportunity to make life miserable for a long list of parties they would like to discipline, including the US.

The sharp rise in the dollar means that lowering the price of oil in dollar terms is unlikely to leave the desert kingdom worse off in local currency terms. But it

undermines US energy development, both fracking and development in the Bakken, as well as more development by the majors, who were regularly criticized by analysts for how much they were spending on exploration when the math didn’t pencil out well at over $100 a barrel.

Countries whose oil is output is mainly heavy, sour crude, like Iran and Venezuela, find it hard to sell their oil when prices are below $100 a barrel (or at least when the dollar was weaker, but the $80 price point, even with a strong dollar, may be low enough to cause discomfort).

In other words, this is a classic case of predatory pricing: set your price low enough long enough to do real damage to competitors (http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/13/us-oil-saudi-policy-idUSKCN0I201Y20141013), and reduce their market share, not just immediately, but in the middle to long term.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/10/saudis-deploy-the-oil-price-weapon-against-syria-iran-russia-and-the-us.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capi talism%29




false.

[pgardn]

The price of a booming economy in this case is getting killed on the highway. In a very short period of time I have already seen 3 trailer trucks owned by small business jackknifed because they don't understand that slight mistakes at 75 towing heavy machinery in a crappy old setup is really dangerous. These are not even the 18 wheelers mentioned above.

Stay behind the keyboard ST people. There are things much more likely to get you dead. I'm glad I spend more time on terrorist ridden airplanes. And shit, this Ebola... You want to get dead in Texas, drive. Now go ahead and mention that giant spiders are hiding only on fast moving large vehicles and problem solved.

[CosmicCowboy]

I tend to agree with the NPR guy except that I think the US is complicit with the Saudi's in the price drop. The O administration hates US fracking anyway, and $80 oil punishes the Russians for the Ukraine because the Rusians need $100 oil to be able to sell at a profit.

[boutons_deux]

I have no problem with fracking or even with coal, if they would stop thermally, chemically, etc polluting air, water, land.

I read few weeks ago that the Really Big Wall St commodities trading criminals, the speculative Market Makers looting actual oil users, had quit oil market. Looks likes they had the insight, very probably with insider info from the govt and BigOil, into the near future.

[CosmicCowboy]

Plus, cheap gas is a consumer "feel good" for the November election.

[boutons_deux]

Plus, cheap gas is a consumer "feel good" for the November election.

Thanks, Obama!

[boutons_deux]

Will low oil prices take a bite out of the US shale boom?

Oil prices continue to fall, putting pressure on US drillers who need oil prices to remain relatively high to make production profitable. Low oil prices are already reducing the number of active drilling rigs in the US.

There were 19 oil rigs that were removed from operation as of Oct. 17, compared to the prior week. There are now 1,590 active oil rigs, the lowest level in six weeks (http://fuelfix.com/blog/2014/10/17/oil-rigs-slump-by-most-in-two-months-after-prices-slide/).“Unless there’s a significant reversal in oil prices, we’re going to see continued declines in the rig count, especially those drilling for oil,” James Williams, president of WTRG Economics, told Fuel Fix (http://fuelfix.com/blog/2014/10/17/oil-rigs-slump-by-most-in-two-months-after-prices-slide/) in an interview. “We could easily see the oil rig count down 100 by the end of the year, or more.”

U.S. drilling companies could begin to seriously start removing rigs from operation if prices drop to around $75 per barrel (http://fuelfix.com/blog/2014/10/17/oil-rigs-slump-by-most-in-two-months-after-prices-slide/). Some of the more expensive shale regions will not be profitable at current prices. For example, the pricey Tuscaloosa shale in Louisiana breaks even at about $92 per barrel (http://theadvocate.com/news/10524965-123/onshore-rigs-could-flee-la).

in North Dakota’s prolific Bakken formation, an average rig is producing over 530 barrels per day (http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/drilling/pdf/dpr-full.pdf) from a new well in October. Less than two years ago, that figure sat at around 300 barrels per day. Extracting more barrels from the same operation improves the economics of drilling, which means shale producers are not as vulnerable to lower prices as they used to be.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2014/1023/Will-low-oil-prices-take-a-bite-out-of-the-US-shale-boom

But BigOil is still pushing to export US crude (aka sell to foreigners and deplete USA's natural resources to hasten supply well down the peak oil curve and sooner up the oil price curve)

And for some reason, BigOil can justify the economics of drilling in the Arctic and VERY deep ocean wells


http://media.angelnexus.com/images/depth-of-oil-wells-energy-and-capital.png

[boutons_deux]

Dear Reader ,





http://gallery.mailchimp.com/1681f9ec63117ca004520f7e7/images/spacer.gif





Greetings from London.


All eyes are on a small college town just outside of Dallas, Texas, whose claim to fame is three-fold: It is the home to the Barnett Shale; it is where hydraulic fracturing debuted; and now some fear it could be where fracking meets one of its greatest enemies, while conspiracy theories of Russian infiltration abound.

On 4 November, the residents of Denton (http://oilprice.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765&id=7c74e08d32&e=c01ba4cf2e) will vote in a local ballot on whether or not to ban fracking within the city limits, and there is a flurry of activity on this battleground that is not likely to end with the vote itself, but will be dragged through the courts in the aftermath.

While Denton is but a small college town, this small-town referendum has much larger implications. If Texas bans fracking—even on this small scale—it could snowball and empower other anti-fracking movements and efforts.

The local government (http://oilprice.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765&id=9945143d1c&e=c01ba4cf2e) has the right to invoke home rule, which empowers a local municipality to control zoning ordinances and override state rules. This is what has the oil and gas industry worried, as it threatens to reshape the fracking debate country-wide.

The campaign for a referendum on banning fracking was initiated by the Denton Drilling Awareness Group, whose petition (http://oilprice.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765&id=890a5c651f&e=c01ba4cf2e) for a ban turned up enough support to force the city council to hold a Council vote in July, which ended up being 5 to 2 against the ban. The ban failed to pass, but was put on a November ballot as a public referendum.

In July, when things started heating up, the Russian conspiracy theory (http://oilprice.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765&id=e74b8622a4&e=c01ba4cf2e) entered the equation, first spread by the Railroad Commissioner. The fight has become dirty, as it is wont to do in the oil and gas business, and now takes on geopolitical proportions, catapulting this small Texan town into a new sort of fame from which it will not recover for some time.

Pro-fracking groups quickly latched on to the Russian conspiracy, recognizing the convenience in this during a time of high-tensions with and sanctions against Russian oil and gas interests, who have in the past been accused of (http://oilprice.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765&id=f106643c61&e=c01ba4cf2e) supporting Western anti-fracking groups in order to slow down the American shale boom.

Anti-fracking supporters are referring to these tactics as “McCarthy-era”, as the pro-fracking campaign is now suggesting that anyone who thwarts fracking is supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin, turning anti-fracking sentiments into treason. :lol

A report by the Perryman Group (http://oilprice.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765&id=f5bd90acf6&e=c01ba4cf2e) argues that a ban on fracking within the Denton city limits will cost the city millions of dollars, while supporters of the ban (http://oilprice.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765&id=b8a9674477&e=c01ba4cf2e) argue that fracking’s benefits are outside the city limits, noting that only 0.2% of city jobs are related to the industry. They also claim that elected officials and industry leaders, not Denton, are benefiting from the fracking, with Texans for Public Justice stating (http://oilprice.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765&id=6d742c29fd&e=c01ba4cf2e) that lawmakers had received nearly $12.2 million in contributions from oil and gas interests between January 2011 and June 2014.

There have been other tense votes (http://oilprice.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765&id=c7715a5807&e=c01ba4cf2e) on fracking in the US. North Carolina had a moratorium on fracking for two years, but then reversed that earlier this year. New Jersey—which isn’t home to any shale in the first place—is facing pressure to ban fracking waste disposal coming from shale-rich Pennsylvania, but so far nothing has come of this. Culver City, California, is considering a ban on fracking, but movement towards this has been slow. Colorado only narrowly averted (http://oilprice.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765&id=12bdcd6258&e=c01ba4cf2e) an anti-fracking vote in September.

The only truly successful bans on fracking have been in New York, which has a moratorium on the process in place since 2010, Pittsburgh, which was the first US city to bank fracking in 2010, and Mora County, New Mexico. In Texas, the Dallas city council (http://oilprice.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765&id=7683dbf253&e=c01ba4cf2e) banned fracking in December 2013, but a lawsuit filed by Trinity East Energy LLC has placed this in jeopardy.

The Denton vote is by far the most dangerous for the industry, laden as it is with politics and geopolitics, and due to its location at the heart (http://oilprice.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765&id=128bd8a281&e=c01ba4cf2e) of the start of the shale revolution.

When oil-friendly Texans stand up and take an interest in something that works against the oil and gas industry, the rest of the country listens—and that’s what has the industry concerned (http://oilprice.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765&id=820859db8e&e=c01ba4cf2e).

What the industry is banking on is that even if the Denton referendum turns up a ‘yes’ vote to ban fracking, the state of Texas (http://oilprice.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765&id=1e3e17453c&e=c01ba4cf2e) will sue to stop it.

That’s it from us this week. I hope you enjoy the report below and have a great weekend.

Best regards,

James Stafford
Editor, Oilprice.com

[boutons_deux]

Future of Fracking Not Nearly as Bright as Forecasted


By 2040, production rates from the Bakken Shale (http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/7174) and Eagle Ford Shale (http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/7759) will be less than a tenth of that projected by the Energy Department. For the top three shale gas fields—the Marcellus Shale (http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/5401), Eagle Ford and Bakken—production rates from these plays will be about a third of the U.S. Energy Infromation Administration (EIA) forecast.

The three year average well decline rates for the seven shale oil basins measured for the report range from an astounding 60 percent to 91 percent. That means over those three years, the amount of oil coming out of the wells decreases by that percentage. This translates to 43 percent to 64 percent of their estimated ultimate recovery dug out during the first three years of the well’s existence.

Four of the seven shale gas basins are already in terminal decline in terms of their well productivity: the Haynesville Shale (http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/7349), Fayetteville Shale (http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/7760), Woodford Shale (http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/10990) and Barnett Shale (http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/6162).

The three year average well decline rates for the seven shale gas basins measured for the report ranges between 74 percent to 82 percent.

The average annual decline rates in the seven shale gas basins examined equals between 23 percent and 49 percent. Translation: between one-quarter and one-half of all production in each basin must be replaced annually just to keep running at the same pace on the drilling treadmill and keep getting the same amount of gas out of the earth.

http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/27/fracking-forecast-post-carbon/?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=4e24aaf94a-Top_News_10_27_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-4e24aaf94a-85879165 (http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/27/fracking-forecast-post-carbon/?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=4e24aaf94a-Top_News_10_27_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-4e24aaf94a-85879165)

So the "red queen", heard elsewhere, eg above, is in play.

Looks like domestic oil and gas will fuck around enough, enriching BigOil with $Ts, to delay switching to other energy sources by a couple decades.

the EV (electric/battery) vs FCV (fuel cell) race will be highly entertaining, exciting. Expect one or the other to have major breakthrough(s) in energy production, storage.

If only we'd quit wasting $Ts on the MIC, but the MIC and BigCarbon buy govt policies against the country's best interests.

[Fabbs]

Confirmed: California Aquifers Contaminated With Billions Of Gallons of Fracking Wastewater

After California state regulators shut down 11 fracking wastewater injection wells last July over concerns that the wastewater might have contaminated aquifers used for drinking water and farm irrigation, the EPA ordered a report within 60 days.

It was revealed yesterday that the California State Water Resources Board has sent a letter to the EPA confirming that at least nine of those sites were in fact dumping wastewater contaminated with fracking fluids and other pollutants into aquifers protected by state law and the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

The letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity, reveals that nearly 3 billion gallons of wastewater were illegally injected into central California aquifers and that half of the water samples collected at the 8 water supply wells tested near the injection sites have high levels of dangerous chemicals such as arsenic, a known carcinogen that can also weaken the human immune system, and thallium, a toxin used in rat poison.

Timothy Krantz, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Redlands, says these chemicals could pose a serious risk to public health: “The fact that high concentrations are showing up in multiple water wells close to wastewater injection sites raises major concerns about the health and safety of nearby residents.”

The full extent of the contamination is not yet known. Regulators at the State Water Resources Board said that as many as 19 other injection wells could have been contaminating protected aquifers, and the Central Valley Water Board has so far only tested 8 of the nearly 100 nearby water wells.

Fracking has been accused of exacerbating California's epic state-wide drought, but the Central Valley region, which has some of the worst air and water pollution in the state, has borne a disproportionate amount of the impacts from oil companies' increasing use of the controversial oil extraction technique.

News of billions of gallons of fracking wastewater contaminating protected aquifers relied on by residents of the Central Valley for drinking water could not have come at a worse time.

Adding insult to injury, fracking is a water-intensive process, using as much as 140,000 to 150,000 gallons per frack job every day, permanently removing it from the water cycle.

Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, says these new revelations prove state regulators have failed to protect Californians and the environment from fracking and called on Governor Jerry Brown to take action now to prevent an even bigger water emergency in drought-stricken California.

“Much more testing is needed to gauge the full extent of water pollution and the threat to public health,” Krezmann says. “But Governor Brown should move quickly to halt fracking to ward off a surge in oil industry wastewater that California simply isn’t prepared to dispose of safely.”

http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/10/07/central-california-aquifers-contaminated-billions-gallons-fracking-wastewater?fb_action_ids=956044601077752&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=feed_opengraph&action_object_map=%7B%22956044601077752%22%3A63316 8780126752%7D&action_type_map=%7B%22956044601077752%22%3A%22og.r ecommends%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

[boutons_deux]

Fracking pollution just went airborne

From contaminated groundwater (http://grist.org/list/frackers-are-dumping-toxic-waste-into-californias-groundwater/) to polytechnic displays at the kitchen faucet (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LBjSXWQRV8), most of the major concerns around fracking have centered around how fracking fluids and methane could be polluting our water supply. But we’ve started to suspect that fracking impacts the air, too, and a new study (http://www.ehjournal.net/content/13/1/82) published this week in the journal of Environmental Health adds one more piece of evidence to the pile.

David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at University at Albany, State University of New York — and the lead author of this study — says his findings support mounting evidence that fracking is a significant public health risk. Of particular concern is that fracking sites could become cancer clusters in years to come.

Carpenter’s study found eight different poisonous chemicals near wells and fracking sites throughout Arkansas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wyoming that exceeded federal limits, including levels of benzene and formaldehyde — both known carcinogens, Carpenter told reporter Alan Neuhauser for U.S. News and World Report: (http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/10/30/toxic-chemicals-and-carcinogens-skyrocket-near-fracking-sites-study-says?page=2)

“Cancer has a long latency, so you’re not seeing an elevation in cancer in these communities. But five, 10, 15 years from now, elevation in cancer is almost certain to happen … I was amazed,” Carpenter says. “Five orders of magnitude over federal limits for benzene at one site — that’s just incredible. You could practically just light a match and have an explosion with that concentration.”


http://grist.org/list/fracking-pollution-just-went-airborne/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed

[Winehole23]

with the end of zero bound interest financing and dropping prices, energy markets -- and the wider economy -- could be in for a reckoning. fracking is financed largely by junk bonds:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/10/wolf-richter-toxic-mix-fracking-oil-price-collapse-junk-bond-insanity.html

[Winehole23]

something structurally similar is true of the auto market. a lot of bad debt is going to be exposed when interest rates rise.

[boutons_deux]

Saudi Arabia well head price: about $30/barrel

USA fracking well head price: about $60/barrel

Canadian tar sands price? about ?? / barrel

[boutons_deux]

http://images.bwbx.io/cms/2014-11-25/Screen-Shot-2014-11-25-at-12.11.09-PM.png

[m>s]

Just reading this thread is depressing. They've got a million of those damn things around here I'm probably screwed.

[boutons_deux]

"While production growth is very strong [in North America], remember if you look at the debt situation for a lot of these companies, there is a lot of distressed debt," said Beveridge.

"$68 a barrel is not economical for a lot of these shale oil wells. CDS [credit default swap] spreads and yields on some of the debt are rising very quickly, because at these kinds of oil prices you are going to see producers go bankrupt," he added.

Since 2011, U.S. energy firms have ploughed some $1.5 trillion into ramping up their operations, taking on a large share of debt to do so, according to AllianceBernstein. Debt issued by energy companies now accounts for more than 15 percent of the U.S. junk bond market, compared with less than 5 percent a decade ago.

Small companies that have levered up to fund exploration and production will see their margins squeezed with bankruptcy "a distinct possibility,"

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102222911

[boutons_deux]

Stupidity of Pink Fracking Fully Exposed on The Daily Show

Even Susan G. Komen’s own website shares the chemicals from fracking (http://ecowatch.com/news/energy-news/fracking-2/) that are linked to breast cancer (http://ecowatch.com/2014/08/06/are-cancer-rates-elevated-texas-fracking-sites/), but it didn’t stop them from partnering with oil and gas giant Baker Hughes (http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/24/komen-pinkwashing-breast-cancer/), which donated $100,000 to Komen in October for the “Doing Our Bit for the Cure (http://ecowatch.com/petition/susan-g-komen-dont-frack-health/)” campaign where 1,000 fracking drill bits were painted pink.

The viral post on EcoWatch (http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/08/pinkwashing-susan-korman-baker-hughes/), written by breast cancer survivor and fracking activist Sandra Steingraber (http://ecowatch.com/author/ssteingraber/), exposed the hypocrisy of this campaign.

Now, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart takes this outrageous partnership to new heights.

Watch this hilarious segment where The Daily Show‘s Samantha Bee meets Karuna Jaggar, executive director of Breast Cancer Action (http://www.bcaction.org/), to fully uncover the stupidity of pink fracking.

http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/04/pink-fracking-the-daily-show/?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=71900d1ece-Top_News_12_4_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-71900d1ece-85879165

[boutons_deux]

Studies Raise Red Flags About Hazardous Compounds in Fracking Fluid

this month federal officials announced they will allow some fracking (http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/fracking-permitted-gw-national-forest-26986170) in George Washington National Forest - the largest national forest in the eastern United States.

At the same time, scientists are finally getting to the bottom of what's in fracking fluids - with some troubling results. Truthout takes a detailed look at two of these studies, which raise some red flags.

Perhaps the most comprehensive look to date at fracking chemicals was presented in August at the National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

William Stringfellow, a professor in environmental engineering at the University of the Pacific, lead author of the report, said he conducted the review of fracking contents to help resolve the public debate over the controversial drilling practice.

Fracking involves injecting water with a mix of chemical additives into rock formations deep underground to promote the release of oil and gas. It has led to a natural gas boom in the United States, but it has also stimulated major opposition and troubling reports of contaminated well water, as well as increased air pollution near drill sites.

The team of scientists presenting this work said that out of nearly 200 commonly used compounds, there's very little known about the potential health risks of about one-third. However, they concluded eight of the known compounds are toxic to mammals. Chemicals such as corrosion inhibitors and biocides are being used in "reasonably high concentrations that potentially could have adverse effects," said Stringfellow.

"Biocides are inherently toxic by design," he told Truthout. "They need to be evaluated even if used in small amounts because of their toxicity."

"Produced water can have benzene, which can get into groundwater or volatilize into air. . . . It's not good to either drink or inhale it."


A second study released in October by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) found that despite a federal ban on the use of diesel fuel in hydraulic fracturing without a permit, several oil and gas companies are exploiting a Safe Drinking Water Act loophole pushed through by Halliburton to frack with petroleum-based products containing even more dangerous toxic chemicals than diesel. For example, a drilling company in West Texas injected up to 48,000 gallons of benzene into the ground in September.

Over about two months, Eric Schaeffer, Executive Director of the EIP and former Director of Civil Enforcement at the Environmental Protection Agency, studied more than 150 records in the industry-sponsored database of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, called FracFocus.

"Five gallons of ethylbenzene can pollute a billion gallons of water."

Fracking with fluids containing benzene (a carcinogen), ethylbenzene (a probable carcinogen) and other highly toxic chemicals is a potential threat to drinking-water supplies and public health, but, it appears to be common practice, according to the EIP's review of product descriptions available online and company disclosures in FracFocus, an online chemical disclosure registry. "Produced water can have benzene, which can get into groundwater or volatilize into air," Schaeffer told Truthout. "It's not good to either drink or inhale it."

High Concentrations of Ethylbenzene

During an interview earlier in November, Schaeffer and a Truthout reporter went over the most recent, complete entries in the FracFocus database. In one of the first disclosure reports, a well operated by Citation Oil and Gas Corp. in Carter County, Oklahoma, had more than 90 gallons of ethylbenzene (http://truthoutdocs.cloudaccess.net/documents/2014.12.1.Drouin.PDF.pdf) present in "hydraulic fracturing fluid product."

"Texas is in a record-breaking drought where private water wells and even wells for entire towns are going dry. Every drop is precious so we cannot risk polluting any water with toxic fracking chemicals."

"That's a lot," Schaeffer said. "Five gallons of ethylbenzene can pollute a billion gallons of water."

According to EPI, even the limited data available on FracFocus shows at least 153 wells in 11 states were fracked with fluids containing ethylbenzene between January 2011 and September 2014, with the largest numbers of wells in Oklahoma (77 wells), North Dakota (23), Texas (20), Wyoming (11), Colorado (9), California (5), Ohio (3), Louisiana (2), New Mexico (1), Montana (1) and Michigan (1).

In some cases, the amount of toxic fracking fluids injected into the ground is large. The BlackBush Dimmit well, in San Antonio, Texas, was not the only case EIP found of extensive levels of benzene.

For example, between May 2013 and February 2014, another firm, Discovery Operating Services, reported injecting solvents containing nearly 1,000 gallons of benzene into 11 wells in Midland and Upland counties in Texas.

Sharon Wilson, Texas organizer for Earthworks' Oil & Gas Accountability Project, said: "Texas is in a record-breaking drought where private water wells and even wells for entire towns are going dry. Every drop is precious so we cannot risk polluting any water with toxic fracking chemicals."

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/27734-studies-raise-red-flags-about-hazardous-compounds-in-fracking-fluid-questions-loom-about-unknown-chemicals

BigCarbon destroying the planet, pure 100% insanity.

[boutons_deux]

Health worries pervade North Texas fracking zone

Propped up on a hospital bed, Taylor Ishee listened as his mother shared a conviction that choked her up. His rare cancer had a cause, she believes, and it wasn’t genetics.

Others in Texas have drawn the same conclusions about their confounding illnesses. Jana DeGrand, who suffered a heart attack and needed both her gallbladder and her appendix removed. Rebecca Williams, fighting off unexplained rashes, sharp headaches and repeated bouts of pneumonia. Maile Bush, who needed surgery for a sinus infection four rounds of antibiotics couldn’t heal. Annette Wilkes, whose own severe sinus infections were followed by two autoimmune diseases.

They all lived for years atop the gas-richBarnett Shale in North Texas (http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/oil-gas/major-oil-gas-formations/barnett-shale-information/), birthplace ofmodern hydraulic fracturing (http://www.dallasfed.org/research/econdata/barnett.cfm). And they all believe exposure to natural gas development triggered their health problems.

“I’ve been trying to sell my house,” said Williams, a registered nurse, “because I’ve got to get out of here or I’m going to die.”

Texas regulators and politicians have shrugged off such complaints for years.

The leap from suspected environmental exposure to definitive proof of harm is a difficult one, and they insist they’ve found no cause for concern.

Officials in other states have said the same thing as hydraulic fracturing — known as fracking — moved beyond Texas and opened up lucrative oil and gas deposits across the country.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/12/11/16396/health-worries-pervade-north-texas-fracking-zone?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+publici_rss+%28The+Center+for +Public+Integrity+Latest+Stories%29

[boutons_deux]

Fired: Texas regulators say they tried to enforce rules, lost jobs

During their careers as oil and gas inspectors for the Texas Railroad Commission, Fred Wright and Morris Kocurek earned merit raises, promotions and praise from their supervisors.

They went about their jobs — keeping tabs on the conduct of the state’s most important industry — with gusto.

But they may have done their jobs too well for the industry’s taste — and for their own agency’s.

Kocurek and Wright, who worked in different Railroad Commission districts, were fired within months of each other in 2013. Both say their careers were upended by their insistence that oil and gas operators follow rules intended to protect the public and the environment.

The incidents Kocurek and Wright describe offer an inside look at how Texas regulates the oil and gas industry, a subject InsideClimate News and the Center for Public Integrity have been investigating (http://www.publicintegrity.org/environment/big-oil-bad-air) for more than a year and a half.

The investigation has found that the Railroad Commission (http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/) and its sister agency, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/), focus more on protecting the industry than the public, an approach tacitly endorsed by the state’s political leaders.

The Railroad Commission is controlled by three elected commissioners who, combined, accepted nearly $3 million in campaign contributions from the industry during the 2012 and 2014 election cycles, according to data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics (http://www.followthemoney.org/).

Gov. Rick Perry collected a little less than $11.5 million in campaign contributions from those in the industry since the 2000 election cycle. The governor-elect, Attorney General Greg Abbott, accepted more than $6.8 million.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/12/09/16391/fired-texas-regulators-say-they-tried-enforce-rules-lost-jobs?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+publici_rss+%28The+Center+for +Public+Integrity+Latest+Stories%29

TX govt is 100% corrupt.

[boutons_deux]

The Alarming Research Behind New York's Fracking Ban

The research incorporates findings from multiple studies conducted across the country and highlights the following seven concerns:



Respiratory health: The report cites the dangers (http://wvwri.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/A-N-L-Final-Report-FOR-WEB.pdf) of methane emissions from natural gas drilling in Texas and Pennsylvania, which have been linked to asthma and other breathing issues. Another study found (http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/advpub/2014/9/ehp.1307732.pdf) that 39 percent of residents in southern Pennsylvania who lived within one kilometer of a fracking site developed upper-respiratory problems compared with 18 percent of those who lived more than two kilometers away.

Drinking water: Shallow methane-migration underground could seep into drinking water, one study found (http://www.pnas.org/content/111/39/14076.full), contaminating wells. Another found brine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22778445) from deep shale formations in groundwater aquifers. The report also refers to a study of fracking communities (http://www.pnas.org/content/110/28/11250.abstract) in the Appalachian Plateau where they found methane in 82 percent of drinking water samples, and that concentrations of the chemical were six times higher in homes close to natural gas wells. Ethane was 23 times higher in homes close to fracking sites as well.

?Seismic activity: The report cites studies (http://arizona.openrepository.com/arizona/handle/10150/332903) from Ohio and Oklahoma that explain how fracking can trigger earthquakes (http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/08/man-made-earthquakes-are-altering-the-geologic-landscape/372243/). Another (http://csegrecorder.com/articles/view/unintentional-seismicity-induced-by-hydraulic-fracturing) found that fracking near Preese Hall in the United Kingdom resulted in a 2.3 magnitude earthquake as well as 1.5 magnitude earthquake.

Climate change: Excess methane can be released into the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming. One study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24620400) predicts that fracking in New York State would contribute between 7 percent and 28 percent of the volatile organic compound emissions, and between 6 percent and 18 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions in the region by 2020.

Soil contamination: One analysis (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23552651) of a natural gas site found elevated levels of radioactive waste in the soil, potentially the result of surface spills.

The community: The report refers to problems such as noise and odor pollution, citing a case in Pennsylvania (https://www.readbyqxmd.com/read/25463961/increased-traffic-accident-rates-associated-with-shale-gas-drilling-in-pennsylvania) where gas harvesting was linked to huge increases in automobile accidents and heavy truck crashes.

Health complaints: Residents near active fracking sites reported having symptoms such as nausea, abdominal pain, nosebleeds, and headachesaccording to studies (http://www.psehealthyenergy.org/data/Bamberger_Oswald_NS22_in_press.pdf). A study in rural Colorado (http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1306722/) which examined 124,842 births between 1996 and 2009 found that those who lived closest to natural gas development sites had a 30 percent increase in congenital heart conditions. The group of births closest to development sites also had a 100-percent increased chance of developing neural tube defects.


http://news.yahoo.com/alarming-research-behind-yorks-fracking-ban-190028034.html

[boutons_deux]

First Oil, Now US Natural Gas Plunges, “Negative Igniter” for New Debt Crisis (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/12/first-oil-now-us-natural-gas-plunges-negative-igniter-for-new-debt-crisis.html)

Wolf has been keeping a sharp eye out on how shale gas players were junk bond junkies, and how that is going to lead to a painful withdrawal. Here, he focuses on one of the big drivers of the heavy borrowings: the deep involvement of private equity firms, who make money whether or not the companies they invest in do well, by virtue of all the fees they extract. The precipitous drop in natural gas prices is exposing how bad the downside of a dubious can be, at least for the chump fund investors.

It’s hard to imagine an industry that is a worse candidate for private equity than oil and gas exploration and production. The prototypical private equity purchase is a mature company with steady cash flow.

Oil and gas development is capital intensive and the cash flows are unpredictable and volatile, because the commodity prices are unpredictable and volatile.

A less obvious issue is that it actually takes a lot of expertise to run these businesses. This is not like buying a retailer or a metal-bender. Now private equity kingpins flatter themselves into believing that experts are just people they hire, but here, the level of expertise required, and the fact that the majors are way bigger than private equity firms means that the private equity buyers don’t know enough to vet whether the guy they hire is really as good as he says he is. Like all outsiders, they are way too likely to be swayed by the sales pitch and personality rather than competence.* And even with all the money that private equity has thrown at energy plays, it’s not clear that New York commands much respect in Houston.

As one private equity insider wrote in June, ironically just before oil priced peaked:

I have been digging underneath the surface (pun was not originally intended) of these let us call them fracking E&P companies and I was pretty surprised. Many of the bigger ones have not made money the last few years. Sitting in a bar over dinner I got to talking to a petroleum landman and he basically told me they have to keep drilling or if they stop they will not get started again (Red Queen effect). The reason is these wells deplete so quickly that the economics have been hidden by artificially high reserve reports. This whole process got started by someone telling me they had reserves worth $600 million but after long discussions I saw there financials and they were losing there ass even with full cost accounting which is the most aggressive.


One minor quibble: I agree that the sudden fall in oil and now natural gas prices has the potential to have very nasty blowback to the financial system. But I don’t see shale gas plays alone as having the potential to do as much damage as the housing bust did. The big reason that what were ultimately 40% losses in a $1.3 trillion subprime market did so much damage is that credit default swaps created exposures on the worst subprime bonds, and on the weakest rated tranches, that were 4-6 times the real economy exposures, and too many of those toxic bets wound up on the balance sheets of over-levered, systemically important financial institutions. We don’t have that kind of leverage and concentration in shale-related debt.

However, the sudden fall in energy prices creates additional dislocations, such as among financial speculators who sold price protection, investors in emerging market equity and debt. So the cumulative impact of the oil price reset could well be greater than you’d think based on the sum of its parts.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/US-Nat-Gas-Nov_23-Dec_22-20142.png

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/12/first-oil-now-us-natural-gas-plunges-negative-igniter-for-new-debt-crisis.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capi talism%29

[boutons_deux]

Saudis Tell Shale Industry It Will Break Them, Plans to Keep Pumping Even at $20 a Barrel (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/12/saudis-tell-shale-industry-will-break-plans-keep-pumping-even-20-barrel.html)

Posted on December 23, 2014 (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/12/saudis-tell-shale-industry-will-break-plans-keep-pumping-even-20-barrel.html) by Yves Smith (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/author/yves-smith)When the Saudis announced their intention not to support oil prices when they were sliding towards $90 and plunged quickly through that level, we deemed the move to be a masterstroke (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/10/saudis-deploy-the-oil-price-weapon-against-syria-iran-russia-and-the-us.html). It served to damage both economic and political enemies. On the economic front, the casualties would include renewables, Canadian tar sands, and the US shale gas industry. On the geopolitical front, the casualties would include Iran, Syria, Russia…. and the US.

Even though Riyadh is nominally still an ally, relations with the US are fraught. The Saudis are mighty unhappy with America over its failure to get rid of Assad, its refusal to indulge Saudi demands of attacking Iran (our leaders may be drunk on power, but they haven’t quite gone over the deep end) and or indirectly working with Iran against ISIS (which started out as Prince Bandar’s private army and may still have the kingdom as a stealth patron).

So the Saudis are not at all unhappy if the US suffers as a result of the whackage of its energy industry. First, that’s an inevitable outcome if the Saudis are to succeed in maximizing the value of their oil assets, which is a survival issue for the royal family. Second, since relations between the US and Riyadh are frayed right now, it is an opportune time to show that the kingdom is not to be treated casually.

Yesterday, the Saudis made it even more clear that they are not pulling out of their game of chicken with other energy producing nations. The Saudis will keep pumping and by implication, will force production cuts on others. But in its clever formulation, which has the advantage of being true but misleading, the Saudis insist that all they are doing is preserving market share. Key sections of the Financial Times report (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/63c7786c-89bc-11e4-8daa-00144feabdc0.html):

Opec will not cut production even if the price of oil falls to $20 a barrel, the cartel’s de facto leader said, spelling out a dramatic policy shift that will have far-reaching implications for the global energy industry.

In an unusually frank interview, Ali al-Naimi, the Saudi oil minister, tore up Opec’s traditional strategy of keeping prices high by limiting oil output and replaced it with a new policy of defending the cartel’s market share at all costs.

“It is not in the interest of Opec producers to cut their production, whatever the price is,” he told the Middle East Economic Survey. “Whether it goes down to $20, $40, $50, $60, it is irrelevant.”


He said the world may never see $100 a barrel oil again….

In the MEES interview, Mr Naimi said Saudi Arabia and other Gulf oil producers would be able to withstand a long period of low crude prices, largely because their production costs were so low — at only about $4-$5 a barrel.

But he said the pain will be much greater for other oil regions, such as offshore Brazil, west Africa and the Arctic, whose costs are much higher.
“So sooner or later, however much they hold out, in the end, their financial affairs will limit their production,” he said.

“We want to tell the world that high efficiency producing countries are the ones that deserve market share,” said Mr Naimi added. “If the price falls, it falls . . . Others will be harmed greatly before we feel any pain.”

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/12/saudis-tell-shale-industry-will-break-plans-keep-pumping-even-20-barrel.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capi talism%29

I don't see how low oil price hurts "renewables" that, since renewables are mostly in production of electricity, not fuel which is 70% of US consumption.

yes, NG is used for electricity, but dead-end, dying coal will be hurt worse, sooner than renewable energy, coal getting pinched by NG and by EPA emission rules. Coal is dying, has no future, while solar/wind have nothing but promising future, no matter what the price of oil.

I expect BigOil will be pushing EVEN HARDER for LNG exports to the world market where NG is 3,4x more expensive than US domestic price.

[Agloco]

This is likely going to disappear on its own without help from the Saudis....

Study Confirms Earthquakes In Ohio Were Triggered By Fracking


A new study, released by the Seismological Society of America on Monday, has confirmed that a series of small earthquakes experienced in Ohio were triggered by fracking activity. This seismic sequence, which took place in March 2014, comprised five recorded earthquakes, ranging from magnitude 2.1 to 3.0.

One of these events was a rare “felt” earthquake, meaning it was large enough to be felt by people in nearby towns, although it didn’t pose any risk and didn’t cause damage. Given the fact that the events took place within one kilometer (0.6 miles) of a group of oil and gas wells, state officials decided to halt operations two days after the 3.0 quake hit. Since then, scientists have been scouring through seismic data to determine whether the fracking activity was to blame, and the results have now been published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/study-confirms-series-small-earthquakes-ohio-were-triggered-fracking

[Spurminator]

Reports of up to 6 earthquakes today alone near Irving TX, felt in many places around DFW.

[TDMVPDPOY]

lol why are they continue to frack,

when global prices has drop significantly due to sanctions on russia and Saudis continue to pump more oil when demand is low keeping prices down due to oversupply...

why doesnt america just go liberate and turn saudi arabia into a 53rd state...

[boutons_deux]

Energy Crash - 97% of Fracking Now Operating at a Loss at Current Oil Prices

West Texas Intermediate reached a 2014 peak of $107.73 in June before dropping as low as $49.77 today on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The grade settled at $50.04 a barrel.

That’s below the break-even price for 37 of 38 U.S. shale oilfields, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/97-fracking-now-operating-loss-current-oil-prices

Remember dickhead saying Iraq was a "sweet spot" (his BigOil target) where oil was sweet and cheap to produce, cheap only for him and his co-criminals, since 5000+ dead US military and $3T wasted are off his accounting books.

[boutons_deux]

this is from 3 months ago

Toxic Mix Blows up: Oil Price Collapse & Junk Bond Insanity

Whatever the reasons for the market chaos, we already know what it has accomplished in the US: Investors who were long when they sleepwalked into this new era that started in late June have had their heads handed to them. WTI gave up 21% in less than four months. Over the same period, the SPDR Oil & Gas Equipment & Services Fund (XES), a basket of the largest oil- and gas-related stocks, plummeted 33%. Shares of smaller oil and gas companies have gotten demolished.

Reason for this mayhem: the toxic mix of high debt and plunging oil price.

The oil and gas sector is capital intensive. Drillers have borrowed phenomenal amounts of money, which was nearly free and grew on trees, to acquire leases and drill wells and install processing equipment and infrastructure. Even as debt was piling up, the terrific decline rates of fracked wells forced drillers to drill new wells just to keep up with dropping production from old wells, and drill even more wells to show some kind of growth. One heck of a treadmill. Funded in part by junk bonds [read… Where Money Goes to Die: How Fracking Blows Up Balance Sheets of Oil and Gas Companies (http://wolfstreet.com/2014/07/30/how-fracking-is-blowing-up-balance-sheets-of-oil-and-gas-companies/)].

Junk bond issuance has been soaring as the Fed repressed interest rates and caused yield hungry investors to close their eyes and take on risks, any risks, just to get a teeny-weeny bit of extra yield. Demand for junk debt soared and pushed down yields further. And even within this rip-roaring market for junk bonds, according toBloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-14/oil-and-junk-don-t-mix-as-worst-bonds-sink-as-much-as-19-.html), the proportion issued by oil and gas companies jumped from 9.7% at the end of 2007 to 15% now, an all-time record.

While the overall high-yield market is down 2.3% since the end of August, oil and gas junk debt has dropped 4.6%. But it hides the bloodletting beneath the surface.
Samson Investment, an oil and gas explorer headquartered in Tulsa, OK, owned by private equity firm KKR, extracted $2.25 billion of new money from gullible investors in July. In early August, these junk bonds still traded at 103.5 cents on the dollar. Then reality sank in, and that formerly low-risk paper plunged to 77.5 cents on the dollar.
Not just in fracking la-la land. Paragon Offshore, an offshore driller, completed its spinoff from Noble in early August. Its stock started trading at $17.50 a share and immediately plunged and is now down a cool 68% in the first 10 weeks as an independently traded company. In July, it also sold $580 million in 10-year junk bonds to your conservative-sounding bond fund at 100 cents on the dollar. Now they trade for 77.3 cents on the dollar.

Hercules Offshore, a Houston-based drilling company with the appropriate ticker HERO, saw its shares plunge 81% since July last year to $1.47 on Tuesday. In March, it had the temerity to sell – or rather investors had the Fed-induced idiocy to buy – for 100 cents on the dollar $300 million in junk bonds that now trade at 66 cents.

This is what happens at the tail end of a credit bubble. Investors still lust for high-risk debt because it offers a little more yield in the era of ZIRP, but that yield did not compensate investors for the risks they were taking on. Companies and Wall Street did what the Fed had wanted them to do: issue junk and push it into retirement portfolios where it can quietly decompose. And bamboozled investors – thinking that the Fed was the greatest thing since sliced bread – took this debt with a desperate grin.

Now that the bottom is falling out, it is getting more expensive for these companies to borrow. Newly awakened investors are demanding to be compensated at least a little for the risk, and that risk has now been exacerbated by the collapse of the price of oil. That’s the toxic mix.

If the money stops growing on trees, the jig is up for many of these over-indebted companies, and the American fracking boom may well do what other oil booms have done before, and what OPEC would like it to do: grind to a halt. And investors who’ve done what the Fed had wanted them to do – take on risks with their eyes closed – would lose their oil-stained shirts.

The broader market has, let’s say, some issues: “Too many poorly understood structural changes have created unstable markets. Now comes the dismount.” Read… Why the Market Swoon May Become “Disorderly on a scale not seen since the crash of 1987 (http://wolfstreet.com/2014/10/14/market-swoon-may-become-disorderly-on-a-scale-not-seen-since-1987/)”


http://wolfstreet.com/2014/10/15/toxic-mix-for-fracking-oil-price-collapse-junk-bond-insanity/

=============

from July:

How Fracking Is Blowing Up Balance Sheets of Oil and Gas Companies (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/07/fracking-blowing-up-balance-sheets-old-companies.html)

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/07/fracking-blowing-up-balance-sheets-old-companies.html

And surely all these junk bonds are in play in the Wall St derivatives, collateralized debt obligations, etc, etc. Will we have Sep 2008 all over again?

[boutons_deux]

Crude price slump exposing oil field risk takers (http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/01/08/crude-price-slump-exposing-oil-field-risk-takers/)

Dangerous and difficult oil fields that looked like goldmines when crude fetched more than $100 a barrel have turned into money pits as oil crashes to multiyear lows.

Collapsing oil prices not only shrink profits for producers and imperil dividend payouts prized by investors, they can cripple a company’s future growth by starving it of cash needed to find, drill, assess and equip discoveries. A spending halt in deep-water fields and Canada’s oil sands could disrupt the chain of new projects needed to keep the world supplied as older wells dry up.

For the biggest explorers, the impacts of slumping prices are dramatic. Every $10 price drop erases $2.8 billion in annual cash flow for Exxon Mobil Corp., according to analysts at Barclays Plc. For Chevron Corp., which is more crude-dependent than its bigger rival, a $10 change translates to $3.85 billion in cash flow.

“Because of their long lead times, once canceled or postponed, oil sands and deep-water projects cannot be brought online at short notice in response to rising prices,” Chief Executive Officer Andrew Hall said in a Jan. 2 communique to investors in his Astenbeck Capital Management commodity funds. “This sets up the potential — if not the inevitability — for supply shortfalls in the future.”

Budget Cuts

Energy explorers who committed to hundreds of billions of dollars in oil projects from Brazil to Scotland to Oklahoma during the past five years now are working to trim costs and delay contracts. Crude’s tumble to less than $50 a barrel, the lowest prices since 2009, is prompting budget cuts and layoffs from the rig floor to the steel mills that make piping for wells.

Explorers are expected to cut spending by 17 percent this year to $571 billion, James Crandell, a Cowen and Co. analyst, said in a note today to clients. Crandell, who has been tracking oil-industry capital spending since 1982, said the estimate assumes an average crude price of $70 a barrel. If prices turn out to be lower, spending will decline more, he said.

An oil-market rebound that would bail out the most ambitious and expensive ventures seems increasingly unlikely. Worldwide demand growth is faltering, worsening a U.S. supply glut that hasn’t been this big at this time of year in three decades. The excess — a result of the unprecedented production boom in U.S. shale rock formations — may take “months or years” to be absorbed, said United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei.

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/01/08/crude-price-slump-exposing-oil-field-risk-takers/

Also has slide show of the history of oil booms/busts, with of course TX included

[TDMVPDPOY]

the purpose of fracking was to drive down price

lol opec can also play that game...

[boutons_deux]

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Shale-gas-companies-leverage.jpg

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/01/how-the-republican-campaign-to-gut-dodd-frank-is-a-huge-gimmie.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capi talism%29

[boutons_deux]

the purpose of fracking was to drive down price

:lol the purpose of fracking is to obtain product and sell it at the highest possible price

[CosmicCowboy]

the purpose of fracking was to drive down price

lol opec can also play that game...

Not really true. The purpose of fracking was to be able to produce O&G from shale that couldn't be exploited in the past. It's not cheap or easy.

[dbestpro]

Fracking is as much abut natural gas it is oil. Don't want to argue for or against, but just talking about oil doesn't encompass the whole discussion.

[CosmicCowboy]

The only thing that kept the eagle ford going was the wet wells on the northern section. Natural gas prices have been so low they were capping dry (gas) wells because it wasn't worth building pipelines.

[boutons_deux]

Wall St. Slumps After Goldman Cuts Oil Forecast

GOLDMAN’S OIL DOWNGRADE In a wide-ranging note to clients assessing the recent plunge in oil markets, Goldman Sachs slashed its price forecasts for the next two years.

It said the benchmark New York rate would average $50.40 a barrel this year, way down on its previous forecast of $83.75.

It also cut its Brent forecast to $70 a barrel from $90.

In response, oil prices fell further, with the New York rate down $1.72 at $46.66 a barrel, while Brent crude slid to $48.62.

Energy stocks fell.

Chevron dropped 2 percent, the most of the 30 stocks in the Dow.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/13/business/daily-stock-market-activity.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[boutons_deux]

As Oil Prices Fall, Banks Serving the Energy Industry Brace for a Jolt

Banks have been lending hand over fist to companies in the nation’s energy industry, underwriting bonds, advising on mergers, even financing the building of homes for oil workers. All of this has provided a boon to banks that have been struggling to find more companies and consumers wanting to borrow.

Yet with the price of crude oil falling below levels sufficient for some energy companies to service their huge debts, strains are being felt and defaults are likely. While it may take some time for the crunch in the oil industry to translate into losses, one thing already seems clear: The energy banking boom is over.

“At the least, you are talking about a slowdown in loan growth for the banks in the energy-producing states,” said Charles Peabody, a banking specialist at Portales Partners. “That, we feel pretty strongly about.”

And Wall Street firms that financed energy deals may now have trouble offloading some of the debt, as they had originally planned.

Morgan Stanley (http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=MS&inline=nyt-org), for instance, led a group of banks that made $850 million of loans to Vine Oil and Gas, an affiliate of Blackstone, a private equity (http://dealbook.nytimes.com/category/main-topics/private-equity/?inline=nyt-classifier) firm. Morgan Stanley is still trying to sell the debt, according to a person briefed on the transaction. Similarly, Goldman Sachs (http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=GS&inline=nyt-org) and UBS (http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=OUBS&inline=nyt-org) led a $220 million loan last year to the private equity firm Apollo Global Management to buy Express Energy Services. Not all the debt has been sold to other investors, according to people briefed on the transaction.

A precipitous drop in oil prices can quickly turn loans that once seemed safe and conservatively underwritten into risky assets.

The collateral underpinning many energy loans, for example, is oil that was valued at $80 a barrel at the time the loans were made. As oil has dropped well below that price in recent months, the value of the banks’ collateral has sunk.

When oil prices crashed in the 1980s, many Texas banks failed not because of loans to oil producers, but because of loans to local real estate developers who had been caught in the energy bust.

“Some marginal producers will get challenged in this, but this is not something new to them,” he said last month. “Cycles like this happen, so industry will be able to work through this.”

Investors in the junk bond market — of which energy companies account for an estimated 18 percent, according to JPMorgan Chase (http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=JPM&inline=nyt-org) — are not so optimistic.

Junk bonds issued by energy companies are signaling a jarring jump in the number of defaults in the coming months. Martin S. Fridson, chief investment officer at Lehmann Livian Fridson Advisors, said the yields on energy junk bonds appeared to be predicting that 6 percent of the bonds would default this year, and even more in 2016.

“As far as the high-yield market is concerned, the energy sector is in a recession,”

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dealbook/2015/01/11/as-oil-prices-fall-banks-serving-the-energy-industry-brace-for-a-jolt/

[boutons_deux]

Natural gas: The fracking fallacy

The United States is banking on decades of abundant natural gas to power its economic resurgence. That may be wishful thinking.

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.22047.1417195995!/image/nature_fracking_projections_chartV2_04.12.14.png_g en/derivatives/landscape_630/nature_fracking_projections_chartV2_04.12.14.png

http://www.nature.com/news/natural-gas-the-fracking-fallacy-1.16430

[CosmicCowboy]

The gas is there dumbass. Natural gas does not always move in lockstep with oil. There will always be a price for natural gas that balances supply and demand.

[boutons_deux]

The gas is there dumbass. Natural gas does not always move in lockstep with oil. There will always be a price for natural gas that balances supply and demand.

100 years of NG? when will it peak? how many 1000s of fast-depleting gas wells to keep it flowing? Red Queen Rules!

[boutons_deux]

Schlumberger To Layoff 9,000, As Crude Prices Fall

Although Q4 revene rose 6% to $12.5 billion and operating income by 7% to $1.9 billion, the company believe the situation has deteriorated

“The strength of these results demonstrated the resiliency of our business portfolio in the face of activity challenges in 2014 in Brazil, Mexico, and China; reduced spending in deepwater (http://247wallst.com/energy-business/2015/01/16/schlumberger-to-layoff-9000-as-crude-prices-fall/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall +St.%29#), exploration and seismic activity; unrest in Libya and Iraq; international sanctions in Russia; and the accelerating fall in the price of oil toward the end of the year. The combination of these headwinds reduced revenue growth by more than $1 billion, or 2%, yet revenue (http://247wallst.com/energy-business/2015/01/16/schlumberger-to-layoff-9000-as-crude-prices-fall/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall +St.%29#) still increased 7% as a result of strong tailwinds in Argentina, Ecuador, Sub-Saharan Africa, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and North America that combined with market share gains, drove overall performance.


Unfortunately for the workers the company will use some of the savings elsewhere, as money will go to dividends which the company increased by 25%

http://247wallst.com/energy-business/2015/01/16/schlumberger-to-layoff-9000-as-crude-prices-fall/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall +St.%29

So the salaries of employees get REDISTRIBUTED upward to capitalists (of course that includes Schlumberger top mgmt). :lol

[boutons_deux]

So Where Did All the Energy Debt Go? (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/01/energy-debt-go.html)


A big puzzle, as oil prices have plunged and look unlikely to return to their former levels, is who is holding energy-related debt, particularly give the high level of issuance in 2014. Yet it is troublingly difficult to get hard information, a situation troublingly similar to the mortgage backed securities and CDO markets in 2008.

One issue under discussion is the energy debt concentration in CLOs. That has come into focus due to the amounts on bank balance sheets (numerous reports on Twitter indicate that the market froze last July) and that one of the provisions of Dodd-Frank gutting HR 37 that is now moving through Congress is to delay for two years a stipulation that would banks to sell most collateralized loan obligations held on their balance sheets (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/01/how-the-republican-campaign-to-gut-dodd-frank-is-a-huge-gimmie.html). The reason for wanting CLOs out of banks is that they are actively traded vehicles, effectively mini hedge funds.

The reason for concern is the recent plunge in energy-related debt prices and their questionable prospects, and where that debt is sitting.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/oil-gas-borrowing-costs.jpeg


When the subprime mortgage market shut down, banks wound up eating a lot of their cooking. If that has happened again, it could show up not only in CLOs but in other assets and exposures. And if not the banks, then who were the bagholders?

High yield energy new issuance has doubled since 2008. It constitutes 16-20% of new issuance since 2011
.
JP Morgan’s projected default rates for US high yield energy: at $65 oil, 3.9% in 2015 and 20.5% in 2016. At $75 oil, 3.9% and 4.8%.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/01/energy-debt-go.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capi talism%29

[dbestpro]

Over a period of time, the decreased energy prices should cause an increase in manufacturing and durable good purchases, which in turn will increase demand which then will stabilize energy prices. What is happening is not more than the expected mechanism of upping the ante of the U.S. as a more aggressive energy player, which will have the net effect of reducing the energy influence or their percentage of the economic pie, and provide some leverage with oil producing nations.

The next logical step (open to debate) is the liquefaction of natural gas for sale overseas. Yes, this would cause domestic prices to increase, but would also create a stronger market for the product. Fracking is not without its faults, but I wonder where we would be in regards to our economy without it.

[boutons_deux]

Producers are pushing hard for crude exports, saying production will exceed refining capacity (leaving it in the ground as a "gift from God to His favorite country) for eventual domestic consumption conflicts with corporate/investor demand for PROFITS NOW, not later), while refiners say "no problem, bring it on". Somebody's lying.

Effect of Increased Levels of Liquefied Natural Gas Exports on U.S. Energy Marketshttp://www.eia.gov/analysis/requests/fe/

[boutons_deux]

Al Jazeera Exposes Deadly Working Conditions for Bakken Oil Workers

The explosion in drilling for oil (http://ecowatch.com/news/energy-news/) on the Bakken Shale (http://ecowatch.com/news/energy-news/fracking-2/) in North Dakota has been seen by many as a threat to the environment and the safety of oil workers. There have been concerns over radioactive waste contaminating local water (http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/11/radioactive-bakken-oil-waste-concerns-water-contamination/), oil spills (http://ecowatch.com/2013/10/14/greenpeace-photos-north-dakota-pipeline-oil-spill/), crude by rail fiery explosions (http://ecowatch.com/2013/12/31/fiery-oil-train-crash-north-dakota/) and evensex trafficking (http://ecowatch.com/2014/02/02/fracking-prostitution-organized-crime-bakken-shale/). Now, Al Jazeera America is looking into how North Dakota became the number one state for worker fatalities.

Many workers are very inexperienced and not properly trained before engaging in high-risk activities. Bill Wuolu, training director for the nonprofit North Dakota Safety Council (http://www.ndsc.org/default.aspx), says (http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/05/10/north-dakota-worker-deaths/2149691/) “what we’re getting is workers that are doing jobs that they’re not trained, skilled or maybe even qualified for.”

Josh Rushing, the Al Jazeera correspondent who worked with a team to produce the program,says (http://www.midwestenergynews.com/2015/01/09/documentary-highlights-dangers-for-bakken-oil-field-workers/) there are two main reasons the state is facing a worker crisis:

“Carelessness among the companies operating in North Dakota’s shale region,” and

“a state government that is failing to protect workers in hazardous occupations and that is beholden, financially, to the industries it is supposed to regulate.”

“Workers and their survivors have little recourse because the state of North Dakota generally prohibits workers from suing their employers for negligence,” said (http://www.midwestenergynews.com/2015/01/09/documentary-highlights-dangers-for-bakken-oil-field-workers/) Rushing.

With so many of the workers from out of state, it’s hard to have accountability because the state government “has no political responsibility” to all of these out-of-staters, according to Rushing..

Governor Jack Dalrymple is the effective head of the worker’s compensation system and the Public Service Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry. :lol

Rushing believes that “the oil industry’s generous contributions to Dalrymple’s campaigns” is the reason why the governor is failing to address the worker crisis.

Dalrymple is not too alarmed by the statistics.

In a statement to Al Jazeera America, he said (http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/fault-lines/FaultLinesBlog/2015/1/12/north-dakota-governorsofficerespondstodeathonthebakkenshale.htm l)“We believe we have an effective strategy whereby we focus on employee and worker education, safety training and incentives to operate safe work places. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) plays a critical role by enforcing federal safety laws, and OSHA officials have said they may add additional resources in North Dakota if they see the need.”

http://ecowatch.com/2015/01/12/death-on-the-bakken-shale/?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=006593a7a1-Top_News_1_19_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-006593a7a1-85879165

Sounds like ND is another red state as corrupt to the core as TX

[boutons_deux]

Nearly 3 Million Gallons of Saltwater Leak into North Dakota Creek

Nearly 3 million gallons of saltwater and an unknown quantity of crude oil have leaked from a North Dakota pipeline into a creek that feeds the Missouri River, by far the largest spill of its kind in the state's history, officials said.

The leak, from a saltwater collection line owned by Summit Midstream Partners LP approximately 15 miles north of Williston, occurred sometime earlier this month and was reported to state officials on Jan. 7.

The leak does not pose a threat to drinking water supplies, the North Dakota Department of Health said in a statement released late Wednesday.

Saltwater is a byproduct of the hydraulic fracturing process. Typically it is filtered and re-injected back into the earth after oil is extracted.

The saltwater leaked into a creek that passes by Williston, considered the capital of the state's oil boom, and flows into the Missouri River. Williston's drinking water comes from the Missouri River, though the city's water department has the ability to turn off collection valves until any harmful material washes downstream.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nearly-3-million-gallons-of-saltwater-leak-into-north-dakota-creek/

[boutons_deux]

Federal Court Order: Explosive DOT-111 "Bomb Train" Oil Tank Cars Can Continue to Roll

A U.S. federal court has ordered a halt (http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/DOT-111%20Case%20Pushed%20Back%20%27til%20May.pdf) in proceedings until May in a case centering around oil-by-rail (http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/14206) tankers pitting the Sierra Club and ForestEthics against the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). As a result, potentially explosive DOT-111 oil tank cars, dubbed “bomb trains” by activists, can continue to roll through towns and cities across the U.S.indefinitely.

“The briefing schedule previously established by the court is vacated,” wrote Chris Goelz, a mediator for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. “This appeal is stayed until May 12, 2015, or pending publication in the Federal Register of the final tank car standards and phase out of DOT-111 tank cars, whichever occurs first.”

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/01/24/federal-court-order-explosive-dot-111-bomb-train-oil-tank-cars-can-continue-roll

a huge economic stimulus, manufacturing stimulus, and JOB CREATOR would be a "general mobilization" to build the entire fleet of new tanker cars (plus the business of scrapping the old ones), and make US/CA BigOil pay for all of it.

[boutons_deux]

CAP Analysis Shows High Levels of Liquefied Natural Gas Exports Could Hurt Consumers

CAP analyzed the EIA data to better understand the potential cost impacts for residential, commercial, and industrial natural gas consumers in different parts of the country. CAP looked at the EIA scenarios in which the U.S. Department of Energy approves export levels of 16 Bcf/d or 20 Bcf/d of LNG and found:

Residential, commercial, and industrial consumers could spend at least $7 billion more on their natural gas bills per year by 2020 and up to $14 billion more per year by 2040 under high levels of LNG exports.

By 2020, natural gas consumers in the West South Central states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas could see the largest percentage increase in their natural gas bills.

By 2040, natural gas consumers in the Middle Atlantic and New England states could face the largest percentage increase in the their natural gas bills.

https://www.americanprogress.org/press/release/2015/01/27/105421/release-cap-analysis-shows-high-levels-of-liquefied-natural-gas-exports-could-hurt-consumers/

duh!

[boutons_deux]

North Dakota Faces Massive Budget Shortfall from Lower Crude Prices

The new forecast cuts about $762 million from the state’s budget for the rest of the fiscal year ending in June 2015 and slices $4.05 billion from the two-year biennium from July 2015 to June 2017. Even with the cuts the state is still expected to collect $4.3 billion in oil and gas taxes in the new biennium.

Royalty payments to landowners will cut individual income tax (http://247wallst.com/energy-economy/2015/02/01/north-dakota-faces-massive-budget-shortfall-from-lower-crude-prices/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall +St.%29#) collections by $30 million in the current fiscal year and by $139 million of the 2015-2017 biennium. Corporate income tax collections will drop by $13 million this year and by $58 million in the next biennium.

North Dakota Faces Massive Budget Shortfall from Lower Crude Prices - 24/7 Wall St. (http://247wallst.com/energy-economy/2015/02/01/north-dakota-faces-massive-budget-shortfall-from-lower-crude-prices/#ixzz3QXlZ1gCM) http://247wallst.com/energy-economy/2015/02/01/north-dakota-faces-massive-budget-shortfall-from-lower-crude-prices/#ixzz3QXlZ1gCM

[Winehole23]

The US shale oil industry is also suffering. This graph below from industry analysts Baker Hughes shows the dramatic fall in the number of rigs operating in the US shale industry.


http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/shale-rigs-590x247.png (http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/shale-rigs.png)
In just three months, the rig count has fallen by 24 per cent, or 389 from the all-time high of 1,609 recorded for the week of 10 October last year. As Mark Lewis, from Paris-based analysts Kepler Chevreux notes: “In all of the historical Baker Hughes data stretching back to July, 1987, there is no precedent for a drop of this speed or severity.”


So, what does this mean?


Lewis notes that the US rig count is a leading indicator of US supply (the more rigs there are, the more supply there will be). For this reason, it is probably the most closely watched single indicator in world oil markets at the moment, as it offers the best guide to what will happen with US shale-oil supply in the months ahead.


That matters because it is the US shale industry that has been the fundamental driver of global crude-oil supply in the last five years, and without the huge surge in shale oil since 2009 global crude-oil output would actually have been lower in 2014 than it was in 2005. This is the very supply that the Saudis and other OPEC members have been targeting.


What the sudden drop in rig count suggests, Lewis says, is that the market is starting to re-appraise the shale-oil model, derided by some as some sort of giant “Ponzi” scheme, because of its reliance on capital recycling and new drilling to replace the wells that exhaust themselves within a year or two.


The significance of this is that predictions of the shale bubble may now come true. As David Hughes, the the Post Carbon Institute, wrote in his analysis “Drill, Baby, Drill”, there were always questions about how sustainable the shale revolution was going to be.


“First, shale gas and shale oil wells have proven to deplete quickly, the best fields have already been tapped, and no major new field discoveries are expected,” he wrote in 2013.


“Thus with average per-well productivity declining and ever-more wells (and fields) required simply to maintain production, an “exploration treadmill” limits the long-term potential of shale resources.”

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/graph-of-the-day-collapse-of-us-shale-gas-industry-76188

[Winehole23]

liberal green-washing at Baker-Hughes?


“At best, shale gas, tight oil, tar sands, and other unconventional resources provide a temporary reprieve from having to deal with the real problems: fossil fuels are finite, and production of new fossil fuel resources tends to be increasingly expensive and environmentally damaging.

“Fossil fuels are the foundation of our modern global economy, but continued reliance on them creates increasing risks for society that transcend our economic, environmental, and geopolitical challenges. The best responses to this conundrum will entail a rethink of our current energy trajectory.”

[boutons_deux]

Slump in Oil Prices Brings Pressure, and Investment Opportunity

American history is littered with oil busts that created big winners and losers.

Now, as the cracks appear in the latest energy boom, the forces of failure and opportunity are stirring again. Resolute Energy, a Colorado company that borrowed big in the boom, is among those in an endgame that is being played up and down Wall Street and in the vast oil fields that new drilling methods have opened in recent years.

It is a struggle that could take place at scores of other companies, leading to thousands of layoffs, as well as losses for banks and investors. At the same time, new fortunes stand to be made.
When Resolute set out three years ago to buy thousands of acres in the oil patch of West Texas, lenders showered the company with hundreds of millions of dollars. But the company had little expertise in the costly and complicated horizontal drilling that it employed on its new property.

Such easy money has abruptly come to an end, mostly because oil prices have plunged (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/13/business/energy-environment/oil-prices.html?_r=0), potentially making life much harder for companies like Resolute. Banks slashed the size of the company’s credit line late last year and imposed new lending conditions. Its stock has ​plummeted, and now trades for mere pennies.

The sudden drop in oil prices, incited by fears of a global supply glut and waning demand, caught the oil industry and its lenders by surprise. Many companies, which only a few months ago were the toast of the high-yield debt and initial public offering markets, suddenly cannot raise additional equity or sell bonds. A few lenders have started reining in bank lines and more are expected to tighten loan terms in the coming months.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dealbook/2015/02/02/slump-in-oil-prices-brings-pressure-and-investment-opportunity/

[boutons_deux]

liberal green-washing at Baker-Hughes?

won't hear that from BigOil or API

[boutons_deux]

Oil companies are dumping waste into California’s remaining drinkable water sources

Drillers are threatening the drought-plagued state's water -- and state officials are letting it happen

California has a drinking water problem on top of its drinking water problem. Oil companies, with the permission of state officials, have been injecting their wastewater into clean aquifers, according to a damning new report (http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/State-let-oil-companies-taint-drinkable-water-in-6054242.php). The practice goes back decades, and is now threatening water quality at a time when the drought-plagued state needs every drop it can get.

The San Francisco Chronicle (http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/State-let-oil-companies-taint-drinkable-water-in-6054242.php) broke down state data stretching back to 1983, when the EPA first handed over responsibility for enforcing regulations to California’s oil field regulators. While state officials say there’s no indication yet that they contaminated drinking water wells, the Chronicle counted 464 wells that injected wastewater into aquifers that should have been protected under state law and the federal Safe Drinking Water Act:

To gauge water quality in a river, lake or aquifer, researchers often start with the water’s total dissolved solids — salts and other materials in the liquid. High counts don’t necessarily make water harmful to drink, but they can cloud it and give it a salty or bitter taste.

In general, anything below 500 parts per million requires no treatment and is considered high quality. Water from San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy system, piped straight from the Sierra, averages 71. State water officials want to prevent contamination of any aquifers that are below 3,000.

And yet, the oil industry drilled 171 injection wells into aquifers with counts of 3,000 parts per million or less, according to state data. Companies also received permits to drill five wells into aquifers of the same quality, but for those wells there is no record of injections.

Another 253 injection wells went into saltier but potentially usable aquifers that the EPA considers protected. Companies received permits for an additional 26 wells of the same quality.
Finally, companies drilled 40 injection wells into aquifers for which there is no water-quality data.

A total dissolved-solids count above 1,000 may require treatment before use, either by blending it with fresher water or putting it through reverse osmosis, the process used in seawater desalination plants. But it is usable, for crops or people.


Unless they can come up with a plan for how to deal with this by February, the EPA said, the federal government intends take control back from the state. “If there are wells having a direct impact on drinking water, we need to shut them down now,” Jared Blumenfeld (http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=business&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Jared+Blumenfeld%22), the regional adminstrator for the EPA, told the Chronicle. “Safe drinking water is only going to become more in demand.”

http://www.salon.com/2015/02/03/oil_companies_are_dumping_waste_into_californias_r emaining_drinkable_water_sources/

[Spurminator]

won't hear that from BigOil or API

Baker-Hughes is Big Oil, bra.

[boutons_deux]

Baker-Hughes is Big Oil, bra.

oil field service company ain't BigOil

[Spurminator]

:lol okay. And lumber and steel are not part of the construction industry.

[Th'Pusher]

Generally speaking Big Oil refers to the supermajors.

[Spurminator]

Generally speaking Big Oil refers to the supermajors.

Seems you're right.

I've always considered "Big ____" to refer to the entire industry and any business that primarily functions within that industry.

[Winehole23]

tangential:


Saudi Arabia and Russia have had numerous discussions over the past several months that have yet to produce a significant breakthrough, according to American and Saudi officials. It is unclear how explicitly Saudi officials have linked oil to the issue of Syria during the talks, but Saudi officials say — and they have told the United States — that they think they have some leverage over Mr. Putin because of their ability to reduce the supply of oil and possibly drive up prices.



“If oil can serve to bring peace in Syria, I don’t see how Saudi Arabia would back away from trying to reach a deal,” a Saudi diplomat said. An array of diplomatic, intelligence and political officials from the United States and the Middle East spoke on the condition of anonymity to adhere to protocols of diplomacy.http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-is-said-to-use-oil-to-lure-russia-away-from-syrias-assad.html?_r=0

[boutons_deux]

"oil can serve to bring peace in Syria"

.... what he really means as Saudi policy: Assad gone, replaced by ... ?

[boutons_deux]

npr program, transcript not available, yet

Hard To Clean Up Wastewater Spills From Oil Wells Into N.D. Stream

http://www.npr.org/2015/02/04/383724502/hard-to-clean-up-wastewater-spills-from-oil-wells-into-n-d-stream


Nearly 3 Million Gallons of Drilling Wastewater Spewed From ND Pipeline

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/01/22/nearly-3-million-gallons-drilling-wastewater-spewed-nd-pipeline

that shit is 10+ times as salty as sea water.

thanks, BigOil!

[Winehole23]

Seems you're right.

I've always considered "Big ____" to refer to the entire industry and any business that primarily functions within that industry.pride of place? you bet your boots.

but I see your point, it's not like Baker-Hughes is a bit player in the biz or something like that. maybe it makes more sense to say "oil and gas" or "energy sector" or the like, instead of BIG OIL, like boutons.

I once tried "mineral extraction" as a catchall and was tut-tutted for it.

[boutons_deux]

LNG:

Even if prices do begin to recover, the tide may have already come out on liquefied natural gas projects in North America (http://www.csmonitor.com/csmlists/topic/North+America), East Africa (http://www.csmonitor.com/csmlists/topic/East+Africa), Russia (http://www.csmonitor.com/csmlists/topic/Russia) and elsewhere across the globe.

BG Group, one of the world’s major LNG firms, wrote down billions in assets last week (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-04/australian-lng-writedowns-loom-on-oil-slump-after-bg-posts-loss) as low prices undermined the economic viability of capital-intensive export projects.

For years there’s been growing interest in LNG exports as a way for producers to connect with high-priced Asian markets.

But as prices collapse, the so-called Asian premium isn’t so premium anymore (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/as-oil-prices-fall-lng-companies-want-write-off-boost-for-canadian-projects/article22824415/).

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2015/0209/Why-oil-markets-have-become-so-volatile-Recharge

[CosmicCowboy]

I'm not sold that LNG plants are dead. Yeah, those of us that follow the market ( i have a substantial amount of money invested in a blue sky NG terminal stock) we have always known the Asian premium was going to normalize but as everyone converts from coal to natural gas the gas has to come from somewhere. The LNG plants are processors, not commodity brokers. They are paid a fee to convert gas to a liquid and back from a liquid to a gas. Their fee is the same whether NG is $2 per MCF or $10 per MCF.

[boutons_deux]

But even long term, the rig count drop is misleading. Drillers cut out the oldest most inefficient rigs, and they stopped drilling in the most inefficient and expensive plays (wells that produce a lot of water, for example). They’re cutting the least productive wells and the worst equipment, but they are maximizing their most productive wells and the best equipment. I don’t know what the net difference might be, but it’s not equal to the total number of rigs that they idled…

Wall Street is already pumping up prices for next year. In 2016, a lot of junk-rated drillers are going to run out of liquidity. At the current oil prices or below, they’re unlikely to obtain more funding at reasonable terms. Vultures will be moving in with senior secured debt at extortionary rates and tight terms to where they get most of the company when it defaults and restructures. This will hurt banks, investment banks, PE firms, etc. So they WANT oil prices to go up, after a big tradable crash to end no later than in Q3.

That’s my interpretation.

The entire industry, the IEA, EIA, the Russians, everyone in the game wants prices to go up. So they’re talking them up. But if prices go up and drilling restarts in full, now with a focus on efficiency, it’s going to be a much bigger mess shortly thereafter than what we have now.

I don’t know where prices might go, but I doubt all those industry voices that claim that prices will soon go back to a “sustainable” level. That’s not how real oil busts get worked out. Last time, 700 banks failed, real estate in the oil patch crashed, restaurants closed, young people left because there were no jobs, terrible things happened…. And I haven’t seen any of it so far.

Because the fundamentals are still terrible. Oil production in the US is still rising, despite drillers shutting down drilling activities at a record pace. Drilling fewer new wells is hurting oil field services companies, and the pain is fanning out across the oil patch and beyond. It hit private equity firms, it sank energy junk bonds, it triggered layoffs, but it isn’t curtailing oil production. Not yet.

So the US remains by far the largest contributor to “global oil supply growth,” the US Energy Information Administration just pointed out (http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=19911), with production in 2014 jumping by 1.59 million barrels a day. By comparison: in Iraq, the second largest contributor to global oil supply growth, production edged up by 0.33 million barrels a day.

And…

“Brazil and Russia are pumping oil at record levels, and Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran have been fighting to maintain their market share by cutting prices to Asia,” explained the Citi report, cited by Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-09/citi-oil-could-plunge-to-20-and-this-might-be-the-end-of-opec-). “The market is oversupplied, and storage tanks are topping out.”

Production will continue to rise, despite plunging drilling activity, and won’t slow down until the third quarter this year. As the oil glut is growing, it wreaks havoc on the price of oil, potentially pushing it, according to the report, into the neighborhood of $20 a barrel – “for a while.”

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/02/wall-street-has-a-dream-about-the-price-of-oil.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capi talism%29

[boutons_deux]

K.K.R. Profit Falls 89% on Turmoil in Energy Sector

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts said on Tuesday that its fourth-quarter profit fell 89 percent, hurt by turmoil in the energy sector.

K.K.R., the private equity giant, said its economic net income — a profit measure that includes unrealized gains or losses — was $86.6 million in the fourth quarter, compared with $789.6 million in the period a year earlier. The earnings amounted to 5 cents a share after taxes, significantly short of the 45 cents a share expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

The disappointing results reflected heavy losses from K.K.R.’s investments in the oil and gas business. One energy company in its portfolio, Samson Resources, which it acquired with other investors (http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/k-k-r-led-group-to-buy-samson-partners-for-7-2-billion/) for $7.2 billion in 2011, was wounded by factors including falling natural gas prices and a large amount of debt.
K.K.R. said the losses in its portfolio of privately held energy investments were largely unrealized because it had not yet sold the investments. But such losses are an important factor in calculating a private equity firm’s profit.

In its overall portfolio of private investments, K.K.R. said economic net income fell 88 percent, to $76.8 million, compared with results in the period a year earlier.

The firm’s portfolio of public investments also proved troublesome, showing a loss. That segment reported an economic net loss of $11.4 million for the quarter, compared with economic net income $111.2 million in the quarter a year earlier. K.K.R. said the cause was unrealized losses in certain credit investments.

Some of K.K.R.’s rivals have also suffered losses in energy, especially as oil prices collapsed in the second half of last year. Apollo Global Management said last week (http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/profit-at-private-equity-firm-apollo-falls-sharply-on-energy-industry-turmoil/)that its fourth-quarter profit fell 79 percent, harmed by investments like the oil and gas company EP Energy.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dealbook/2015/02/10/k-k-r-profit-falls-89-on-turmoil-in-energy-sector/

[boutons_deux]

Apache Takes $5.2 Billion in Charges, Slashes Rig Counts


http://247wallst.com/energy-business/2015/02/12/apache-takes-5-2-billion-in-charges-slashes-rig-counts/

the boom is really busting

[boutons_deux]

The Chilling Thing Devon Energy Just Said About the US Oil Glut (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/02/wolf-richter-chilling-thing-devon-energy-just-said-us-oil-glut.html)


With total operating revenues of nearly $6 billion in the fourth quarter 2014, Devon isn’t the largest oil company out there, but it’s one of the larger players in the US shale revolution.

It reported Q4 results on Tuesday evening. According to its own measure of “core earnings,” it made $343 million. According to GAAP, it lost $408 million, after writing off “asset impairments” of $1.95 billion “related to the recent drop in oil prices.”

Stuff happens when the price of oil plunges.

But production soared – and will continue to soar.

In other words, it would spend less, it would use fewer rigs, but it would spend more efficiently – and produce more oil.

Oil – not natural gas. The price of natural gas has been a fiasco for years, and Devon has been moving away from it by selling assets and focusing its resources on oil-rich plays. Hence, natural gas production has actually edged down over the last three quarters even on a retained assets basis.

Other drillers are doing the same. Innovation, design improvements, efficiencies, and a relentless focus on the most productive plays will see to it that production continues to rise, despite the plunging rig count, despite the evaporating capital expenditures, despite the layoffs.

They will lose money. They have a lot of debt because the fracking boom was funded by debt. To stay alive, they must meet their interest costs.

But if they slow down drilling, and production tapers off in line with the steep decline rates of fracked wells, their interest costs might eat up 50% or more of their shrinking operating profits, and the risk of default would soar – turning off the money-spigot entirely. Default might be next.

This is the brutal irony:

drillers are hoping that rising production achieved with greater efficiencies allows them to meet their interest costs; but rising production pressures the price of oil to a level that may not be survivable long-term for many of them.

They can lose money, burn through cash, and keep themselves above water through asset sales for only so long. And this is the terrible fracking treadmill they’ve all gotten on and now can’t get off.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/02/wolf-richter-chilling-thing-devon-energy-just-said-us-oil-glut.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capi talism%29

[boutons_deux]

US Crude Oil Inventory Grows Larger Than Ever

http://247wallst.com/energy-economy/2015/02/19/us-crude-oil-inventory-grows-larger-than-ever/#ixzz3SDIKRn2Z

So SA gas goes from $1.70 to nearly $2? My guess is the speculators are having a ball betting gas prices up and down.

[boutons_deux]

Oklahoma scientists pressured to downplay link between earthquakes and fracking

Oklahoma has been experiencing an earthquake boom in recent years. In 2014, the state had 585 quakes of at least magnitude 3. Up through 2008, it averaged only three quakes of that strength each year. Something odd is happening.

But scientists at the Oklahoma Geological Survey have downplayed a possible connection between increasing fracking in the state and the increasing number of tremors. Even as other states (Ohio, for example (http://grist.org/news/ohio-blames-frackers-for-earthquakes/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=update&utm_campaign=socialflow)) quickly put two and two together and shut down some drilling operations that were to blame, OGS scientists said that more research was needed before their state took similar steps.

Now, though, emails obtained by EnergyWire reporter Mike Soraghan (http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060014342) reveal that the University of Oklahoma and its oil industry funders were putting pressure on OGS scientists to downplay the connection between earthquakes and the injection of fracking wastewater underground. In 2013, a preliminary OGS report noted possible correlation between the two, and OGS signed on to a statement by the U.S. Geological Survey that also noted such linkages.

Soon after, OGS’s seismologist, Austin Holland, was summoned to meetings with the president of the university, where OGS is housed, and with executives of oil company Continental Resources.

Continental CEO Harold Hamm was a major university funder, while the university president David Boren serves on Continental’s board, for which he earned $272,700 in cash and stock in 2013.

http://grist.org/news/oklahoma-scientists-pressured-to-downplay-link-between-earthquakes-and-fracking/?utm_campaign=daily_feed&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

[The Reckoning]

did m>s dieded?

[boutons_deux]

The rush to hoard oil is getting so intense that there's a market forming for oil storage futures contracts

More and more investors and traders are betting on a rebound in oil prices, and many effectively are hoarding oil.

But when you hoard oil, you have to store it somewhere. In fact, spare storage capacity is getting so tight that the cost of storage is surging, sending the oil futures market into super contango (http://www.businessinsider.com/credit-suisse-on-contango-oil-prices-2015-3), which is where the futures contract price is higher than the expected price.

http://www.businessinsider.com/oil-storage-is-americas-hot-new-commodity-2015-3

Oil is piling up (pooling up?), but gas price in SA has jumped from $1.70 to $2.30 in a couple weeks. Supply and demand? :lol

[Slutter McGee]

Oil is piling up (pooling up?), but gas price in SA has jumped from $1.70 to $2.30 in a couple weeks. Supply and demand? :lol

You really should just shut up when it comes to anything to do with economics. This happens every February, it has to do with them changing to a summer blend.

The summer blend is more environmentally friendly.


Boy you are on a fucking roll boutons; you endorsed corporate power in one thread, shit on women in another, and now you hate the environment.

Slutter McGee

[Fabbs]

You really should just shut up when it comes to anything to do with economics. This happens every February, it has to do with them changing to a summer blend.

The summer blend is more environmentally friendly

Slutter McGee
Summer blend is nothing more then a scam to raise prices.
STFU Slutter.

[Slutter McGee]

Summer blend is nothing more then a scam to raise prices.
STFU Slutter.

Yeah dipshit, that isn't how prices work.

Slutter McGee

[Fabbs]

Yeah dipshit, that isn't how prices work.

Slutter McGee
Go rim an oil exec you putz.

[Nbadan]

US Running Out Of Room To Store Oil; Price Collapse Next?
By JONATHAN FAHEY
AP Energy Writer


NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S. has so much crude that it is running out of places to put it, and that could drive oil and gasoline prices even lower in the coming months.

For the past seven weeks, the United States has been producing and importing an average of 1 million more barrels of oil every day than it is consuming. That extra crude is flowing into storage tanks, especially at the country's main trading hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, pushing U.S. supplies to their highest point in at least 80 years, the Energy Department reported last week.

If this keeps up, storage tanks could approach their operational limits, known in the industry as "tank tops," by mid-April and send the price of crude - and probably gasoline, too - plummeting.

"The fact of the matter is we are running out of storage capacity in the U.S.," Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Citibank, said at a recent symposium at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Morse has suggested oil could fall all the way to $20 a barrel from the current $50. At that rock-bottom price, oil companies, faced with mounting losses, would stop pumping oil until the glut eased. Gasoline prices would fall along with crude, though lower refinery production, because of seasonal factors and unexpected outages, could prevent a sharp decline.

more...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OIL_GLUT_FULL_TANKS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-03-03-12-10-09

[TeyshaBlue]

Its called Boom/Bust cycle. This is not new or news even.

[boutons_deux]

You really should just shut up when it comes to anything to do with economics. This happens every February, it has to do with them changing to a summer blend.

The summer blend is more environmentally friendly.


Boy you are on a fucking roll boutons; you endorsed corporate power in one thread, shit on women in another, and now you hate the environment.

Slutter McGee

hey, Slut, was gas at $1.75 with Feb in the last 5 - 10 years? every Feb? :lol

[boutons_deux]

Its called Boom/Bust cycle. This is not new or news even.

I call it market, business, capitalism's fundamental instability. A very heavy dose of regulation, esp in the financial sector, should lessen both the crests and troughs, providing a more predictable, plannable society.

The way the game is rigged now, the crests enrich the 1% most, while the troughs punish the 99% most, same rigging as the financial sector's we take private gain from winning high risk bet, you taxpayers' take losses from us losing the bets.

Gasoline went from $1.70 to $2.20, +30%.

Did the price of oil jump 30%?

Did supply/demand change 30%?

And Slut says a 30% price swing in a few weeks happens every Feb? :lol

[TeyshaBlue]

Refining. Occasionally decouples cost of crude and gasoline. Read up on it.

[TeyshaBlue]

And yes. A price spike happens every spring. Nothing new.

[Fabbs]

Refining. Occasionally decouples cost of crude and gasoline. Read up on it.
Take a break from rimming your oil exec and read up on this.

Internal Memos Show Oil Companies Intentionally Limited Refining Capacity To Drive Up Gasoline Prices
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/newsrelease/internal-memos-show-oil-companies-intentionally-limited-refining-capacity-drive-gasoline

Boosting Big Oil Profits
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/boosting-big-oil-profits/

[TeyshaBlue]

lol 8 and 14 year old links.
Take a break from being a retard and get current.

[boutons_deux]

lol 8 and 14 year old links.
Take a break from being a retard and get current.

BigOil cartel and its financial operations are certainly much more so sophisticated now. TB :lol thinks BigOil is a purely innocent player, NOT rigging the markets.

[boutons_deux]

lol 8 and 14 year old links.
Take a break from being a retard and get current.

BigOil cartel and its financial operations are certainly much more so sophisticated now. TB :lol thinks BigOil is a purely innocent player, NOT rigging the markets.

[boutons_deux]

‘Market Madness: A Century Of Oil Panics, Crises, And Crashes’

Oil not only powers the engines of industry and commerce, it also fuels anxiety, panic, and fear in the market like no other commodity can—and is responsible for some of the biggest economic upheavals of the last century.

In Market Madness: A Century of Oil Panics, Crises, and Crashes, stock analyst Blake C. Clayton tempers the craze surrounding oil exhaustion through a combination of historical investigation and sober, persuasive analysis. His book is a lucid, credible riposte to apocalyptic ravings about “peak oil.” Clayton examines how such panics have persisted through the decades, all unfounded, yet devastating to the market. Market Madness enjoins consumers, policymakers, and brokers to abstain from hysteria and remain informed about what the future of energy truly holds.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/weekend-reader-market-madness-a-century-of-oil-panics-crises-and-crashes/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Weekend_Reader&utm_campaign=Weekend%20Reader%20-%202015-03-08

[TeyshaBlue]

BigOil cartel and its financial operations are certainly much more so sophisticated now. TB :lol thinks BigOil is a purely innocent player, NOT rigging the markets.

lol boutons building his strawmen.

Feel free to link where I said I thought Big Oil is innocent. You cant.

I'm not a fan of big industry in general, much less the oil companies. However, that does not give me license to lie. Take note.

You lie.

[boutons_deux]

Suite of Bills Would Close Fracking Loopholes


Members of Congress have just introduced a set of bills (called the Frack Pack) that would end exemptions that the oil and gas industry currently receive from some of the country’s bedrock environmental laws -- the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. These bills and their sponsors include:



The FRAC Act (Rep. Diana DeGette, Sen. Robert Casey) closes the “Halliburton Loophole” which exempts most fracking from underground drinking water protections. The bill minimizes drinking water contamination, requires public disclosure of fracking chemicals and helps guard against earthquakes caused by fracking.
The BREATHE Act (Rep. Jared Polis) reduces air pollution from the oil and gas industry by requiring them to aggregate related sources under common ownership to determine total emissions.
The FRESHER Act (Rep. Matt Cartwright) forces companies to get permits before they increase stormwater runoff from oil and gas well pads and related infrastructure.
The CLEANER Act (Rep. Matt Cartwright) closes a loophole allowing oil and gas production to avoid hazardous waste requirements -- a provision that helps to prevent mismanagement of these dangerous materials.
The SHARED Act (Rep. Jan Schakowsky) requires testing of water sources near planned oil and gas operations to help determine the source of water contamination and reduce the costs of investigations.




Friends of the Earth’s Climate and Energy campaigner Kate DeAngelis offers the following statement in response:

The Frack Pack is an important first step toward stopping the oil and gas industry from profiting from the destruction of local communities and the pollution of our air and water. Oil and gas companies must be held to the same standards as other industries when it comes to protecting public health and the environment. Friends of the Earth strongly supports this bill, but recognizes that no protections can make fracking safe, and the only real solution is a ban on this destructive practice.

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2015/03/19/suite-bills-would-close-fracking-loopholes

[boutons_deux]

Oil and Gas Billionaire Pressured Oklahoma Scientist to Ignore Fracking-Earthquake Link
http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/HaroldHamm.jpg

A trove of emails were released by the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS), which regulates the state’s oil and gas industries, in response to public records requests from news outlets such as Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-30/big-oil-pressured-scientists-over-fracking-wastewater-s-link-to-quakes)and EnergyWire (http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060014342).

They appear to reveal that oil and gas billionaire Harold Hamm (http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/02/fracking-bust-harold-hamm/), known as the founding father of the U.S. fracking (http://ecowatch.com/news/energy-news/fracking-2/) boom, inserted himself into the conversation about whether fracking was causing a dramatic upsurge in earthquakes (http://ecowatch.com/2015/02/12/fracking-cause-oklahoma-earthquakes/) in the state.

http://ecowatch.com/2015/04/01/harold-hamm-oklahoma-fracking-earthquakes/

[boutons_deux]

dickhead Cheney/Halliburton exempted, mysteriously :lol, fracking from the Clean Water Act.

Researchers Discover Fracking Fluids in Pennsylvania Well Water (http://gizmodo.com/researchers-discover-fracking-fluids-in-pennsylvania-we-1702284641)

Researchers using a sensitive chemical analysis say they have found evidence of fracking fluids in well water near a shale gas drilling site in Pennsylvania. It’s one of the first scientifically documented cases of fracking fluids seeping into drinking water.

Groundwater contamination has been a contentious issue surrounding fracking, or hydraulic fracturing. And now researchers have offered comprehensive scientific evidence of contamination rising up through well water. “Although media reports of incidents are common, published reports are few,” the authors of the new study say.

http://gizmodo.com/researchers-discover-fracking-fluids-in-pennsylvania-we-1702284641?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+%28Gizmodo%29

[boutons_deux]

Farmers are watering your food with fracking chemicals


In the Kern County program, Chevron’s leftover water is mixed with walnut shells, a process the company says extracts excess oil. The water then flows to a series of treatment ponds. The treated water is launched into an eight-mile canal to the Cawelo Water District, where it is sometimes further diluted with fresh water. The water supplies 90 Kern County farmers with about half their annual irrigation water.

The program is a good deal for oil companies, which view the water as an expensive nuisance. And it’s a bargain for the water districts.


There’s a certain amount of WTF to all this — because we don’t even know what’s in this fracking waste, at least not until June 15. That’s when California’s fracking regulations kick in and force oil companies to disclose the chemicals they are using. I mean, maybe just wait to find that out before using it to water our cherries?

Here are the key points from the story:

Over the last two years, Scott Smith, chief scientist for the advocacy group Water Defense, collected samples of the treated irrigation water that the Cawelo Water District buys from Chevron. Laboratory analysis of those samples found compounds that are toxic to humans, including acetone and methylene chloride — powerful industrial solvents — along with oil.


They found methylene chloride aka dichloromethane at 56 parts per billion. The EPA’s safe drinking water level is 5 ppb (http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/dichloromethane.cfm%20).

http://grist.org/food/farmers-watering-food-with-pretty-fracking-bad-chemicals/

[boutons_deux]

8 Dangerous Side Effects of Fracking That the Industry Doesn't Want You to Hear About

Radon gas, anyone?

With the recent confirmation by the U.S. government that the fracking process causes earthquakes (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/induced/) [3], the list of fracking's deadly byproducts is growing longer and more worrisome. And while the process produces jobs and natural gas, the host of environmental, health and safety hazards continues to make fracking a hot-button issue that evenly divides Americans (http://www.gallup.com/poll/182075/americans-split-support-fracking-oil-natural-gas.aspx) [4].

To help keep track of all the bad stuff, here's a roundup of the various nasty things that could happen when you drill a hole in the surface of the earth, inject toxic chemicals into the hole at a high pressure and then inject the wastewater deep underground.

But first, let's take a look at some of the numbers (http://www.dangersoffracking.com/) [5]:



40,000: gallons of chemicals used for each fracturing site
8 million: number of gallons of water used per fracking
600: number of chemicals used in the fracking fluid, including known carcinogens and toxins such as lead, benzene, uranium, radium, methanol, mercury, hydrochloric acid, ethylene glycol and formaldehyde
10,000: number of feet into the ground that the fracking fluid is injected through a drilled pipeline
1.1 million: number of active gas wells (http://www.fractracker.org/2014/03/active-gas-and-oil-wells-in-us/) [6] in the United States
72 trillion: gallons of water needed to run current gas wells
360 billion: gallons of chemicals needed to run current gas wells
300,000: number of barrel of natural gas produced a day from fracking


And here are eight of the worst side effects of fracking you don't hear about from those slick TV commercials paid for by the industry.

1. Burning the furniture to heat the house.

During the fracking process, methane gas and toxic chemicals leach out from the well and contaminate nearby groundwater. The contaminated water is used for drinking water in local communities. There have been over 1,000 documented cases (http://www.citizensforethics.org/page/-/PDFs/Reports/Natural_Cash_Fracking_Industry_Contributions_to_Co ngress_CREW_11_19_2013.pdf?nocdn=1) [7] of water contamination near fracking areas as well as cases of sensory, respiratory and neurological damage due to ingested contaminated water.

In 2011, the New York Times reported that it obtained thousands of internal documents from the EPA, state regulators and fracking companies, which reveal that "the wastewater, which is sometimes hauled to sewage plants not designed to treat it and then discharged into rivers that supply drinking water, contains radioactivity (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27gas.html) [8] at levels higher than previously known, and far higher than the level that federal regulators say is safe for these treatment plants to handle."

A single well can produce more than a million gallons of wastewater, which contains radioactive elements like radium and carcinogenic hydrocarbons like benzene. In addition, methane concentrations are 17 times higher in drinking-water wells near fracking sites than in normal wells. Only 30-50 percent (http://www.dangersoffracking.com/) [5] of the fracturing fluid is recovered; the rest is left in the ground and is not biodegradable.

“We’re burning the furniture to heat the house,” said John H. Quigley (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27gas.html) [8], former secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. “In shifting away from coal and toward natural gas, we’re trying for cleaner air, but we’re producing massive amounts of toxic wastewater with salts and naturally occurring radioactive materials, and it’s not clear we have a plan for properly handling this waste."

2. Squeezed out.

More than 90 percent of the water used in fracking well never returns (http://www.earthworksaction.org/media/detail/new_fracking_report_finds_high_levels_of_water_con sumption_and_waste_genera) [9] to the surface. Since that water is permanently removed from the natural water cycle, this is bad news for drought-afflicted or water-stressed states, such as Arkansas, California, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, Texas and Wyoming.

"We don't want to look up 20 years from now and say, Oops, we used up all our water," said Jason Banes (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/16/colorado-fracking_n_3450170.html) [10] of the Boulder, Colorado-based Western Resource Advocates.
The redirection of water supplies to the fracking industry not only causes water price spikes, but also reduces water availability for crop irrigation.

"There is a new player for water, which is oil and gas," said Kent Peppler (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/16/colorado-fracking_n_3450170.html) [10], president of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. "And certainly they are in a position to pay a whole lot more than we are."

3. Bad for babies.

The waste fluid left over from the fracking process is left in open-air pits to evaporate, which releases dangerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere, creating contaminated air, acid rain and ground-level ozone.

Exposure to diesel particulate matter, hydrogen sulfide and volatile hydrocarbons can lead to a host of health problems (http://www.nrdc.org/health/files/fracking-air-pollution-IB.pdf) [11], including asthma, headaches, high blood pressure, anemia, heart attacks and cancer.

It can also have a damaging effect on immune and reproductive systems, as well as fetal and child development. A 2014 study conducted by the Colorado Department of Environmental and Occupational Health found that mothers who live near fracking sites are 30 percent more likely to have babies with congenital heart defects (http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1306722/) [12].

Research from Cornell University indicates an increased prevalence of low birth weight (http://dyson.cornell.edu/research/researchpdf/wp/2012/Cornell-Dyson-wp1212.pdf) [13] and reduced APGAR scores in infants born to mothers living near fracking sites in Pennsylvania. And in Wyoming's Sublette County, the fracking boom has been linked to dangerous spikes in ozone concentrations. A study led by the state's Department of Health found that these ozone spikes are associated with increased outpatient clinic visits for respiratory problems (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935114003971) [14].

4. Killer gas.

A recent study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that homes located in suburban and rural areas near fracking sites have an overall radon concentration (http://www.alternet.org/environment/fracking-may-release-cancer-causing-radioactive-gas-according-surprising-new-study) [15] 39 percent higher than those located in non-fracking urban areas. The study included almost 2 million radon readings taken between 1987 and 2013 done in over 860,000 buildings from every county, mostly homes.

A naturally occurring radioactive gas formed by the decay of uranium in rock, soil and water, radon—odorless, tasteless and invisible—moves through the ground and into the air, while some remains dissolved in groundwater where it can appear in water wells (http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs/sdwa/radon/basicinformation.cfm) [16]. It is the second leading cause of lung cancer worldwide, after smoking. The EPA estimates approximately 21,000 lung cancer deaths (http://www.epa.gov/radon/aboutus.html) [17] in the U.S. are radon-related.

"Between 2005-2013, 7,469 unconventional wells were drilled in Pennsylvania. Basement radon concentrations fluctuated between 1987-2003, but began an upward trend (http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/advpub/2015/4/ehp.1409014.acco.pdf) [18] from 2004-2012 in all county categories," the researchers wrote.

That trending period just happens to start when Pennsylvania's fracking boom began: Between Jan. 1, 2005, and March 2, 2012, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued 10,232 drilling permits (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Pennsylvania_and_fracking) [19]; only 36 requests were denied.

5. Shifting sands.

In addition to all the water and toxic chemicals, fracking requires the use of fine sand, or frac sand, which has driven a silica sand mining boom (http://www.ibtimes.com/us-oil-gas-fracking-boom-could-drive-silica-sand-mining-operations-12-more-states-1695246) [20] in Minnesota and Wisconsin, which together have 164 active frac sand facilities with 20 more proposed. Both states are where most of the stuff is produced and where regulations are lax for air and water pollution monitoring. Northeastern Iowa has also become a primary source.

"Silica can impede breathing and cause respiratory irritation, cough, airway obstruction and poor lung function," according to Environmental Working Group (http://www.ewg.org/research/sandstorm/health-concerns-silica-outdoor-air) [21]. "Chronic or long-term exposure can lead to lung inflammation, bronchitis and emphysema and produce a severe lung disease known as silicosis, a form of pulmonary fibrosis. Silica-related lung disease is incurable and can be fatal, killing hundreds of workers in the U.S. each year."

"I could feel dust clinging to my face and gritty particles on my teeth,” said Victoria Trinko (http://216.30.191.148/fracsandmining/Victoria%20Trinko%20Statement%20FINAL1.pdf) [22], a resident of Bloomer, Wisconsin. Within nine months of the construction of frac sand mine, about a half-mile from her home, she developed a sore throat and raspy voice and was eventually diagnosed with environment-caused asthma. She hasn't opened her windows since 2012.

Across the 33-county frac sand mining area that spans Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, nearly 60,000 people (http://www.ewg.org/research/danger-in-the-air) [23] live less than half a mile from existing or proposed mines. And new danger zones will likely pop up around the nation: Due to the fracking boom, environmentalists and public health advocates warn that frac sand mines could spread to several states (http://216.30.191.148/fracsandmining/) [24] with untapped silica deposits, including Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.

Bryan Shinn, the chief executive of sand mining company U.S. Silica Holdings said in September that due to the fracking boom, they "see a clear pathway to the volume of sand demand that's out there doubling or tripling (http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/19/us-ussilica-demand-idUSKBN0HE12P20140919) [25] in the next four to five years."

[boutons_deux]

6. Shake, rattle and roll.

On April 20, the U.S. Geological Survey released a long-awaited report (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/induced/) [3] that confirmed what many scientists have long speculated: the fracking process causes earthquakes (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/23/oil-gas-drilling-triggers-man-made-earthquakes-usgs) [26]. Specifically, over the last seven years, geologically stable regions of the U.S., including parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas, have experienced movements in faults that have not moved in millions of years. Plus, it's difficult or impossible to predict where future fracking-caused earthquakes will occur.

"They're ancient faults," said USGS geophysicist William Ellsworth (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/23/oil-gas-drilling-triggers-man-made-earthquakes-usgs) [26]. "We don’t always know where they are."

Ellsworth led the USGS team that analyzed changes in earthquake occurrence rates in the central and eastern United States since 1970. They found that between 1973–2008, there was an average of 21 earthquakes of at least magnitude three. From 2009-2013, the region experienced 99 M3+ earthquakes per year. And the rate is still rising. In Oklahoma, there were 585 earthquakes in 2014—more than in the last 35 years (http://www.gallup.com/poll/182075/americans-split-support-fracking-oil-natural-gas.aspx) [4] combined.

"The increase in seismicity has been found to coincide with the injection of wastewater in deep disposal wells in several locations, including Colorado, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Ohio," the report states. "Much of this wastewater is a byproduct of oil and gas production and is routinely disposed of by injection into wells specifically designed and approved for this purpose."

For many years, Oklahoma's government has been reluctant to concede the connection between fracking and earthquakes. In October of last year, during a gubernatorial election debate with state Rep. Joe Dorman, a Democrat, Governor Mary Fallin, a Republican, declined to say (http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/2014_elections/dorman-more-definitive-than-fallin-on-fracking-earthquake-link/article_8f7b32a8-85a7-51f4-a388-b132063597c2.html) [27] whether or not she believed earthquakes were caused by fracking. Fallin was re-elected.

But the government has finally come around. The day after the USGS report was released, on April 21, the Oklahoma Geological Survey, a state agency, released a statement (http://wichita.ogs.ou.edu/documents/OGS_Statement-Earthquakes-4-21-15.pdf) [28] saying that is it "very likely that the majority of recent earthquakes, particularly those is central and north-central Oklahoma, are triggered by the injection of produced water in disposal wells."

The same day, the state's energy and environment department launched a website (http://earthquakes.ok.gov/) [29] that explains the finding along with an earthquake map and what the government is doing about it all. According to the site, "Oklahoma state agencies are not waiting to take action."

Now there is a split between the state's governmental branches: Two days after the executive branch admitted that fracking causes earthquakes, the state's lawmakers, evidently unmoved by the trembling ground, passed two bills (http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/capitol_report/bills-limiting-local-regulation-of-oil-and-gas-drilling-get/article_e6694c9a-3657-532d-b0ff-6a8849a29c8a.html) [30], backed by the oil and gas industry, that limit the ability of local communities to decide if they want fracking in their backyards.

7. The heat is on.

Natural gas is mostly methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas that traps 86 times as much heat as carbon dioxide. And because methane leaks during the fracking process, fracking may be worse than burning coal, mooting the claim that natural gas burns more cleanly than coal.

"When you frack, some of that gas leaks out into the atmosphere," writes 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben (http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/09/methane-fracking-obama-climate-change-bill-mckibben) [31]. "If enough of it leaks out before you can get it to a power plant and burn it, then it's no better, in climate terms, than burning coal. If enough of it leaks, America's substitution of gas for coal is in fact not slowing global warming."

A recent international satellite study (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014EF000265/full) [32] on North American fracking production led by the Institute of Environmental Physics at the University of Bremen in Germany found that "fugitive methane emissions" caused by the fracking process "may counter the benefit over coal with respect to climate change" and that "net climate benefit…is unlikely."
"Even small leaks in the natural gas production and delivery system can have a large climate impact—enough to gut the entire benefit of switching from coal-fired power to gas," writes Joe Romm (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/10/22/3582904/methane-leaks-climate-benefit-fracking/) [33], the founding editor of the blog Climate Progress. "The climate will likely be ruined already well past most of our lifespans by the time natural gas has a net climate benefit."

8. Quid pro quo?

Finally, one of the more insidious side effects of fracking is less about the amount of chemicals flowing into the ground and more about the amount of money flowing into politicians' campaign coffers from the fracking industry.

According to a 2013 report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (http://www.citizensforethics.org/page/-/PDFs/Reports/Natural_Cash_Fracking_Industry_Contributions_to_Co ngress_CREW_11_19_2013.pdf?nocdn=1) [7] (CREW), contributions from fracking trade groups and companies operating fracking wells to congressional candidates representing states and districts where fracking occurs rose by more than 230 percent (http://www.citizensforethics.org/page/-/PDFs/Reports/Natural_Cash_Fracking_Industry_Contributions_to_Co ngress_CREW_11_19_2013.pdf?nocdn=1) [7] between the 2004 and 2012 election cycles, from $2.1 million to $6.9 million.

That is nearly twice as much as the increase in contributions from the fracking industry to candidates from non-fracking districts during the same period, outpacing contributions from the entire oil and gas industry to all congressional candidates. Republican congressional candidates have received nearly 80 percent of fracking industry contributions.

"The fracking boom isn’t just good for the industry, but also for congressional candidates in fracking districts," said CREW executive director Melanie Sloan (http://www.occupy.com/article/88-congress-gas-industry-payroll-campaign-donations-hit-record-level) [34].

The candidate who has received the most in contributions from the fracking industry is Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX). Barton received more than $500,000 between the 2004 and 2012 election cycles—over $100,000 more than any other candidate in the nation. It should come as no surprise that Barton sponsored the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Policy_Act_of_2005) [35], which exempted fracking from federal oversight under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

On April 21, Colorado and Wyoming filed a lawsuit (https://www.coloradoattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/press_releases/2015/04/24/20150421_doc_26_1_amended_petition.pdf) [36] challenging the new federal fracking regulations (http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2015/march/nr_03_20_2015.html) [37] issued last month by the Bureau of Land Management for onshore drilling on tribal and public lands, claiming that the rule, which regulates underground injections in the fracking process, "exceeds the agency's statutory jurisdiction."

"The debate over hydraulic fracturing is complicated enough without the federal government encroaching on states’ rights," said Colorado Attorney General Cynthia H. Coffman, in a statement (https://www.coloradoattorneygeneral.gov/press/news/2015/04/24/colorado_attorney_general_joins_lawsuit_protect_st ate_authority_regulate_hydra) [38]. "This lawsuit will demonstrate that BLM exceeds its powers when it invades the states’ regulatory authority in this area."

Coffman, a Republican, is married to Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman (CO-8), also a Republican. Coffman and two other GOP representatives from the state, Scott Tipton (CO-3) and Doug Lamborn (CO-5), have sponsored a trio of bills—H.R. 4321, 4382 and 4383 (called the “3 Stooges” bills (http://www.cleanwateraction.org/publication/oil-and-gas-drilling-and-fracking-threaten-public-health) [39] by environmentalists)—that would fast-track leasing and permitting for drilling and fracking on public lands. These three congressmen, each of whom have received more than $100,000 in contributions from the oil and gas industry, sit on the Natural Resources Committee and naturally oppose federal regulations on fracking.

Short-Term Thinking

Fracking proponents point to the fact that it produces natural gas and jobs; indeed takes credit for boosting the economy during the recession. But at what cost to public health and the environment? And can the true cost be known when there is a lack of transparency in the fracking industry?

With little federal oversight, states have created a non-uniform patchwork of regulation: Illinois requires fracking companies to disclose information about the chemicals they use before they drill and monitor groundwater through the process, while Virginia doesn't require any disclosure.

"So far, the industry has successfully fended off almost all federal regulation of fracking, in part through key exemptions from federal laws such as the Safe Drinking Water Act, which otherwise would allow the EPA to directly regulate fracking and other aspects of oil and gas production," says CREW (http://www.citizensforethics.org/page/-/PDFs/Reports/Natural_Cash_Fracking_Industry_Contributions_to_Co ngress_CREW_11_19_2013.pdf?nocdn=1) [7].

The FRAC Act (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fracturing_Responsibility_and_Awareness_of_Chemica ls_Act) [40] (Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act) would require the energy industry to disclose all chemicals used in fracturing fluid and also repeal fracking's exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Of course, everyone wants reliable domestically produced energy that creates jobs and energy independence. But nothing comes for free. And in the case of fracking, still with so many unknowns, the price in the long run may be too great.

That's part of the message that Reps. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) hope the American public gets. On April 22, Earth Day, the two lawmakers introduced the Protect Our Public Lands Act (https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/1902) [41], H.R. 1902. The strongest anti-fracking bill ever introduced into Congress, it seeks to ban fracking on public lands. Today, 90 percent of federally managed lands are open for potential oil and gas leasing; the remaining 10 percent are reserved for conservation, recreation, wildlife and cultural heritage.

"Our national parks, forests and public lands are some of our most treasured places and need to be protected for future generations,” said Pocan (http://schakowsky.house.gov/press-releases/on-earth-day-pocan-and-schakowsky-introduce-strongest-federal-fracking-ban-in-the-us/) [42]. "It is clear fracking has a detrimental impact on the environment and there are serious safety concerns associated with these type of wells. Until we fully understand the effects, the only way to avoid these risks is to halt fracking entirely. We should not allow short-term economic gain to harm our public lands, damage our communities or endanger workers."

Sounds logical enough. But with oil and gas money steering the Republican-controlled Congress, the bill is dead in the radioactive wastewater.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/8-dangerous-side-effects-fracking-industry-doesnt-want-you-hear-about?akid=13046.187590.2ZTch7&rd=1&src=newsletter1035560&t=7

[boutons_deux]

OPEC’s push for market share is working, slowly but surely

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said Wednesday its share of the global oil supply edged up slightly from 32.8 percent in April to 32.9 percent last month, the latest sign the cartel’s plan to keep churning out oil is allowing it to carve out a bigger corner of the market, albeit slowly. That figure was 32.1 percent in February.

The group’s daily crude oil production grew by 24,000 barrels in May, rising to 30.98 million barrels, it said in its monthly oil report.

OPEC’s biggest producer, Saudi Arabia, bolstered its daily output by another 25,100 barrels, getting up to 10.33 million barrels – about 5 percent higher than its production averaged in the first quarter.

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/06/10/opecs-push-for-market-share-is-working-slowly-but-surely/#33457101=0

[boutons_deux]

Oil and Gas Co's Disposal of Wastewater Causes Sharp Rise in Quakes


http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/oil-and-gas-co-s-disposal-of-wastewater-causes-sharp-rise-in-quakes/

[boutons_deux]

Cancer-Causing Chemicals Found In Drinking Water Near Texas Fracking Sites

Scientists have found elevated levels of cancer-causing chemicals in the drinking water in North Texas’ Barnett Shale region — where a fracking boom has sprouted more than 20,000 oil and gas wells.

Researchers from the University of Texas, Arlington tested water samples from public and private wells (http://m.phys.org/news/2015-06-barnett-shale-area-elevated-contaminants.html) collected over the past three years and found elevated levels of heavy metals, such as arsenic. Their findings, released Wednesday, showed elevated levels of 19 different chemicals including the so-called BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylenes) compounds.

Heavy metals are toxic when ingested, and BTEX compounds are considered carcinogenic (http://www.egr.msu.edu/tosc/akron/factsheets/btex-health.shtml) when ingested. Exposure to BTEX compounds is also associated with effects on the respiratory and central nervous system. The study found elevated levels of toxic methanol and ethanol, as well.

The researchers were clear that they had not determined the source of the metals and chemicals. However, they noted (http://m.phys.org/news/2015-06-barnett-shale-area-elevated-contaminants.html) that “many of the compounds we detected are known to be associated with [fracking] techniques,” and said the data support further research on the potential of fracking contamination.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/06/19/3671819/fracking-contaminants-in-texas-drinking-water/

[boutons_deux]

‘F*ck you f*ggot:’ Texas oil exec stops his car to punch a gay pedestrian unconscious


http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Screen-Shot-2015-06-18-at-3.37.41-PM-800x430.jpg

A Texas oil executive swore at a gay couple he passed in his vehicle, stopped his car in a lane of traffic, got out, and proceeded to knock a man unconscious, the Dallas Voice reports (http://www.dallasvoice.com/north-texas-man-attacked-austin-10198060.html).Anthony Fera, the president of Houston’s MidStar Energy LP (http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2015/06/houston-oil-business-president-charged-with.html), has been charged with assault.

In April, Andy Smith and Paul von Wupperfeld, who are married, were walking in Austin when, the couple says, Fera drove by and almost mowed them over.

“I hollered out, ‘you nearly hit us.'” Smith writes in his statement to police (http://www.dallasvoice.com/north-texas-man-attacked-austin-10198060.html). Fera reportedly replied, ‘Fuck you faggot.’” Smith and Fera exchanged a few more words before Fera exited his car, punched Smith in the head, ran back, and resumed driving.

Von Wupperfeld writes in his own statement that Smith’s face following the attack “was swollen and bloody from where he had been punched, with cuts on his nose, right cheek, and chin. He was unconscious for around 30-45 seconds. When he came around he was groggy and disoriented.”

Smith suffered “a fractured nose, a black eye, lacerations, scrapes, and a shoulder injury,” according to the Gay Star News (http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/texas-oil-executive-arrested-punching-faggot-unconscious180615). Fera was arrested earlier this month; his bail was $5,000.

Smith is the executive director of the Texas Instruments Foundation.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/fck-you-fggot-texas-oil-exec-stops-his-car-to-punch-a-gay-pedestrian-unconscious/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

The debt that fueled the U.S. shale boom now threatens to be its undoing.

Drillers are devoting more revenue than ever to interest payments. In one example, Continental Resources Inc., the company credited with making North Dakota’s Bakken Shale one of the biggest oil-producing regions in the world, spent almost as much as Exxon Mobil Corp., a company 20 times its size.

The burden is becoming heavier after oil prices fell 43 percent in the past year. Interest payments are eating up more than 10 percent of revenue for 27 of the 62 drillers in the Bloomberg Intelligence North America Independent Exploration and Production Index, up from a dozen a year ago. Drillers’ debt ballooned to $235 billion at the end of the first quarter, a 16 percent increase in the past year, even as revenue shrank.

“The question is, how long do they have that they can get away with this,” said Thomas Watters, an oil and gas credit analyst at Standard & Poor’s in New York. The companies with the lowest credit ratings “are in survival mode,” he said.

The problem for shale drillers is that they’ve consistently spent money faster than they’ve made it, even when oil was $100 a barrel.

The companies in the Bloomberg index spent $4.15 for every dollar earned selling oil and gas in the first quarter, up from $2.25 a year earlier, while pushing U.S. oil production to the highest in more than 30 years.

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/06/19/the-shale-industry-could-be-swallowed-by-its-own-debt/#30727101=0

[boutons_deux]

Unconventional Gas and Oil Drilling Is Associated with Increased Hospital Utilization Rates

Abstract

Over the past ten years, unconventional gas and oil drilling (UGOD) has markedly expanded in the United States. Despite substantial increases in well drilling, the health consequences of UGOD toxicant exposure remain unclear.

This study examines an association between wells and healthcare use by zip code from 2007 to 2011 in Pennsylvania.

Inpatient discharge databases from the Pennsylvania Healthcare Cost Containment Council were correlated with active wells by zip code in three counties in Pennsylvania.

For overall inpatient prevalence rates and 25 specific medical categories, the association of inpatient prevalence rates with number of wells per zip code and, separately, with wells per km2 (separated into quantiles and defined as well density) were estimated using fixed-effects Poisson models.

To account for multiple comparisons, a Bonferroni correction with associations of p<0.00096 was considered statistically significant.

Cardiology inpatient prevalence rates were significantly associated with number of wells per zip code (p<0.00096) and wells per km2 (p<0.00096) while neurology inpatient prevalence rates were significantly associated with wells per km2 (p<0.00096).

Furthermore, evidence also supported an association between well density and inpatient prevalence rates for the medical categories of dermatology, neurology, oncology, and urology.

These data suggest that UGOD wells, which dramatically increased in the past decade, were associated with increased inpatient prevalence rates within specific medical categories in Pennsylvania.

Further studies are necessary to address healthcare costs of UGOD and determine whether specific toxicants or combinations are associated with organ-specific responses.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0131093

[boutons_deux]

Oh frack, now there's radiation in Pennsylvania's water (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/17/1403032/-Oh-frack-now-there-s-radiation-in-Pennsylvania-s-water)

The results showed levels of radium 226 and radium 228 totaling 327 picocuries per liter at one location, and 301 picocuries per liter of radium 226 at another location.In plain English, that means both samples had 60 times the EPA drinking water standard of 5 picocuries per liter.

“There's something in here that's not supposed to be here,” Dufalla said.

“It's highly suggestive that it may be due to drilling operations, or at least the wastewater,” Stolz [a biologist at Duquesne University] said.

Gas industry officials dismiss that theory, saying there is no evidence that fracking wastewater is being illegally dumped into abandoned mines or streams. The Marcellus Shale Coalition declined our request for an interview.

“That stuff coming out of there will eventually get in your drinking water in Pittsburgh. Eventually it's going to get there,” Dufalla said.

Radium does not go away quickly. The half-life for radium 226 is 1,600 years, meaning even then it will still be half as potent at it is today.

In the state of Pennsylvania, home to the lucrative Marcellus Shale formation, 74 facilities treat wastewater from the process of hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. “fracking”) for natural gas and release it into streams. […]

Recently, a group of Duke University scientists decided to do some testing. […] “Eventually, we just went and tested water right from a public area downstream.”

Their analyses, made on water and sediment samples collected repeatedly over the course of two years, were even more concerning than we’d feared. As published today in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, they found elevated concentrations of the element radium, a highly radioactive substance. The concentrations within sediments in particular were roughly 200 times higher than background levels. In addition, amounts of chloride and bromide in the water were two to ten times greater than normal.

Just last week, fracking in Pennsylvania was linked to higher rates of cancer, skin conditions, heart disease and neurological problems.

But calm down, guys (http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/16/us-usa-fracking-health-idUSKCN0PQ1IQ20150716?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNewshttp://).


The energy industry and proponents of fracking say the technology can be used safely and that fears of pollution and health risks are overblown.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/17/1403032/-Oh-frack-now-there-s-radiation-in-Pennsylvania-s-water?detail=email

[boutons_deux]

Are Oil & Gas Producers Fracking Wells at Depths That are Too Shallow?

A new study reports that about 16% of wells were fracked at depths less than a mile below the surface–and sometimes much less.

The average well fracking depth in the U.S. is 8,300 feet, but 6,900 (16%) were fracked at less than a mile below the surface and 2,600 (6%) at less than 3,000 feet. The researchers reported 850 wells in Texas, 720 in California, 310 in Arkansas, and 300 in Wyoming that were fracked at less than 3,000 feet.

Nationally the average amount of water (http://247wallst.com/energy-business/2015/07/26/are-oil-gas-producers-fracking-wells-at-depths-that-are-too-shallow/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall +St.%29#) used per well was reported as 2.4 million gallons. Leading water users were Arkansas (5.2 million gallons), Louisiana (5.1 million gallons), West Virginia (5 million gallons), and Pennsylvania (4.5 million gallons).

Some 2,000 wells shallower than one mile and 350 wells shallower than 3,000 feet were fracked with more than 1 million gallons of water. This practice was most common in Arkansas, New Mexico, Texas, Pennsylvania, and California. The researchers noted:

Because hydraulic fractures can propagate 2000 ft upward, shallow wells may warrant special safeguards, including a mandatory registry of locations, full chemical disclosure, and, where horizontal drilling is used, predrilling water testing to a radius 1000 ft beyond the greatest lateral extent.


The study calls into question at least in some cases the oil & gas industry’s claim that fracking occurs at depths so far below the water table (http://247wallst.com/energy-business/2015/07/26/are-oil-gas-producers-fracking-wells-at-depths-that-are-too-shallow/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall +St.%29#) as to make virtually impossible for contaminants to enter the water supply.

A study released last year by Jackson and others, that oil & gas drillers used a production method called acid stimulation and hydraulic fracturing to drill wells near the Pavillion, Wyoming, gas field that contains both natural gas (http://247wallst.com/energy-business/2015/07/26/are-oil-gas-producers-fracking-wells-at-depths-that-are-too-shallow/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall +St.%29#) and sources of drinking water.

http://247wallst.com/energy-business/2015/07/26/are-oil-gas-producers-fracking-wells-at-depths-that-are-too-shallow/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall +St.%29

I was buying some HCl at Home Depot to pickle some steel.

The sales guy, ex-Halliburton, said he didn't know that Muriatic acid was HCl, but that he put lots of HCl down fracking wells and had the burned gloves and clothes at the end of every day to show for it.

[boutons_deux]

40 Earthquakes Hit Frack-Happy Oklahoma in Last 7 Days

Yesterday Oklahoma recorded five earthquakes (http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/Earthquake-rattles-south-central-Kansas-318676071.html) centered near Crescent, Oklahoma, some of which were felt in at least five states—Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Missouri and Arkansas.

Three of the quakes measured above 4.0-magnitude and the biggest of these was a 4.5-magnitude earthquake, the strongest earthquake in the region since a magnitude-4.9 near Conway Springs, Kansas, on Nov. 12, 2014.

The strongest magnitude earthquake on record occurred onNov. 5, 2011 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Oklahoma_earthquake) and registered as 5.6-magnitude.

http://ecowatch.com/2015/07/28/40-earthquakes-frack-happy-oklahoma/?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=28bf0d84df-Top_News_7_28_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-28bf0d84df-85879165

[boutons_deux]

frackers BUSTED by the Saudis

Low Oil Prices Force Producers to Delay $200 Billion in New Drilling Projects

Financial Times (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d6877d5e-31ee-11e5-91ac-a5e17d9b4cff.html#axzz3hfDMxHCq): Oil Groups Have Shelved $200bn in New Projects as Low Prices Bite

The world’s big energy groups have shelved $200bn of spending on new projects in an urgent round of cost-cutting aimed at protecting investors’ dividends as the oil price slumps for a second time this year.

The sell-off in oil has been matched by a broader slump in copper, gold and other raw materials, pushing the Bloomberg commodities index to a six-year low over concerns of weaker Chinese growth and rising supplies across the board.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/low-oil-prices-force-producers-to-delay-200-billion-in-new-drilling-project?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreentechMedia+%28Greentech+M edia%29

If only that $200B would be spent on solar and wind and new and smarter electrical networks.

[boutons_deux]

Shallow Fracking Wells May Threaten Aquifers

Several thousand near-surface hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operations for oil and natural gas production in the U.S. pose a potentially significant risk of contaminating drinking water sources, according to a new analysis. This first national assessment of fracking focused on well depth raises particular concerns about fracking wells less than a mile deep

Shallow wells are cheaper and easier to operate, says Robert B. Jackson (https://woods.stanford.edu/about/woods-faculty/robert-jackson) of Stanford University, who led the new study. “However, they pose a greater risk for groundwater contamination since they are close to drinking water aquifers.” These groundwater sources can rest from hundreds to thousands of feet below the surface, and natural geologic cracks or faults and past drilling activities can provide a pathway between shallow fracking sites and an aquifer, allowing fracking chemicals, oil, and methane to reach drinking water supplies. Currently, groundwater in Wyoming and California is being investigated for possible fracking-related contamination.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/shallow-fracking-wells-may-threaten-aquifers/

[boutons_deux]

U.S. Shale-Oil Boom May Not Last as Fracking Wells Lack Staying Power


Shale wells start strong and fade fast, and producers are drilling at a breakneck pace to hold output steady. In the fields, this incessant need to drill is known as the Red Queen, after the character in Through the Looking-Glass who tells Alice, “It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”

The U.S. is producing 7.8 million barrels of oil a day, more than it has in a quarter-century. Crude from shale formations has cut reliance on imports and put the U.S. closer to energy independence than it’s been since 1989. The International Energy Agency predicted last year that the U.S. would overtake Saudi Arabia by 2020 as the world’s largest producer.

Whether current production can hold up is the subject of debate. David Hughes, a geoscientist and president of Global Sustainability Research, has examined the life span of shale wells. “The Red Queen syndrome just gets worse and worse and worse,” he says. “The higher production goes, the more wells you need to offset the decline.”

http://images.bwbx.io/cms/2013-10-10/econ_oilchart42_315.jpg


Global Sustainability’s Hughes estimates the U.S. needs to drill 6,000 new wells per year at a cost of $35 billion to maintain current production. His research also shows that the newest wells aren’t as productive as those drilled in the first years of the boom, a sign that oil companies have already tapped the best spots, making it that much harder to keep breaking records. Hughes has predicted that production will peak in 2017 and fall to 2012 levels within two years.

“The hype about U.S. energy independence and ‘Saudi America’ is deafening if you look at the mainstream media,” Hughes says. “We need to have a much more in-depth and intelligent discussion about this.” On Oct. 7, Abdalla Salem el-Badri, OPEC’s secretary general, said at a conference in Kuwait that U.S. shale producers are “running out of sweet spots” and that output will peak in 2018.

http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-10-10/u-dot-s-dot-shale-oil-boom-may-not-last-as-fracking-wells-lack-staying-power

peak easy oil is passed, peak easy fracking may already be passed.

[boutons_deux]

Citigroup report: Worries of $33 oil leaving markets “nervy”

There’s a “conceivable reality” U.S. oil prices may plummet to a new 11-year low of $33 a barrel or lower this year, according to a Citigroup report released Wednesday as oil prices dipped to a six-year low near $40.50 per barrel.

The new “How low can oil go?” report contends that capital markets are “getting nervy” and one of the only ways to stop this downward trend is for North American shale companies to lose more access to capital during the next phase of borrowing negotiations in October, called redetermination.

In February 2009, closing U.S. oil prices last bottomed out at $33.98 a barrel during the Great Recession.

Oil prices are currently in a free fall from a variety of factors including a struggling Chinese economy, strong Saudi and Iraqi production, and the anticipated Iranian influx of oil as soon as next year.

Temporarily stable oil prices near $60 a barrel boosted false confidence from April through June and rig counts and production levels rose — only to see the bottom fall out since the beginning of July. Citi called it a “clearly false recovery.”

Citi sees mostly bearish pessimism the next couple years with oil futures showing prices near $50 a barrel by December 2016 and below $55 a barrel even for December 2017. Eventually, there should be a price breakout back to the $60 to $80 a barrel range, but that is not expected in the near future.

In the U.S., oil production is continuing with Cushing, Oklahoma storage near capacity and more crude simply being moved to the Gulf Coast as a storage alternative. Also, the glut is expected to build up in September as refineries undergo seasonal maintenance after record levels of gasoline production this summer.

Common sense dictates shutting down more North American production, Citi noted, “yet shutting down current production is both costly and can be permanent.” So causing such shutdowns likely will require lower prices over a more extended time frame.

In another report, Citi concluded that a fast V-shaped oil recovery or even a slower U-shaped bounce back will not occur. After an extended and ongoing drop in oil prices, a “series of Ws” is expected with U.S. production ticking up every time prices increase and, thus, driving prices back down.

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/08/19/citigroup-report-worries-of-33-oil-leaving-markets-nervy/#33909101=0

I paid $1.75 regular gal several months ago, why is it $2.25 now?

[CosmicCowboy]

An interesting article explaining oil prices and the continued viability of US shale oil/gas.

http://www.oil-price.net/en/articles/low-oil-price-met-with-american-ingenuity.php

[SpursforSix]

Here's an interesting article making the case for profitability at $5-$20 per bbl pricing. Don't worry Noutins. Big Oil will be fine.

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/pdf/eper_16.pdf

[boutons_deux]

Here's an interesting article making the case for profitability at $5-$20 per bbl pricing. Don't worry Noutins. Big Oil will be fine.

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/pdf/eper_16.pdf

$5 per barrel is profitable? achievable? Even the Saudis can't get its EASY oil out of the ground for that price.

Manhattan Inst VRWC stink tank? :lol

[CosmicCowboy]

Here's an interesting article making the case for profitability at $5-$20 per bbl pricing. Don't worry Noutins. Big Oil will be fine.

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/pdf/eper_16.pdf

Great article...Thanks!

[boutons_deux]

Baker Hughes seeks to remedy possible water contamination in county

“Tests conducted in July 2015 indicate that groundwater in the area south of I-20 may contain dichloroethene, trichloroethene and tetrachloroethene,” read a letter that was distributed to residents last week.

“Concentrations are low, in the parts per billion range, but above drinking water standards defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.”

http://www.mrt.com/news/top_stories/article_5bbccddc-4bab-11e5-82c7-9f70edfe7a5a.html

just a little poison, no worries, mate!

It's good for ya and for your fetuses, kids

[RandomGuy]

Baker Hughes seeks to remedy possible water contamination in county

“Tests conducted in July 2015 indicate that groundwater in the area south of I-20 may contain dichloroethene, trichloroethene and tetrachloroethene,” read a letter that was distributed to residents last week.

“Concentrations are low, in the parts per billion range, but above drinking water standards defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.”

http://www.mrt.com/news/top_stories/article_5bbccddc-4bab-11e5-82c7-9f70edfe7a5a.html

just a little poison, no worries, mate!

It's good for ya and for your fetuses, kids





So much for the "it won't get into the drinking water" schtick.

It will, because of sheer negligence or ignorance. Not sure I am willing to trade temporary hydrocarbons for permanent damage to well water.

[boutons_deux]

the fracking bust in full force. Who said the Saudi strategy wasn't working?

Sabine sixth U.S. producer to seek bankruptcy protection this year

Sabine Oil & Gas Corp. is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, making it the sixth and the largest U.S. oil producer yet to file for bankruptcy because of cheap oil prices.

Court papers filed in New York on Wednesday show the Houston company had $2.48 billion in assets and $2.91 billion at the end of May, the second largest U.S. bankruptcy this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It’s a mid-sized oil and gas company, and had $550 million more in debt than the second-biggest producer to file for bankruptcy this year, Fort Worth-based Quicksilver Resources.

Sabine’s finance chief blamed its high debt and low oil and natural gas prices and volatility across energy markets for the company’s situation, saying it could have otherwise fixed its balance sheet by selling assets – if not for cheap oil and gas devaluing its properties.

Besides Sabine and Quicksilver, the other four U.S. producers to file for bankruptcy protection are Saratoga Resources, BPZ Resources, Dune Energy and American Eagle Energy Corp.

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/07/15/sabine-files-for-bankruptcy-in-new-york-amid-falling-oil-prices/#31510101=0

[boutons_deux]

What Johns Hopkins Study Reveals About Premature Births Near Fracking Wells

A new study published recently by the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health has linked an increase in premature births to a mother’s proximity to active, fracked natural gas wells. There is, however, no explanation for why pregnant (http://247wallst.com/healthcare-economy/2015/10/08/what-johns-hopkins-study-reveals-about-premature-births-near-fracking-wells/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall +St.%29#) women had worse outcomes near the most active wells.

The authors studied the records of 9,384 mothers who gave birth to 10,946 babies between January 2009 and January 2013. They compared that data with information about wells drilled for fracking and looked at how close they were to the homes of the pregnant mothers, as well as what stage of drilling the wells were in, how deep the wells were dug and how much gas was being produced at the wells during the mothers’pregnancies (http://247wallst.com/healthcare-economy/2015/10/08/what-johns-hopkins-study-reveals-about-premature-births-near-fracking-wells/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall +St.%29#). Using this information, they developed an index of how active each of the wells were and how close they were to the women.

Pregnant women living in the most active quartile of drilling and production activity experienced a 40% increase in the likelihood of giving birth before 37 weeks of gestation (http://247wallst.com/healthcare-economy/2015/10/08/what-johns-hopkins-study-reveals-about-premature-births-near-fracking-wells/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall +St.%29#) (considered preterm) and a 30% increase in the chance that an obstetrician had labeled the pregnancy “high-risk,” a designation that can include factors such as elevated blood pressure or excessive weight gain during pregnancy. When looking at all the pregnancies in the study, 11% of babies (http://247wallst.com/healthcare-economy/2015/10/08/what-johns-hopkins-study-reveals-about-premature-births-near-fracking-wells/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall +St.%29#) were born preterm, with the majority (79%) born between 32 and 36 weeks.

http://247wallst.com/healthcare-economy/2015/10/08/what-johns-hopkins-study-reveals-about-premature-births-near-fracking-wells/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall +St.%29

[boutons_deux]

Fracking: Putting Our National Parks at Risk

Oil and gas companies already have the rights to frack on some 30 million acres of public land in the U.S., but they want more.

In fact, they’re targeting more than 200 million additional acres of public lands for fracking (http://signforgood.com/banfracking/?code=greenpeace), much of it in national forests, state parks and the areas surrounding national parks.

1. Glacier National Park

2. White River National Forest

3. George Washington National Forest

4. Sproul State Forest

5. Arapaho National Forest

6. Theodore Roosevelt National Park

http://ecowatch.com/2015/10/08/national-parks-fracking/

[boutons_deux]

https://grist.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/man-protecting-nether-regions.jpg?w=970&h=545&crop=1

Fracking could be giving you massive balls, tiny sperm count

A new study (http://press.endocrine.org/doi/pdf/10.1210/en.2015-1375) published in the journal Endocrinology found prenatal exposure to fracking chemicals shows potential long-term reproductive effects in mice, including the development of giant testes with low sperm counts.

The Huffington Post reports (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fracking-chemicals-reproductive-system_561e657ae4b028dd7ea5e1cf):

Scientists tested 24 fracking chemicals — including benzene, toluene and bisphenol A — and found that 23 of them could mimic and mess with the natural signaling (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/05/fracking-chemicals-health-endocrine-disruptors_n_6273660.html?1417805693) of estrogens, androgens and other human hormones, including functions critical for the healthy development of sex organs and future fertility. Researchers found that male mice exposed in the womb to minute levels of the mixture developed enlarged testes and decreased sperm counts later in life.

The concentrations represent potentially realistic levels of human exposure via drinking water, according to Susan Nagel, an author of the study and an expert in reproductive and environmental health at the University of Missouri.

“Bottom line, hormones work at very low concentrations naturally,” Nagel told The Huffington Post. “It does not take a huge amount of a chemical to disrupt the endocrine system.”


In news that will surprise approximately no one, the fracking industry disputed these claims.

http://grist.org/climate-energy/fracking-could-be-giving-you-massive-balls-tiny-sperm-count/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed

ok, mice, not men, but damaged sperm has caused offspring damage that has persisted over more then the immediate offspring, iow, permanent genetic damage across generations.

[boutons_deux]

With Abandoned Gas Wells, States (taxpayers) Are Left With The Cleanup Bill

When energy booms go bust, the public is often left responsible for the cleanup. That's because while most states and the federal government make companies put up at least some money in advance to pay for any mess they leave behind, it's often not enough.

After the methane industry collapse, there were almost 4,000 wells in Wyoming that the company responsible walked away from. Now, the state has to pay the price.

Driving around the Powder River Basin in northeast Wyoming with Jeff Campbell and Jeff Gillum, both of whom work for the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, is like playing an extended game of "Where's Waldo?"

Gillum and Campbell are in charge of making sure the abandoned wells get cleaned up and plugged. But first, Gillum says, they have to find them as they did recently near the town of Gillette.
"Finding Waldo is easier!" Gillum says.

That's because Gillette, like many other U.S. cities from Los Angeles to Denver, grew up around the wells. They're in people's front yards and at the end of the driving range at the golf course. They're everywhere.

Workers begin the plugging process with bentonite, a kind of super absorbent clay that gets poured down the well to seal it. Once the bottom of the well is filled with bentonite, a cement crew comes in and then, a pipe cutting crew.

Campbell says it takes 20 workers total and many hours from start to finish. "It's a lot more work than a lot of people realize," he says.

And it also takes a lot of money. Coal-bed methane wells in Wyoming are relatively shallow, so they generally cost under $10,000 to plug apiece. But there are so many orphaned wells, it could cost up to $30 million over the next decade to clean them all up.

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2015/10/19/oil-well-flip-762bbe2f6d07a493a6030c4dc518cbfda355a8b7-s400-c85.jpgi (http://www.npr.org/2015/10/19/449976530/with-abandoned-gas-wells-states-are-left-with-the-cleanup-bill#)
Bentonite must be poured into abandoned coal-bed methane wells to seal off gas-producing formations. But that's only the first step of many.

That's no small expense. But there's a potentially bigger one on the horizon: all the deep oil and gas wells that were recently drilled.

"They're that much deeper, the pad sizes are much bigger, so the costs to properly plug and reclaim these deep oil wells are going to be much, much more expensive,"

says Jill Morrison, organizer with the Powder River Basin Resource Council.

http://www.npr.org/2015/10/19/449976530/with-abandoned-gas-wells-states-are-left-with-the-cleanup-bill

BigCarbon, there's so many ways you fuck us all over for profit.

[boutons_deux]

End of the road for oil exports on highway bill

A bid by oil export advocates to tether the trade issue to a federal highway bill has hit a dead end.

Oil producers and their allies in Congress had hoped to use the highway bill as a vehicle for unrelated provisions lifting the 40-year-old ban on U.S. crude exports.

But the House Rules Committee opted not to make any oil export amendments in order (https://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/SAHR22acrule.pdf) during the chamber’s upcoming debate on that highway measure this week. Dozens of amendments were blessed by the committee, which will allow them to be considered for possible inclusion in the highway bill, but neither of two submitted oil export proposals made the cut.

The decision deals a blow to oil producers for which crude exports is a top priority. Current law allows exports of refined petroleum products, such as gasoline and diesel, but generally blocks raw, unprocessed U.S. crude from being sold to foreign buyers.

Business groups and conservative organizations had lobbied House Republicans to authorize broad oil exports as part of the highway bill.

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/11/04/end-of-the-road-for-oil-exports-on-highway-bill/

[boutons_deux]

Pennsylvania's Attorney General Sues Gas Driller Over 'Deceptive' Leases

Pennsylvania's attorney general sued one of the nation's largest producers of natural gas on Wednesday over claims it cheated at least 4,000 landowners who signed drilling leases with the company.

Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. tricked landowners into signing industry-friendly leases in the early years of the Marcellus Shale drilling boom and then improperly deducted post-production expenses from their royalty checks, according to the lawsuit filed in Bradford County.

Chesapeake, the nation's No. 2 gas producer, engaged in a "bait and switch scheme" with landowners, said the lawsuit, which seeks tens of millions of dollars in restitution as well as civil penalties.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/pennsylvania-attorney-general-sues-gas-driller?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

Are all BigOil people total, thieving, lying assholes?

[boutons_deux]

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765/images/ba69e7f6-bafe-4c95-a4ad-a5d8542dd348.jpg

http://oilprice.com/newsletters/free/opintel05012016

[CosmicCowboy]

End of the road for oil exports on highway bill

A bid by oil export advocates to tether the trade issue to a federal highway bill has hit a dead end.

Oil producers and their allies in Congress had hoped to use the highway bill as a vehicle for unrelated provisions lifting the 40-year-old ban on U.S. crude exports.

But the House Rules Committee opted not to make any oil export amendments in order (https://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/SAHR22acrule.pdf) during the chamber’s upcoming debate on that highway measure this week. Dozens of amendments were blessed by the committee, which will allow them to be considered for possible inclusion in the highway bill, but neither of two submitted oil export proposals made the cut.

The decision deals a blow to oil producers for which crude exports is a top priority. Current law allows exports of refined petroleum products, such as gasoline and diesel, but generally blocks raw, unprocessed U.S. crude from being sold to foreign buyers.

Business groups and conservative organizations had lobbied House Republicans to authorize broad oil exports as part of the highway bill.

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/11/04/end-of-the-road-for-oil-exports-on-highway-bill/




:lmao

uhhhh...Boo...it's perfectly legal to export oil. You live under a fucking rock? Or Momma's single wide doesn't get cable?

[boutons_deux]

:lmao

uhhhh...Boo...it's perfectly legal to export oil. You live under a fucking rock?

that was an article from Nov 15, my little butthurt gun fellator.

[CosmicCowboy]

that was an article from Nov 15, my little butthurt gun fellator.

And your point in posting it was ?????

[TeyshaBlue]

Pointless like the rest of his spam shit takes.

[pgardn]

Fracking will return boots. The ME countries are overproducing to pay for wars, especially Iraq.

The oil in the US will not suddenly disappear.

[TDMVPDPOY]

Fracking will return boots. The ME countries are overproducing to pay for wars, especially Iraq.

The oil in the US will not suddenly disappear.

if its cheaper to buy now from them goat fuckers, why is america still fracking its own reserves when it doesnt need to used its own reserves?...should be stocking up supplies

[boutons_deux]

Toxins found in fracking fluids and wastewater

In an analysis of more than 1,000 chemicals in fluids used in and created by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), Yale School of Public Health researchers found that many of the substances have been linked to reproductive and developmental health problems, and the majority had undetermined toxicity due to insufficient information.

Further exposure and epidemiological studies are urgently needed to evaluate potential threats to human health from chemicals found in fracking fluids and wastewater created by fracking,

The research team evaluated available data on 1,021 chemicals used in fracking, a process that recovers oil and natural gas (http://phys.org/tags/natural+gas/) from deep within the ground by using a mixture of hydraulic-fracturing (http://phys.org/tags/hydraulic+fracturing/) fluids that can contain hundreds of chemicals. The process creates significant amounts of wastewater and fractures the bedrock, posing a potential threat to both surface water and underground aquifers that supply drinking water,

While they lacked definitive information on the toxicity of the majority of the chemicals, the team members analyzed 240 substances and concluded that 157 of them—chemicals such as arsenic, benzene, cadmium, lead, formaldehyde, chlorine, and mercury—were associated with either developmental or reproductive toxicity. Of these, 67 chemicals were of particular concern because they had an existing federal health-based standard or guideline, said the scientists, adding that data on whether levels of chemicals exceeded the guidelines were too limited to assess

Some previous studies have observed associations between proximity to hydraulic fracturing sites and reproductive and developmental problems, but they did not investigate specific chemicals. This latest evaluation could inform the design of future studies by highlighting which chemicals could have the highest probability of health impact,

The researchers determined that wastewater produced by fracking may be even more toxic than the fracking fluids themselves

http://phys.org/news/2016-01-toxins-fracking-fluids-wastewater.html

War Criminal Dickhead Cheney and BigOil knew exactly what they were doing when they exempted fracking from the Clean Water Act.

[boutons_deux]

EPA Scientists Call Foul on Fracking Study, Say Findings ‘Inconsistent With Data Presented’

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) advisors are calling foul on the agency’s highly controversial study (http://ecowatch.com/?s=epa+fracking) that determined hydraulic fracturing, or fracking (http://ecowatch.com/news/energy-news/fracking-2/), has not led to “widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the U.S.”

This specific conclusion is being called into question by members of the EPA Science Advisory Board (http://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabpeople.nsf/WebExternalSubCommitteeRosters?OpenView&committee=BOARD&subcommittee=Hydraulic%20Fracturing%20Research%20A dvisory%20Panel), which reviews the agency’s major studies, Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-07/the-u-s-epa-called-fracking-safe-now-its-scientists-disagree) reported.

The EPA’s conclusion requires clarification, David Dzombak, a Carnegie Mellon University environmental engineering professor who is leading the review, told Bloomberg. A panel headed by Dzombak will release its initial recommendations later this month.

“Major findings are ambiguous or are inconsistent with the observations/data presented in the body of the report,” the 31 scientists on the panel said in December 2015.

Possible changes to the report could spell trouble for the oil and gas industry that recently celebrated the ending of a 40-year-old crude oil export ban (http://ecowatch.com/2015/12/16/crude-oil-export-ban/) in December 2015. According to Bloomberg, “a repudiation of the results could reignite the debate over the need for more regulation.”

http://ecowatch.com/2016/01/08/epa-call-foul-fracking-study/?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=5ac111ea70-Top_News_1_8_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-5ac111ea70-85879165

[boutons_deux]

Shocker: Govt. Scientists Admit They Deceived the Public About Fracking's Impact on Drinking Water

There will be heavy pressure to revise the EPA’s conclusion — and the oil and gas industry will have major egg on its face.

it turns out that the EPA’s own science advisers have repudiated the study’s major conclusion (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-07/the-u-s-epa-called-fracking-safe-now-its-scientists-disagree), saying that it is “inconsistent with the observations, data and levels of uncertainty.”

“Major findings are ambiguous or are inconsistent with the observations/data presented in the body of the report,” the 31-member scientific review board said on Thursday.

The panel will have a public teleconference on Feb. 1 before sending its final recommendations to EPA.

The conclusion of the draft report had already drawn suspicion of political tampering. Adding to this is the fact that EPA left out high-profile cases in Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming “where hydraulic fracturing activities are perceived by many members of the public to have caused significant local impacts to drinking water sources.”

The EPA draft report also found that failed wells and aboveground spills may have affected drinking water resources. It found evidence of more than 36,000 spills from 2006 to 2012. According to Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-07/the-u-s-epa-called-fracking-safe-now-its-scientists-disagree):

“Spill data alone “gives sufficient pause to reconsider the statement” that there’s no evidence of systemic, widespread damage, said panelist Bruce Honeyman, professor emeritus at the Colorado School of Mines.

“It’s important to characterize and discuss the frequency and severity of outliers that have occurred,” said panelist Katherine Bennett Ensor, chairwoman of the Rice University Department of Statistics.

And panel member James Bruckner, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Georgia, said the report glosses over the limited data and studies available to the agency.

“I do not think that the document’s authors have gone far enough to emphasize how preliminary these key conclusions are and how limited the factual bases are for their judgments,” Bruckner said.

Young, the University of California professor who suggested rewriting the top-line conclusion, faulted the document for trying “to draw a global and permanent conclusion about the safety or impacts of hydraulic fracturing at the national level” given the “uncertainties and data limitations described in the report.””


In light of these criticisms, there will be heavy pressure to revise the EPA’s conclusion in the final report, and the oil and gas industry will have major egg on its face.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/shocker-govt-scientists-admit-they-deceived-public-about-frackings-impact-drinking-water?akid=13876.187590.Va2icj&rd=1&src=newsletter1048859&t=20
http://www.alternet.org/environment/shocker-govt-scientists-admit-they-deceived-public-about-frackings-impact-drinking-water?akid=13876.187590.Va2icj&rd=1&src=newsletter1048859&t=20

EPA corrupted by BigOil, just like USDA and their 5-year dietary bullshit are corrupted by BigFood/BigAg

[boutons_deux]

I heard a 55-gal steel drum cost more than the oil in it. :lol

[boutons_deux]

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765/images/4373d0be-f18e-4391-9d27-5e4b4031372e.jpg

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765/images/b67dddc0-93a7-4e23-8830-07d47a88d581.jpg

[Winehole23]

http://wolfstreet.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/US-SP-Distressed-dollarissuers-2008-2016-01.png

[boutons_deux]

Spike in earthquakes rattles Oklahoma oil & gas industry

Over the past six years, earthquakes in Oklahoma have skyrocketed – from less than a handful of 3.0 quakes before 2009 to well over 900 last year. The likely culprit: salty wastewater that bubbles up during oil and gas drilling. The rash of quakes has led to tough questions for the energy industry that provides one in five jobs in the state and comprises nearly a third of Oklahoma’s economy. NewsHour's Stephen Fee reports.

Over the past six years, earthquakes in Oklahoma have skyrocketed – from less than a handful of 3.0 quakes before 2009 to well over 900 last year.

The likely culprit: salty wastewater that bubbles up during oil and gas drilling. The rash of quakes has led to tough questions for the energy industry that provides one in five jobs in the state and comprises nearly a third of Oklahoma’s economy. NewsHour's Stephen Fee reports.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/spike-in-earthquakes-rattles-oklahoma-oil-gas-industry/

===============

Dallas-Fort Worth quake risk more than tripled since 2008, USGS says

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20150423-dallas-fort-worth-s-quake-risk-more-than-tripled-since-2008-usgs-says.ece

[boutons_deux]

Here’s What Oil and Gas’s Ugly 2015 Did to Business Investment
http://ritholtz.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/1-768x739.jpg

http://ritholtz.com/2016/02/heres-what-oil-and-gass-ugly-2015-did-to-business-investment/

so, we should DESIRE oil to be at $200 so all the above numbers would improve?

[boutons_deux]

Oil services firms face $110B in debt — and the bill is coming due

HOUSTON – Oil equipment companies have a lot riding on the sputtering market recovery.

During the next five years, they’ll have to pay off about $110 billion in maturing debt. So unless energy prices and drilling rebound in time, many of them will probably fail, Moody’s Investors Service said in a new report released Tuesday.

The credit ratings agency says one-third of the 67 companies on its list could see debt levels climb to 10 times more than raw earnings, putting them at risk of debt defaults. About $33 billion of the bond and term loans come due by 2018.

The U.S. shale energy bonanza spurred drillers and service companies to run up a half-trillion dollars in debt from 2010 to 2015, but the collapse of oil prices has bankrupted 173 companies across North America since the beginning of last year, according to the law firm Haynes & Boone.

“We don’t expect the (oil field services) sector to recover until mid-2017,” Moody’s analysts said in the report. Many, the firm said, don’t have the cash to wait for a full recovery in drilling activity.

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2016/08/09/oil-services-firms-face-110b-in-debt-and-the-bill-is-coming-due/

[boutons_deux]

BigOil corrupts, pollutes TX as much as it corrupts, pollutes LA

Texas Promised 34 Years Ago to Track Oilfield Waste in Aquifers. It Didn't.

Have oil and gas companies injected toxic materials into Texas groundwater sources?

State regulators don't know, even though they agreed in 1982 to track injections into zones that could hold underground sources of drinking water, according to records obtained by The Texas Tribune.

Only now are Texas officials combing through thousands of permits issued since then in an effort to account for these injections — a revelation that has stirred concerns among environmentalists and groundwater managers.

The Railroad Commission, the state's oil and gas regulator, acknowledges in a letter (https://static.texastribune.org/media/documents/RRC_to_CWA_FOIA_June_2016_1.pdf) that it permitted injections into at least a "handful" of zonesfitting the broad legal definition of drinking water sources, but it does not know how many times that has happened over the past decades.

Federal regulators have no record of approving exemptions for these injections, and in a report issued this month (https://static.texastribune.org/media/documents/EPAreviewRRC.pdf) they instructed the Railroad Commission to prioritize gathering the data.

Both the EPA and Railroad Commission call the injections they know of low-risk, and they say they have no evidence pointing to fouled water supplies.

But environmental watchdogs say revelations — found in agency emails, letters, reports and other documents — show disorganization at the Railroad Commission, raising questions about its ability to protect groundwater from pollution inside thousands of disposal and injection wells dotting Texas oilfields.

“The Railroad Commission has no information,” said David Foster, Texas director of Clean Water Action, an environmental advocacy group headquartered in Washington, D.C. “It’s a black hole."

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/08/24/texas-promised-34-years-ago-track-oilfield-waste-a/

That's oilman Dickhead Cheney exempted fracking from the Clean Water Act.

TX RRC were corrupted NOT to do their jobs.

[Winehole23]

Observations that unequivocally link seismicity and wastewater injection are scarce. Here we show that wastewater injection in eastern Texas causes uplift, detectable in radar interferometric data up to >8 kilometers from the wells. Using measurements of uplift, reported injection data, and a poroelastic model, we computed the crustal strain and pore pressure. We infer that an increase of >1 megapascal in pore pressure in rocks with low compressibility triggers earthquakes, including the 4.8–moment magnitude event that occurred on 17 May 2012, the largest earthquake recorded in eastern Texashttp://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6306/1416

[boutons_deux]

Of course they didn't.

ALL of TX govt is tainted, polluted, corrupted with Repug/BigCorp pro-business hack functionaries

Texas Parks department admits it never studied impact of oil drilling on Balmorhea springs

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2016/10/10/texas-parks-department-admits-it-never-studied-impact-of-oil-drilling-on-balmorhea-springs/

[boutons_deux]

Enviros to Texas Lawmakers: What About the Fracking Kids?

A new report detailing the proximity of schools and daycare centers to fracking wells in Texas should serve as a wakeup call to state lawmakers, environmental groups say.

Unveiled at a news conference in Austin on Thursday, the report (http://environmenttexas.org/reports/txe/dangerous-and-close) found that nearly 437,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade attend one of 850 Texas schools that are within one mile of a fracking site. In addition, 1,240 daycare centers — or 9 percent of the total number — are within one mile of a fracking well.

Health hazards associated with fracking include air pollution, groundwater contamination, truck traffic and explosions or other accidents, according to the report.

Children are more susceptible to harm because their immune, respiratory and nervous systems are still developing.

“This report lays out a pretty clear choice for Texas and the Legislature,” said Cyrus Reed, conservation director for the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter (http://www.sierraclub.org/texas).

“Choose to protect children or the oil and gas industry.”

https://www.texasobserver.org/enviros-to-texas-lawmakers-what-about-the-fracking-kids/

TX legislature doesn't give a shit about anything health or environmental problems from BigCarbon.

TX Repugs will always "choose" BigCarbon over kids.

[boutons_deux]

Private Gain, Public Destruction

Abandoned Texas oil wells seen as "ticking time bombs" of contamination

Texas is among several states grappling with a surge of abandoned drilling sites and dwindling funds to clean them up.

IMPERIAL — Peculiar things can happen after folks drill deep into the earth — looking for oil, water or whatever — and leave a bunch of holes in the ground. Fluids can gurgle and leak, migrating where they don’t belong. In rare instances, land could even sink or collapse (https://www.texastribune.org/2016/07/12/west-texas-county-unfazed-headlines-portending-sin/).

The oddest unintended consequences tend to bubble up in this pockmarked slice of West Texas, where wildcatters started poking holes in the ground nearly a century ago.

“If this stuff was even close to Austin, hell, it’d be national news,”

Texas, the nation’s petroleum king, is home to nearly 300,000 wells currently pumping oil, gas and dollars into the economy.

But those are hardly the only holes that petroleum companies have bored into the Texas landscape. As far back as 1990 (https://www.twdb.texas.gov/publications/State_Water_Plan/1990/1990%20State%20Water%20Plan.pdf), Texas touted more than 1.5 million oil and gas-related holes, including hundreds of thousands of test wells, service wells and those that came up dry.

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/12/21/texas-abandoned-oil-wells-seen-ticking-time-bombs-/

[boutons_deux]

Fracking benefits local economies, but drives up crime rates, study finds

Hydraulic fracturing and the shale boom have provided many benefits for communities around the country, but the boom has also driven up local crime rates and decreased residents’ quality of life,

according to a University of Chicago study released Thursday.

In the study, researchers with the Energy Policy Institute at the university tried to quantify the benefits of the successful yet controversial fracking boom around the country. Overall, as fracking unlocked previously inaccessible reservoirs of oil and gas, Americans have benefited: their incomes and wages went up, their homes increased in value and their communities have more jobs. On average, housing prices rose by 6 percent and employment rose by 10 percent generally and by 40 percent for oil and gas jobs.

“This study makes it clear that on net there are benefits to local economies–which we believe is useful information for leaders in the United States and abroad who are deciding whether to allow fracking in their communities,” said Chris Knittel, one the study’s authors and the director of the Massachusetts Institute for Technology’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research.

But the 10-year-old fracking boom also had a downside.

The report found that oil and gas communities also reported higher crime rates, more traffic, pollution and general anxiety over the environmental dangers of fracking, which injects a mixture of chemicals, sand and water deep underground to release oil and gas.

Students, elderly residents and those without mineral rights were also less likely to benefit from increased fracking, the study found.

Tthe study’s researchers concluded that the benefits of fracking outweigh the costs, but that scale could tip if more research concludes that fracking is an environmental hazard, affected water quality and human health.

In 2015, fracking accounted for about half of all U.S. crude oil production, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Fifteen years ago, oil from fracked wells accounted for only 2 percent of all U.S. production,.

Fracking has had the biggest impact in Texas’ Eagle Ford and Permian basins and in the Bakken in North Dakota and eastern Montana. North Dakota residents have benefited the most from the boom, as home prices increased by 23 percent.

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2016/12/22/fracking-benefits-local-economies-but-drives-up-crime-rates-study-finds/

[dbestpro]

Should change the name of this thread to fake news.

[boutons_deux]

Sky People relentless, nothing is sacred, nobody is safe

https://files.38degrees.org.uk/images/treefbplain.jpg


Protect Sherwood Forest

Sherwood forest, home to ancient trees, rare wildlife and Robin Hood is in danger. A huge energy company, Ineos, is trying to get permission to explore underneath it for gas. Britain’s most famous woodland could soon be filled with lorries, heavy machinery and explosions.

https://speakout.38degrees.org.uk/campaigns/1787?utm_source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=blast2017-01-06&bucket=email-blast-5_1_2017_sherwood_forest_petition50kflt

[spurraider21]

Sky People

:lmao

[boutons_deux]

Childhood Leukemia And Oil & Gas Development Strongly Associated

https://c1cleantechnicacom-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/files/2017/02/Childhood-Leukemia-768x512.jpg

children living near areas with high levels of oil and gas wells are much more likely to develop leukemia than those that aren’t — 4.3 times more likely, that is (as compared to those with different types of cancers).

https://cleantechnica.com/2017/02/20/childhood-leukemia-oil-gas-development-strongly-associated-research-finds/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IM-cleantechnica+%28CleanTechnica%29

no worries, Pruitt will MAXIMIZE oil/gas pollution.

[Winehole23]

Beginning of the end of the Bakken play:


Investors should be worried. As analysts cheered the resilience of shale plays after the 2014 price collapse, nearly a billion barrels of Bakken oil were produced at a loss--about 40% of total production since the 1960s. Vast volumes of oil were squandered at low prices for the sake of cash flow to support unmanageable debt loads and to satisfy investors about production growth. The clear message is that investors do not understand the uncertainties of tight oil and shale gas plays.


And all major Bakken producers continue to lose money at current wellhead prices. If observations presented here hold up, there may be nowhere for the Bakken to go but down. Higher oil prices may not help much because the best days for the play are behind us. Future profits were sacrificed for short-term objectives that lost the companies and their shareholders money.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/arthurberman/2017/03/01/the-beginning-of-the-end-for-the-bakken-shale-play/#62bc411e1487

[boutons_deux]

Fracking harms the health of babies, study shows

A new study (http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/12/e1603021) from the journal Science Advances found that infants born to women living near fracking sites in Pennsylvania were especially vulnerable to adverse health outcomes.

“As local and state policymakers decide whether to allow hydraulic fracturing in their communities, it is crucial that they carefully examine the costs and benefits,” said Michael Greenstone, a coauthor of the study and the director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, in a press release.

“This study provides the strongest large-scale evidence of a link between the pollution that stems from hydraulic fracturing activities and … the health of babies.”

The researchers analyzed vital statistics of more than 1.1 million births in Pennsylvania between 2004 and 2013.

They studied infants born to women living 1 kilometer (or slightly over half a mile) away from fracking sites, as well as women living within 3 kilometers (or less than 2 miles), and women living between 3 to 15 kilometers (or less than 2 miles to 9 miles) away.

They found that fracking reduces the health of infants born to mothers living within 3 kilometers from a fracking site. But for mothers living within 1 kilometer, the affects were acute.

The probability of low infant birth weight, meaning the infant weighs less than 5.5 pounds, increased to 25 percent.

Studies show that low birth weight can lead to infant mortality, asthma, lower test scores while school-age, and lower earnings as adults.

The study also found that mothers whose babies may have been exposed to nearby fracking sites tend to be younger, less educated, and less likely to be married — factors that can also lead to poor infant health.

But there are significant differences between the mothers who give birth close to fracking sites and those who don’t. Black mothers included in the study were more likely to live nearest to fracking sites, exposing their infants to higher risks of pollution.

“This difference arises because over time, more wells were drilled near urban areas such as Pittsburgh, where higher numbers of African Americans live,” the authors wrote.

Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, has 63 active fracking wells (http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/drilling/counties/allegheny-county/).

Many other fracking sites are located in lower-income communities.

http://grist.org/article/fracking-harms-the-health-of-babies-study-shows/

So you BigOil assholes want fracking in your town, next to your propert or school?

fuck off, TX Repug preempt control and always yield to BigOil, who pays for external costs like fucked babies, nor is forced to stop poisoning people

[boutons_deux]

BigOil, like BigCoal, won't pay, never have, the "external costs" paid by taxpayers, and there ain't no "could pay", it's as always will pay such corporate welfare.

U.S. energy drilling boom could mean $6 billion in federal well cleanups

Cleaning up the tens of thousands oil and gas wells on U.S. federal land after they stop producing could cost over $6 billion, and taxpayers may need to pitch in

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-oil-reclamation/u-s-energy-drilling-boom-could-mean-6-billion-in-federal-well-cleanups-idUSKCN1GA1EG?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

[boutons_deux]

Dire Warnings for Other States (and the Planet) as Big Oil Pushes Sneaky "Nuclear Option" to Protect Profits via Colorado Ballot

"Colorado Amendment 74, pushed by the fossil fuel industry, seems to be one of the most dangerous propositions in the country,"

it could provide a playbook for Big Oil to skirt health regulations on a country-wide scale, potentially dooming the kinds of ambitious climate policies

"It is a model that could block all future state efforts to reduce fossil fuel extraction, carbon pollution, vehicle emissions, and climate change."

David Sirota
✔@davidsirota
(https://twitter.com/davidsirota)
THE MOST DANGEROUS STATE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT IN MODERN AMERICAN HISTORY:

A landmark measure backed by oil/gas CEOs

would block any and all state/local efforts to reduce emissions, protect residents' health/safety and combat climate change

https://www.westword.com/news/amendment-74-big-oils-doomsday-device-could-destroy-climate-change-movement-colorado-economy-10953810 … (https://t.co/c6HcXOqTUF) #copolitics (https://twitter.com/hashtag/copolitics?src=hash)
3:19 PM - Oct 30, 2018 (https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/1057366346227281920)

==============

David Roberts
✔@drvox
(https://twitter.com/drvox)
The nastiest ballot initiative in the nation is Colorado's Amendment 74, which

would give the oil & gas industry a headlock on democracy.

Please, if you live there or know someone who does, read this. https://www.westword.com/news/amendment-74-big-oils-doomsday-device-could-destroy-climate-change-movement-colorado-economy-10953810 … (https://t.co/igdkykFh81)
12:38 PM - Oct 31, 2018 (https://twitter.com/drvox/status/1057688179128463360)

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/10/31/dire-warnings-other-states-and-planet-big-oil-pushes-sneaky-nuclear-option-protect?cd-origin=rss

[SnakeBoy]

Beginning of the end of the Bakken play:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/arthurberman/2017/03/01/the-beginning-of-the-end-for-the-bakken-shale-play/#62bc411e1487

https://www.investors.com/news/continental-resources-bakken-oil-estimate-well-completions/

Continental Resources (CLR) estimates that the Bakken Shale formation could hold up to double its previous estimate, prompting a surge in planned activity there.


Citing improvements in technology, the company now estimates that the Bakken play holds 30 billion to 40 billion barrels of recoverable oil, up from its 2011 estimate of 20 billion. Continental Resources is ramping up in the Bakken this quarter and expects up to 70 wells to be completed by year's end, vs. 42 completed in Q3.

[boutons_deux]

Earth People can't win against Sky People who are in cahoots with the govt whores

CO Supreme Court Hands Another Victory to Oil and Gas Industry

found, contrary to the arguments of the Commission and the youth, that


the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission cannot condition oil and gas development on protecting public health, safety, and welfare and the environment.

held that the Commission did

not have authority to promulgate a rule protecting public health if it precluded new oil and gas development.

we do not believe that the pertinent provisions of the Act allow the Commission to condition one legislative priority (here, oil and gas development) on another (here, the protection of public health and the environment).

Accordingly, in our view, the Commission properly exercised its discretion in declining to engage in rulemaking to consider Respondents’ proposed rule.”

the Commission is required

(1) to foster the development of oil and gas resources, protecting and enforcing the rights of owners and producers, and

(2) in doing so, to prevent and mitigate significant adverse environmental impacts to the extent necessary to protect public health, safety, and welfare,

but only after taking into consideration cost-effectiveness and technical feasibility.” :lol

https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2019/01/14/co-supreme-court-hands-another-victory-oil-and-gas-industry?cd-origin=rss

Guess who financed the creation of the C
olorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission? :lol


Sky People have and will continue to destroy the Home Planet

So People's and the planet's health are secondary to BigCarbon's profits and "technical feasibility

[boutons_deux]

Could Kinder Morgan’s ‘Permian Highway’ Scar the Hill Country?

On its 430-mile path to the Gulf, the natural gas pipeline would gash the iconic Hill Country, a region relatively free from oil and gas development.

https://www.texasobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/16989574336_bc07c53d80_o-759x456.jpg

One place the warbler can still find sanctuary is on the

6F Ranch, part of a 3,800-acre property along the Blanco River

where environmentally sensitive land has been retired from development.

Enter: Kinder Morgan.

In October,

the multibillion-dollar energy company informed Lucy Johnson, whose family owns the ranch, that it

plans to run a natural gas pipeline (https://www.kindermorgan.com/content/docs/php_fact_sheet.pdf) straight through the property.

The ranch is one of thousands of private properties in the path of the so-called “Permian Highway” pipeline,

which would trace a southeasterly path from the West Texas oil patch to the Gulf Coast, where

the gas will be exported around the globe.

On its 430-mile Gulfward journey, the pipeline would gash the Texas Hill Country, a quickly growing and environmentally sensitive region that’s been relatively untouched by oil and gas development.

(https://www.texasobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/16989574336_bc07c53d80_o-759x456.jpg)https://www.texasobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/16989574336_bc07c53d80_o-759x456.jpg

This is "eminent domain" that the Repug whores, esp shithole TX Repug govt loves to crush citizens with.

[Winehole23]

the oil patch struggles to show a profit, ten years into a historic boom:


Chevron’s Michael Wirth was unfazed. “Our confidence in the Permian is higher today than it was the last time that I spoke to you,” he said. “When you’re talking about returns, these — we put out a data before on the returns that we’re seeing and they’re well up in the 35%-plus range as we’ve moved to longer laterals, a better basis of design and even in a modest price environment, we’re seeing very, very strong returns. It’s as good as — good or better than anything else we could be doing.”

Chevron maintains that it will be cash flow positive in the Permian by 2020 and that the company would allocate much of additional cash flow to shareholder distributions. The company appears confident about the path that it is on in West Texas.

But the health of the industry is in the eye of the beholder, in many ways. In response to Chevron’s financial results, some market analysts were not as impressed. “THE REAL STORY IS THAT THE FRACKING SECTOR HAS BEEN, AND CONTINUES TO BE, A FINANCIAL BUST,” Kathy Hipple, Tom Sanzillo and Clark Williams-Derry wrote in a joint commentary (http://ieefa.org/ieefa-sightline-institute-update-chevrons-permian-refrain-wait-til-next-year/) for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and the Sightline Institute. Related: Oil Prices Could Soar On Trade War Truce (https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/Oil-Prices-Could-Soar-On-Trade-War-Truce.html)

The analysts said that the industry continues to utter the same refrain that it has been for a long time: “Wait ‘til next year.” They are referring to Chevron’s promise to be cash flow positive in the Permian by 2020. “The oil and gas giant is now admitting that its enormous bets on the Permian Basin will continue to bleed red ink for the rest of 2019. Investors will have to wait for yet another year — at least — until Chevron’s Permian assets start to pay off,” they wrote.

In a previous study (http://ieefa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/More-Red-Flags-on-Fracking_December-2018.pdf), the trio of analysts found that a selection of 32 mid-sized U.S. E&Ps spent nearly $1 billion more on drilling and related capital expenditures during the third quarter of 2018 than they generated in sales, which was notable because market conditions were much more auspicious than at any point in previous years. “These results may come as a surprise to investors who incorrectly equate rising output with financial success,” they wrote. At the time, U.S. oil production was breaking records, oil prices were at their highest point in years and “[e]ven with those advantages, our sample of mid-size oil and gas producers continued to hemorrhage cash due to the high cost of drilling and the industry’s seemingly insatiable thirst for capital.”

Chevron is a late-comer to the Permian, so presumably they are in the early growth stages, spending on drilling so that they can scale up and eventually turn a profit. But, as the IEEFA and Sightline Institute analysts note, that has been the mantra from most shale companies for more than a decade. If Chevron manages to become cash flow positive, investors will likely forgive and forget. But that remains to be seen. In the meantime, Wall Street is beginning to lose some patience (https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Wall-Street-Loses-Faith-In-Shale.html) with shale drillers.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-Permian-Is-A-Double-Edged-Sword-For-Oil-Majors.html

[Winehole23]

Paul Sankey, an analyst at Mizuho Securities, pressed Chevron’s chief executive on an earnings call. “I guess you’re strongly outperforming your volume targets, can you also talk about your returns there, because those concerns that you’re perhaps not as leading edge as we might want you to be in terms of your Permian performance on a returns basis,” Sankey said. Related: BP CEO Dudley: U.S. Shale Is ‘A Market Without A Brain’ (https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/BP-CEO-Dudley-US-Shale-Is-A-Market-Without-A-Brain.html)

[boutons_deux]

Sky People are unstoppable, SCOTX oil whores rule against land owners

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2019/04/15/property-owner-dinged-by-high-court-for-refusing.html

[boutons_deux]

U.S. safety board urges new rules after fatal Oklahoma well blast

An investigation into an explosion at an Oklahoma natural gas drilling rig that killed five workers last year faulted inadequate training and equipment

“The lack of effective safety management at this well resulted in a needless catastrophe,”

The accident was the deadliest oil and gas drilling incident since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11.

Workers were not properly trained to monitor for natural gas leaks and had turned off an alarm that could have warned them

Equipment designed to shut gas or oil flow during an emergency also failed, likely because control hoses burned,

Drilling began “without needed planning, equipment, skills, or procedures,” :lol

The CSB has no regulatory or enforcement authority. :lol of course not, no accountability, no punishment

The American Petroleum Institute (API), which develops safety standards for the oil industry, needs to make design changes to better protect workers in driller’s cabins and create guidelines on alarm systems, :lol
The API plans to review the CSB’s report and consider its recommendations, :lol

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oklahoma-blast-regulator/u-s-safety-board-urges-new-rules-after-fatal-oklahoma-well-blast-idUSKCN1TE039?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

Profits over people, it's the Capitalists' way

API gives the tiniest shit about oil/gas field workers? :lol

[boutons_deux]

2. The shale oil boom and wasted gas

Oil producers around the world wasted as much natural gas in 2018 as South and Central America tend to use in an entire year,


https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-generate-393003ca-b03c-4d5d-9327-49f3b1a0a15f.html?chunk=1&utm_term=emshare#story1 (https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-generate-393003ca-b03c-4d5d-9327-49f3b1a0a15f.html?chunk=1&utm_term=emshare#story1)

[boutons_deux]

'We Need to Ban Fracking': New Analysis of 1,500 Scientific Studies Details Threat to Health and Climate

"The data show that fracking impairs the health of people who live nearby, especially pregnant women, and swings a wrecking ball at the climate."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/19/we-need-ban-fracking-new-analysis-1500-scientific-studies-details-threat-health-and?cd-origin=rss (https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/19/we-need-ban-fracking-new-analysis-1500-scientific-studies-details-threat-health-and?cd-origin=rss)


TB :lol and the Sky People laugh their corrupt asses off.

[boutons_deux]

Just a little external cost BigCorp dumps on citizens

Babies Born Near Oil and Gas Wells Are Up to 70% More Likely to Have Congenital Heart Defects, New Study Shows

Researchers at the University of Colorado studied pregnant women who are among the 17 million Americans living within a mile from an active oil or gas well

the chemicals released from oil and gas wells can have serious and potentially fatal effects on babies born to mothers who live within a mile of an active well site

more than 3,000 newborns who were born in Colorado between 2005 and 2011.

The state is home to about 60,000 fracking sites (https://corising.org/colorado-map-oil-gas-wells/), according to the grassroots group Colorado Rising.

In areas with the highest intensity of oil and gas extraction activity,

mothers were 40 to 70 percent more likely to give birth to babies with congenital heart defects (CHDs).

If fracking is literally wrecking the hearts of unborn babies

it has to do so in early pregnancy

Babies born with CHDs are

more likely to show a "failure to thrive,"

experience brain injury, and

exhibit developmental challenges.

(https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/19/babies-born-near-oil-and-gas-wells-are-70-more-likely-have-congenital-heart-defects)https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/19/babies-born-near-oil-and-gas-wells-are-70-more-likely-have-congenital-heart-defects

And the Sky People don't give a shit.

Exxon intends to extract all 250B barrels in its reserves.

[boutons_deux]

Shale oil (https://www.desmogblog.com/finances-fracking-shale-industry-drills-more-debt-profit)companies have lost $280 billion in the last decade.


Steve Schlotterbeck (https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/06/23/former-shale-gas-ceo-says-shale-revolution-has-been-disaster-drillers-investors), who led drilling company EQT as it expanded to become the nation’s largest producer of natural gas in 2017,

arrived at a petrochemical industry conference in Pittsburgh Friday morning

with a blunt message about shale gas drilling and fracking.

“The shale gas revolution has frankly been an unmitigated disaster

for any buy-and-hold investor in the shale gas industry with very few limited exceptions,”

Schlotterbeck, who left the helm of EQT last year, continued.

“In fact, I’m not aware of another case of a disruptive technological change

that has done so much harm to the industry that created the change.”


https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/24/russiagate-the-cherry-on-top/ (https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/24/russiagate-the-cherry-on-top/)

[boutons_deux]

North Dakota may be hiding an oil spill larger than the Exxon Valdez

Workers cleaning up an oil spill in North Dakota that is officially listed as 10 gallons (https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/EIR3825_Summary_Report%2C%20As%20of%20July%2023%2C %202019.pdf) recovered 240,000 gallons, (https://www.apnews.com/7509da47edc94b5d9336f38d1d012097) :lol

how inadequate North Dakota’s policy is for reporting spills.

The state doesn’t update initial public reports on spills.

“I have seen many instances where it appears spills are being covered up, and

there appears to be a pattern of downplaying spills,

which makes the narrative surrounding oil and gas development look rosy and

makes the industry look better politically,”

farmer Daryl Peterson told the committee more than a dozen brine spills over the past 25 years (https://naturalresources.house.gov/imo/media/doc/2.%20Testimony%20-%20Peterson%20-%20EMR%20Ov%20Hrg%2005.16.19.pdf)have ruined parts of his farm.

“Regulators were made aware of all spills, but did not hold the companies accountable,”

a wheat farmer (https://www.apnews.com/6638975264fe41bba6f5820dc410268f) in northwestern North Dakota discovered a massive spill that has been called one of the biggest onshore spills in U.S. history.

could take another decade to clean up,

according to available reports, if the 11-million-gallon figure is accurate, the Garden Creek spill appears to be among the largest recorded oil and gas industry spills in the history of the United States.”

Gov. Doug Burgum (https://www.governor.nd.gov/) signed a law in 2017 that excuses oil companies from reporting spills of up to 10 barrels, or 420 gallons, (https://www.westfargopioneer.com/news/4247551-burgum-signs-bills-spill-reporting-new-department) of oil and produced water if the spill is contained onsite.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/north-dakota-may-be-hiding-an-oil-spill-larger-than-the-exxon-valdez/ (https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/north-dakota-may-be-hiding-an-oil-spill-larger-than-the-exxon-valdez/)

[Winehole23]

Unlike several years ago, when shale production fell due to a global price collapse, the slowdown this year is driven partly by core operational issues, including wells producing less than expected after being drilled too close to one another, and sweet spots running out sooner than anticipated.”Will the fracking boom be over before it ever turns a profit?


https://www.wsj.com/articles/shale-boom-is-slowing-just-when-the-world-needs-oil-most-11569795047

ttps://www.wsj.com/articles/wall-streets-fracking-frenzy-runs-dry-as-profits-fail-to-materialize-1512577420

[RandomGuy]

Will the fracking boom be over before it ever turns a profit?


https://www.wsj.com/articles/shale-boom-is-slowing-just-when-the-world-needs-oil-most-11569795047

ttps://www.wsj.com/articles/wall-streets-fracking-frenzy-runs-dry-as-profits-fail-to-materialize-1512577420

Depends on how many oil tankers are hit with missiles in the Persian Gulf...

They might get lucky yet...

[CosmicCowboy]

Interesting conversation I had last week. A customer of mine has always had hard water / scaling issues with his mechanical equipment. He is in falls city with a lot of fracking activity. His well is at 3500 feet and since they started fracking his scaling problem has reversed and his equipment is actually clearing out years of buildup. Logically one would assume the deep 10000 foot disposal wells are migrating up to the water table and changing the water chemistry.

[boutons_deux]

We’re Just Starting to Learn How Fracking Harms Wildlife

the consequences for wildlife have so far been left out of the national conversation.

But those consequences are very real for a vast suite of animals including mussels, birds, fish, caribou and even fleas, and they’re as varied as the species themselves.

In some places wildlife pays the price when habitat is destroyed.

Elsewhere the damage occurs when water is sucked away or polluted.

Still other species can’t take the traffic, noise and dust that accompany extraction operations.

All this damage makes sense when you think about fracking’s outsized footprint.

It starts with the land cleared for the well pad, followed by sucking large volumes of water (https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-much-water-does-typical-hydraulically-fractured-well-require?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products) (between 1.5 and 16 million gallons per well) out of rivers, streams or groundwater.

The cumulative footprint of a single new well can be as large as 30 acres (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X14005664). In places where hundreds or thousands of wells spring up across a landscape, it’s easy to imagine the toll on wildlife — and even cases with ecosystem-wide implications.

“Studies show that there are multiple pathways to wildlife being harmed,”

The most obvious threats fracking poses to wildlife comes in the form of habitat loss.

The land or water just outside of the operation, known as “edge habitat,” also degrades with an increase in the spread of invasive plant species, among other concerns.

A single fracked well can be responsible for 3,300 one-way truck trips during its operational lifespan, and each journey can injure or kill wildlife large and small.

After all, it’s hard to get out of the way of a tanker truck carrying 80,000 pounds of sand.

https://truthout.org/articles/were-just-starting-to-learn-how-fracking-harms-wildlife/ (https://truthout.org/articles/were-just-starting-to-learn-how-fracking-harms-wildlife/)

[boutons_deux]

Oil and gas emissions are reversing progress from coal’s decline

thanks in large part to the booming oil and gas industry, that slight decline in emissions is likely just a blip on the radar.

Emissions from a single proposed petrochemical complex in Louisiana’s St. James Parish, for example, would replace the lion’s share of the greenhouse gas pollution prevented through closing the Navajo Generating Station.

Once built, the $9.4 billion Formosa plastics plant is expected to release more than 13.6 million tons of greenhouse gases per year.

The St. James facility is just one of dozens of new polluting plants expected to contribute to ballooning emissions from the U.S. oil and gas industry in the coming years.

the industry is slated to pump an additional 227 million tons of planet-warming gases into the atmosphere in 2025

— a 30 percent increase over 2018 emissions —

bringing its total emissions close to one billion tons per year.

That’s equivalent to the full-time greenhouse gas pollution of well over 200 major coal-fired power plants.

https://grist.org/energy/oil-and-gas-emissions-are-reversing-progress-from-coals-decline/ (https://grist.org/energy/oil-and-gas-emissions-are-reversing-progress-from-coals-decline/)

[boutons_deux]

any of you BigOil whores wanna comment?

America’s Radioactive Secret

Oil-and-gas wells produce nearly a trillion gallons of toxic waste a year.

An investigation shows how it could be making workers sick and contaminating communities across America

Peter was able to transfer 11 samples of brine to the Center for Environmental Research and Education at Duquesne University, which had them tested in a lab at the University of Pittsburgh.

The results were striking.
Radium, typically the most abundant radionuclide in brine, is often measured in picocuries per liter of substance and is so dangerous it’s subject to tight restrictions even at hazardous-waste sites.

The most common isotopes are radium-226 and radium-228, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires industrial discharges to remain below 60 for each.

Four of Peter’s samples registered combined radium levels above 3,500, and

one was more than 8,500.

drivers are not being told what’s in their trucks,” “And this stuff is on every corner — it is in neighborhoods. Truckers don’t know they’re being exposed to radioactive waste, nor are they being provided with protective clothing.

Oil fields across the country — from the Bakken in North Dakota to the Permian in Texas — have been found to produce brine that is highly radioactive.

“All oil-field workers,” says Fairlie, “are radiation workers.”

Tanks, filters, pumps, pipes, hoses, and trucks that brine touches can all become contaminated,

with the radium building up into hardened “scale,”

concentrating to as high as 400,000 picocuries per gram.

Marcellus shale, underlying Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York, has tested the highest.

Radium in its brine can average around 9,300 picocuries per liter, but has been recorded as high as 28,500.

“If I had a beaker of that on my desk and accidentally dropped it on the floor, they would shut the place down,”

In an investigation involving hundreds of interviews with scientists, environmentalists, regulators, and workers,

Rolling Stone found a sweeping arc of contamination —

oil-and-gas waste spilled, spread, and dumped across America,

posing under-studied risks to the environment, the public, and especially the industry’s own employees.

There is little public awareness of this enormous waste stream,

“Us bringing this stuff to the surface is like letting out the devil,” says Fairlie.

“It is just madness.”

in Pennsylvania, doctors were even banned from discussing some toxic fracking exposures with patients — the controversial “medical gag rule” was struck down by the state’s Supreme Court in 2016.

the oil-and-gas industry is a master of saying, ‘You did this to yourself.’”

pipe cleaners, welders, roughnecks, roustabouts, derrickmen, and truck drivers hauling dirty pipes and sludge

all were exposed to radioactivity without their knowledge and suffered a litany of lethal cancers.

An analysis program developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined with

up to 99 percent certainty that the cancers came from exposure to radioactivity on the job,

including inhaling dust and radioactivity accumulated on the workplace floor, known as “groundshine.”

Their own clothes, and even licking their lips or eating lunch, added exposure.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/oil-gas-fracking-radioactive-investigation-937389/

[boutons_deux]

Big Oil wants to dump more wastewater into rivers. What could go wrong?

Oil and gas producers are looking for new ways to get rid of the fluid left behind after fracking and drilling.

Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico producers alone generated about 270 billion gallons of it in 2017.

those three states are now exploring expanding avenues for produced water disposal — including discarding the wastewater in streams and rivers.

East of the 98th meridian — an imaginary line that runs down the middle of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas —

oil and gas operators are allowed to release treated wastewater into rivers,

but only if it's first routed through treatment facilities capable of removing the chemicals contained in the waste.

West of the meridian, which includes half of Texas and Oklahoma as well as all of New Mexico, oil and gas companies can discard produced water into rivers without that hurdle, so long as they secure government permits.

last year Texas (https://www.huntonnickelreportblog.com/2019/08/texas-moving-forward-with-npdes-delegation-for-produced-water-discharges/) and Oklahoma (https://www.eenews.net/stories/1061525917) took steps to take over permitting from the EPA. :lol Environmental DESTRUCTION Agency

New Mexico is considering following suit.

The EPA has also been considering easing regulations (https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-05/documents/oil-and-gas-study_draft_05-2019.pdf) — including the 98th meridian rule — which could further expand the industry's wastewater disposal options.

In a letter to the EPA (https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=EPA-HQ-OW-2018-0618-0094), a coalition of industry groups including the American Petroleum Institute said that the agency was using "arbitrary geographic distinctions" and that it should move quickly to develop regulations that would allow the industry to more efficiently treat and discharge its own wastewater into rivers and streams east of the 98th meridian.

The quality of produced water is also highly dependent on the geology and history of the formation from which it comes.

"To be talking about produced water as a singular thing is an oversimplification,"

Companies inject a number of corrosion inhibitors, biocides, and friction reducers during fracking and drilling, and many of these chemicals react with one another and break down into "daughter products,"

https://www.salon.com/2020/01/26/big-oil-wants-to-dump-more-wastewater-into-rivers-what-could-go-wrong_partner/ (https://www.salon.com/2020/01/26/big-oil-wants-to-dump-more-wastewater-into-rivers-what-could-go-wrong_partner/)

I expect the EDA kakisctocratic whores to BigCarbon to rule against water, humans, then be sued by sane people.

[boutons_deux]

Pipeline spill of oil wastewater bigger than first reported

A pipeline spill of oilfield wastewater in northwestern North Dakota has affected more cropland than originally reported.

State environmental scientist Bill Suess said regulators were notified earlier this month of the

8,400 gallon (31,797 liter) pipeline leak in Renville County. The pipeline is operated by Texas-based Cobra Oil and Gas.

Regulators initially said about 1,000 square feet (92.9 square meters) of cropland was affected.

The landowner, Sherwood resident Allan Engh, said people involved in the cleanup of the site told him the

brine could have contaminated as much as 400,000 square feet (37,161 square meters) of soil.
Suess told the Bismarck Tribune (https://bismarcktribune.com/bakken/saltwater-spill-near-sherwood-larger-than-initially-reported/article_ccc56b87-57f1-576f-90e3-43ee2ae5fda3.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1) that estimate could be accurate but the official number is not yet known.

“We know it’s bigger, we know it’s impacting a very large area,”

https://apnews.com/218fe95f0a52183fb5d89c64675181bb (https://apnews.com/218fe95f0a52183fb5d89c64675181bb)

[boutons_deux]

Repugs have a very queer idea about Capitalism and "free markets"

Republicans urge Trump to bar banks from shunning fossil fuel loans

A group of Republican lawmakers from energy-producing states on Friday called on President Donald Trump

to prevent banks from halting loans and investments with companies that produce oil and other fossil fuels

while they have access to federal assistance programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Wall Street’s big banks ... should not be able to reap the benefits of participating in federally guaranteed loan programs laid out in the CARES Act,

such as the Paycheck Protection Program or the trillion dollar Federal Reserve facility lending programs,

while simultaneously targeting American energy companies and workers,” :lol holy shit, what shit that is

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-energy/republicans-urge-trump-to-bar-banks-from-shunning-fossil-fuel-loans-idUSKBN22K2PU

[boutons_deux]

New Analysis of Fracking Science (nearly 2,000 studies) Finds Grave Health, Environmental Justice, and Climate Impacts

Major report from health experts and scientists who have closely assessed a decade of science on fracking reveals alarming trends for people and the environment.

drilling, fracking, and the entire fracked oil and gas cycle impose grave harms to human health and well-being and that

those problems cannot be mitigated.

key trends in the rapidly growing body of evidence about health, climate, and environmental justice consequences of drilling, fracking, and associated infrastructure.

Overwhelmingly, evidence demonstrates that

these activities are dangerous to public health, the environment, and the climate,

and that there are fundamental problems with the entire life cycle of operations associated with fracking.

“Our knowledge about the dangers of fracking is now both broad and deep.

All together, thousands of scientific studies, reports, and investigations show us that extracting oil and gas by shattering the nation’s bedrock with water and chemicals creates fundamental, intrinsic, unfixable problems.

Toxic pollution,

water contamination,

earthquakes,

radioactive releases, and

methane emissions

follow fracking wherever it goes.

Some of these problems get worse after depleted wells are abandoned,

and no set of regulations is capable of preventing harm.”

https://www.spurstalk.com/forums/newreply.php?do=postreply&t=200096

[boutons_deux]

“This Is Why We Don’t Drink the Water”

Fracking threatens drinking water on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. Meet the locals who are fighting back.

The horses looked dehydrated and brittle, just skin and bones.

They’re eating, but it’s like they’re not eating, her friend told her.

It was down the hill, at the pond the horses drank from, where the answer lurked.

She believes waste water from nearby oil and gas production leaked there,

where the horses drank it up, poisoned. ​“I’m always worried,” Finley-Deville says.

​“This is why we don’t drink the water.”

https://inthesetimes.com/article/fracking-wastewater-drinking-water-contamination-fort-berthold-reservation

[Winehole23]

Whistleblower alleges accounting control fraud at Exxon.


In the latest supplement filed on January 31 and shared with DeSmog, Bennett and his advisors say that Exxon has overvalued its assets by as much as $56 billion, as of 2019. ExxonMobil’s write-down of $19.3 billion is “too little, too late,” Bennett and his team say.

In the filing, Bennett and his team claim that Exxon inappropriately grouped good assets with bad ones to obscure the damage, “hiding problem assets behind historical winners.” The filing also alleges that Exxon’s accounting policies “don’t recognize current and relevant economic trends,” allowing it to “gloss over problems.”

Exxon ignored the multiple slumps in natural gas prices over the past decade by not taking a write-down years ago, the filing argues. By the same token, the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) futures market (https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/energy/natural-gas/natural-gas_quotes_globex.html)suggests that natural gas prices won’t reliably stay above $3 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) at any point over the next decade, a price too low for the XTO assets to economically make sense. Again, as Bennett argues, this has been clear for quite some time.

“This is just a continuation of at least six years of fraudulent and defiant behavior by Exxon, which has slanted its accounting policies and skewed its impairment calculations to avoid necessary write downs of its oil & gas properties since at least 2014,” the filing says.

ExxonMobil did not return a request for comment.

Why now?

Exxon’s massive write-down is overdue by several years, according to Bennett. For example, the assets related to the disastrous XTO acquisition “have been sitting stagnant on Exxon’s balance sheet since at least 2014,” the complaint says, referring to a more pronounced market slump that began that year.

The whistleblower complaint cites the fact that Exxon only spent an average of $180 million per year between 2015 and 2019 on its U.S.exploration budget, or less than 1 percent of the cost of its “unproved” properties, which Bennett and his team say is evidence that Exxon already knew that these reserves were not worth developing, even as they were nonetheless counted as valuable assets on the books.

“At that miniscule rate of exploration spending, Exxon would nevercomplete the vast majority of its U.S. unproved properties,” the complaint states (emphasis in original). “From a return-on-investment standpoint, the company shouldn’t complete those projects — they’re economic losers!”

Bennett and his advisors argue that Exxon’s exploration unit “apparently can react logically” in the face of poor economics, but its accounting department “seems incapable of such logic when considering write downs of hopelessly over-valued oil & gas

The particular timing of the write-down also raises questions about the company’s motives. The problematic economics of U.S. shale drilling is not new (https://www.desmogblog.com/finances-fracking-shale-industry-drills-more-debt-profit) and there was nothing notable that happened in the fourth quarter of 2020 to trigger a write-down. For instance, average natural gas prices (https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/rngwhhdd.htm) in late 2019 were actually lower than in late 2020. By contrast, many of Exxon’s peers took (https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/30/shell-to-write-down-assets-worth-up-to-22-billion-in-q2.html) huge (https://www.wsj.com/articles/bp-takes-17-5-billion-write-down-expects-oil-price-to-stay-low-11592211169) write-downs (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-29/total-takes-8-1-billion-writedown-as-pandemic-devalues-oil-gas) in late 2019 and in the first and second quarters of 2020, during the depths of the most recent downturn.
https://www.desmogblog.com/2021/02/02/whistleblower-sec-complaint-alleges-exxon-fraud-overvalue-fracking-assets

[Winehole23]

Even at the peak of production, fracking never delivered promised jobs, prosperity and population growth to "Frackalachia"


“This detailed report is another indictment of fracking. The business case for fracking has never been proven. The Appalachian shale gas producers have been spectacularly unsuccessful financially, despite impressive production gains. Many have filed for bankruptcy. Others have taken massive write-offs. This financial failure of the natural gas sector extends to local communities.” Hipple concluded, “Simply put, the natural gas industry has not delivered the promised benefits for producers, investors — or local communities.”


Sean O’Leary, the report’s principal author, said, “What’s really disturbing is that these disappointing results came about at a time when the region’s natural gas industry was operating at full capacity. So it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which the results would be better. If nothing else does, that fact alone should persuade the region’s policymakers that they need to explore other, more sustainable economic development opportunities.”
https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/new-report-natural-gas-county-economies-suffered-as-production-boomed/

The report: https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Frackalachia-Report-update-2_12_01.pdf

[boutons_deux]

Tens of Thousands of Premature Deaths Linked to So-Called "Cleaner" Energy Like Fracked Gas

natural gas and wood as energy sources—

billed by proponents as "cleaner" alternatives to coal and oil— :lol

are a major threat to public health and

are responsible for pollution which causes tens of thousands of premature deaths each year.

The study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, linked

29,000 to 46,000 premature deaths each year to fumes from natural gas, wood, and biomass

which are used to electrify and heat buildings and power generators.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/05/05/tens-thousands-premature-deaths-linked-so-called-cleaner-energy-fracked-gas-study (https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/05/05/tens-thousands-premature-deaths-linked-so-called-cleaner-energy-fracked-gas-study)

[boutons_deux]

Leaked Slides Show the Gas Industry Is Freaking Out

a natural gas consortium that included Eversource as a co-leader as recently as last month is scrambling to regroup and go on the attack against challenges to its product.

“Natural gas (fossil fuel) in for fight of it’s [sic] life,” reads one bolded bullet point in the slides (https://www.eenews.net/assets/2021/04/30/document_cw_05.pdf) E&E News obtained that are authored by Energy Solutions Center, a nonprofit gas advocacy group. “How can we take advantage of power outage fear?”

the list of 15 other consortium members named in the ESC presentation includes utilities from all over the country, including regional giants like Exelon, SoCalGas, and Washington Gas.

The group also includes the gas distribution arm of Enbridge Inc, the Canada-based company that operates the controversial Line 3 pipeline that has become a hotspot of protest in recent months.

These companies have reason to fear for the future of their product.

After Berkeley, California became the first city in the world to ban natural gas hookups in new buildings in 2019,

dozens of cities across the country (https://earther.gizmodo.com/the-u-s-leads-the-way-in-citywide-fossil-fuel-bans-1846505618) have followed suit in rapid succession.

Despite the fact that natural gas availability was a large part of the grid’s failure (https://earther.gizmodo.com/the-real-reason-for-texas-rolling-blackouts-1846279110) during the storms earlier this year,

Texas lawmakers have leaped to the industry’s defense (https://earther.gizmodo.com/texas-wind-energy-set-a-record-but-republicans-are-stil-1846666762),

claiming that natural gas is the only “reliable” form of power.

(TX) lawmakers passed a bill (https://earther.gizmodo.com/texas-lawmakers-are-using-the-blackouts-to-make-fossil-1846583275) banning any local action banning hookups like the ones that have played out elsewhere in the U.S.

it’s clear that the natural gas industry is on its heels.

The trick will be distinguishing fact from spin as they amp up their campaigns against electrification.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/leaked-slides-show-the-gas-industry-is-freaking-out-1846822881

[Winehole23]

Exxon overstated Permian Basin shale oil reserves to goose market cap/executive compensation.

If Exxon can't make money fracking in West Texas without lying, who can?


ExxonMobil is currently under investigation (https://www.wsj.com/articles/exxon-draws-sec-probe-over-permian-basin-asset-valuation-11610716622) by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for overvaluing assets despite reports that employees disagreed with the valuations. There are also two separate whistleblower filings with the SEC that accuse Exxon of intentionally overstating the value (https://www.desmog.com/2021/02/02/whistleblower-sec-complaint-alleges-exxon-fraud-overvalue-fracking-assets/) of its oil and gas–producing properties by tens of billions of dollars.


In January, the Wall Street Journal reported on the case (https://www.wsj.com/articles/exxon-draws-sec-probe-over-permian-basin-asset-valuation-11610716622) that spurred the SEC investigation and reportedly resulted in the firing of at least one ExxonMobil employee, who later filed one of the whistleblower complaints. According to that complaint, an employee who was pressured to redo oil well production forecasts numbers to make management happy reportedly named a file with the inflated numbers, “This is a lie.”


According to the Wall Street Journal, this whistleblower noted the widespread internal pressure to support the CEO’s unrealistic claims for potential oil production from its acreage in the Permian region, a top U.S. oil field.


“No one I knew in the organization thought this was possible; the pressure to deliver on Woods’s promise to the market permeated the organization,” the whistleblower said, referring to ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods’ goal at the time to produce one million barrels a day from the Permian by 2024.


In March, Exxon decreased its forecasts (https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/030321-exxonmobil-slashes-2025-production-outlook-as-it-focuses-on-permian-guyana) for Permian production and now expects to average 400,000 barrels per day in 2021 and potentially reach 700,000 barrels per day by 2025. A new report (https://ieefa.org/ieefa-u-s-exxonmobil-touts-permian-basin-success-but-achieves-mixed-results/)from the Institute for Energy Economics and Finance (IEEFA) notes that Exxon has not made money on its Permian operations and that according to IEEFA analyst Clark Williams-Derry, “Investors should place the company’s Permian plans under a microscope and demand better disclosure of both its financial and operational results in the region.”
https://www.desmog.com/2021/06/11/shale-oil-fraud-alta-vista-investor-lawsuit/

[boutons_deux]

'Unacceptable': 66 Million Gallons of Toxic Fracking Waste Dumped in Gulf of Mexico Since 2010

"Offshore fracking threatens Gulf communities and wildlife far more than our government has acknowledged," said one researcher.

"To protect life and our climate, we should ban these extreme extraction techniques."

As "extreme" fossil fuel extraction methods such as

fracking and acidizing have become increasingly common in offshore oil and gas production over the past decade,

the U.S. government is allowing corporations to discharge millions of gallons of hazardous waste into the Gulf of Mexico "without limit."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/07/07/unacceptable-66-million-gallons-toxic-fracking-waste-dumped-gulf-mexico-2010

Capitalists are ecocidal TAKERS, not makers

[RandomGuy]

Interesting conversation I had last week. A customer of mine has always had hard water / scaling issues with his mechanical equipment. He is in falls city with a lot of fracking activity. His well is at 3500 feet and since they started fracking his scaling problem has reversed and his equipment is actually clearing out years of buildup. Logically one would assume the deep 10000 foot disposal wells are migrating up to the water table and changing the water chemistry.

Soo, the water is measurably more acidic?

[RandomGuy]

Exxon overstated Permian Basin shale oil reserves to goose market cap/executive compensation.

If Exxon can't make money fracking in West Texas without lying, who can?

https://www.desmog.com/2021/06/11/shale-oil-fraud-alta-vista-investor-lawsuit/

An oil company over-stating its reserves?

I am shocked, shocked I say.

[boutons_deux]

Soo, the water is measurably more acidic?

... at least.

Here's the other toxic shit in his water

E.P.A. Approved Toxic Chemicals for Fracking a Decade Ago, New Files Show

The compounds can form PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” which have been linked to cancer and birth defects.

The E.P.A. approvals came despite the agency’s own concerns about toxicity.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/12/climate/epa-pfas-fracking-forever-chemicals.html?smid=tw-share

[Winehole23]

The peak of the fracking boom has passed without fracking ever turning a profit.


In July 2020, accounting firm DeLoitte released a report stating that, “The U.S. shale industry registered net negative free cash flows of $300 billion, impaired more than $450 billion of invested capital, and saw more than 190 bankruptcies since 2010” — supporting the claim that the industry has peaked without ever making money.https://www.desmog.com/2021/07/16/us-shale-revolution-no-fracking-investment/

[Winehole23]

This was possible because despite the losses, investors kept giving the industry money. But now investors appear to have grown tired of losing money on U.S. shale companies and new lending to the industry has dropped dramatically.


As reported this month by The Wall Street Journal, “capital markets showed little interest in funding expansive new drilling campaigns” for the U.S. shale industry. Shaia Hosseinzadeh, a partner at investment firm OnyxPoint Global Management LP, told The Journal that the problem facing fracking companies is that “they can’t access cheap capital any longer.”

[Frenchfred]

The peak of the fracking boom has passed without fracking ever turning a profit.

https://www.desmog.com/2021/07/16/us-shale-revolution-no-fracking-investment/

that's a good thing, hopefully that will force the US to invest more in nuclear and renewable energies

[Thread]

that's a good thing, hopefully that will force the US to invest more in nuclear and renewable energies

Nazi's!!!

[diego]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/dyvmbx/texas-restricts-fracking-practice-because-it-causes-so-many-earthquakes

theres a lot of old posts in this thread dismissing the fracking - quake connection, environmentalists were and are right and it should have been obvious that pressurizing and sucking out the ground beneath you would destabilize the ground but here we are a decade later

[Thread]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/dyvmbx/texas-restricts-fracking-practice-because-it-causes-so-many-earthquakes

theres a lot of old posts in this thread dismissing the fracking - quake connection, environmentalists were and are right and it should have been obvious that pressurizing and sucking out the ground beneath you would destabilize the ground but here we are a decade later

I thought the earthquakes were caused by global warming, or, from extracting oil, black gold, Texas tea from the earth...tee, hee.

[Winehole23]

Fracking never turned a profit, but the externalities are ongoing. The Texas Railroad Commission is protecting the polluters and shitting on the people adversely affected.

https://www.newswest9.com/article/news/local/abandoned-chevron-well-springs-brine-water-local-rancher/513-47394125-fa52-44c3-a9c0-7f2867909f15

1479214763108360196

[Winehole23]

1479520362585067521

[boutons_deux]

Living near or downwind of unconventional oil and gas development linked with increased risk of early death


https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/living-near-or-downwind-of-unconventional-oil-and-gas-development-linked-with-increased-risk-of-early-death

[boutons_deux]

Johns Hopkins study links fracking to premature births, high-risk pregnancies

Researchers look at nearly 11,000 births in north, central Pennsylvania
https://hub.jhu.edu/2015/10/12/fracking-pregnancy-risks/#:~:text=Johns%20Hopkins%20researchers%20found%20t hat,study%20were%20born%20pre%2Dterm.

[boutons_deux]

Kids Born Near Fracking Sites 2-3 Times More Likely to Develop Leukemia: Study

Exposure to fracking and its effects is "a major public health concern,"

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/08/17/kids-born-near-fracking-sites-2-3-times-more-likely-develop-leukemia-study


BigFossil Capitalistic profits override any concern for humans.

[Winehole23]

1603913517597265920

[Winehole23]

“We’re just planning to deplete it. It’s not like we’re conserving it. We’re just making the crash landing slow and somewhat tolerable,” said Jeff Bennett, a hydrogeologist in the West Texas town of Alpine who worked for 15 years for the National Park Service nearby.

Planners called it “managed depletion” — the intentional use of the resource to its end.

Such a fate awaits the Ogallala Aquifer, the nation’s largest underground body of water, which swoops into West Texas from the north, and for which the Texas Water Development Board calls “managed depletion” its “management strategyhttps://www.texastribune.org/2022/12/19/texas-permian-basin-fracking-oil-wastewater-recycling/

[SpursforSix]

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/12/19/texas-permian-basin-fracking-oil-wastewater-recycling/

It's as criminal as Monanto or Dupont.

[Winehole23]

Ohio is a political shithole


The letter from Briella Keep to her state government was simple – Ohio should for the first time allow “responsible” oil and gas exploration under state parks like Salt Fork.


But there was one problem. Briella Keep was 9 years old on July 5, the day the letter was sent to the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC), and there’s no way she could have written it, according to her mother, Brittany Keep.https://www.cleveland.com/open/2023/09/their-names-appeared-on-letters-urging-fracking-ohios-state-parks-they-dont-know-how.html

[Winehole23]

Brittany Keep has no clue how her phone number, her daughter’s email address, or their home address, wound up on a letter touting “opportunities for economic development and the creation of family-sustaining jobs” in Ohio.

“This is not OK,” Brittany Keep said. “She definitely did not submit that draft.”

[Winehole23]

one analyst thinks US fracking is already in decline and that more drilling can't reverse it


Our models point to a sobering conclusion: even with substantially higher prices and an abundance of undrilled locations, production is set to continue its decline. We call this phenomenon the “depletion paradox.” It is a familiar story, and history provides a clear precedent.

Consider the case of conventional U.S. crude production in the 1970s. Production peaked in November 1970 at 10 million barrels per day, with oil priced at just $3.18 per barrel. At that time, the industry operated a modest 302 rigs drilling for oil. The first OPEC oil crisis in 1973 sparked a response from President Nixon in the form of Project Independence—a sweeping initiative aimed at reversing the decline in U.S. output through deregulation and expedited permitting. Much like today, optimism abounded among oil producers, who believed that higher prices would unleash a drilling boom and restore U.S. production growth. They were confident they knew where to drill; all they needed was the right price signal.

Prices soared from $3.18 per barrel in 1973 to $34 per barrel by 1981. Producers, true to their promises, responded with vigor. The rig count climbed from 993 in 1973 to a staggering 4,500 by late 1981. Yet despite this unprecedented surge in drilling activity, U.S. oil production steadily declined throughout the 1970s. By the end of 1981, production had fallen to 8.5 million barrels per day—far below the peak achieved a decade earlier and lower than when Nixon announced his ambitious goals.

Three decades later, in 2010, U.S. oil production hit a nadir of 5 million barrels per day, even as prices hovered around $100 per barrel—30 times higher than in 1973. The depletion paradox had firmly taken hold. The industry’s assumption—that higher prices alone could counteract geological realities—proved tragically flawed. Today, as we observe the shale sector grappling with similar dynamics, it seems history may once again be repeating itself.

We believe the U.S. shale sector now stands at a crossroads eerily similar to that faced by conventional oil production in 1973. While shale’s achievements have been extraordinary, they remain subject to the inexorable forces of depletion.The Depletion Paradox (https://blog.gorozen.com/blog/the-depletion-paradox)

[SnakeBoy]

Is fracking bad again or do we have to wait until the 20th?

[Winehole23]

Is fracking bad again or do we have to wait until the 20th?not sure what you're referring to, do you have any take on the topic or the posts?

[Winehole23]

barring new discoveries, the productivity of the US oil patch seems to be in decline

drill baby drill is maybe just a meaningless slogan




US shale producers are focused on capital discipline and shareholder returns, limiting the impact of Trump's pro-oil policies.
Increased Permian rig activity is unlikely to significantly boost oil production due to inventory depletion and efficiency concerns.
The US is already on track to meet Bessent's 3-3-3 hydrocarbon production target without policy changes, driven by NGLs and gas.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Shale-40s-Capital-Discipline-Outweighs-Trump-20s-Pro-Growth-Rhetoric.html