The 153-Year-Old Oil Well That Hasn’t Stopped Pumping Yet

About 70 miles north of Pittsburgh, a pothole-pocked dirt road along the side of a warehouse leads to a solitary oil well, undeterred by the recent plunge in crude prices. McClintock No. 1, the world’s oldest continually producing oil well, is still going after 153 years, quietly churning out about 1/10 of a barrel a […]

Bakken tight oil forecasts

I’ve collected a variety of forecasts for production from the Bakken oil formation, which is mostly in the state of North Dakota, but also stretches west into Montana and north into Canada. These forecasts are all for the U.S. side of the formation. To download the underlying data, go to my page on Github. As you […]

Shell May Close Norway Field a Decade Before Target on Oil Slump

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) may close its Draugen oil field in the Norwegian Sea a decade earlier than in a prior assessment of the area’s potential lifespan because of rising costs and a slump in oil prices. Europe’s biggest oil company expects production in the field to extend until 2024 to 2027 after previously […]

‘Difficult’ Oil Faces Difficult Future

Two new reports on tight oil, or “difficult” oil extracted by fracking and horizontal drilling, and bitumen mining in North America strip away the marketing hype on extreme hydrocarbons and conclude that their futures may be volatile and shorter than advertised. “Drilling Deeper,” a massive, 300-page report by energy analyst and B.C. resident David Hughes, […]

What It’s Like to Have Fracking in Your Backyard

Ed Wade’s property straddles the Wetzel and Marsh county lines in rural West Virginia and it has a conventional gas well on it. “You could cover the whole [well] pad with three pickups,” said Wade. And West Virginia has lots of conventional wells — more than 50,000 at last count. West Virginians are so well […]

50 Ways to Leave The Marcellus—The Race to Increase Natural Gas Take-Away Capacity

The economics of natural gas production in the dry Marcellus, the wet Marcellus and the Utica are so favorable—and the shale gas resource so bountiful—that the only real limit on how much the Marcellus/Utica plays can produce is the capacity of the pipeline network in the Northeast and neighboring regions to take gas to market. […]

OPEC’s Options (None of Them Good)

As ministers from the 12 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) prepare to fly to Vienna for their 166th meeting next week, the quiet consultations and soundings have already begun. OPEC must decide whether and how to respond to the 30 percent decline in oil prices since the middle of June, […]

Gulf of Mexico Crude Oil and Gas Production

This is a guest post by Jean Laherrere BOEM and BSEE have published in 2014 the GOM oil & gas reserves at end 2010 few months ago and at end 2011 lately. The big change is that they now report proved and probable reserves = 2P (in contrary to SEC rules for operators reporting at the US […]

Robust output by OPEC and non-OPEC producers keeps adding to global oil supply

Oil’s rout gained momentum in October and extended into November, with Brent at a four-year low below $80/bbl. A strong US dollar and rising US light tight oil output outweighed the impact of a Libyan supply disruption. ICE Brent was last trading at $78.50/bbl – down 30% from a June peak. NYMEX WTI was at […]

Shale Oil – Crash Course Chapter 21

If you’ve watch the previous video chapter on Peak Cheap Oil, you may be wondering how any of that could be still be true given all the positive recent stories about shale oil and shale gas , many of which have proclaimed that “Peak Oil is dead”. The mainstream press has faithfully repeated every press and PR […]

In Historic First, Glencore Shuts Coal Mines For 3 Weeks

In a historic move showing just how profound the collapse in global commodity demand and trade is, earlier today the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Australia’s biggest coal exporter Glencore, which last year concluded its merger with miner Xstrata creating the world’s fourth largest mining company and world’s biggest commodity trader, will suspend its Australian […]

Deepwater Gulf Production to Set New Record in 2016

New developments and the expansion of older oil fields are expected to lift deepwater Gulf of Mexico production of 1.9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2016, the first new production peak seen since 2009. However, production is expected to plateau for the remainder of the decade following the 2016 peak due […]

U.S. Shale Boom Masks Threats to World Oil Supply

The U.S. shale boom masks threats to global oil supply including Middle East turmoil, conflict in Ukraine and the difficulty of unconventional oil production beyond North America, the International Energy Agency said. “The global energy system is in danger of falling short of the hopes and expectations placed upon it,” the IEA said today in […]

UAE Concerned That Oil Glut May Curb Exploration, Production

The collapse in oil prices may deter investment in exploration and production projects predicated on $100 crude, according to Suhail Al Mazrouei, energy minister of the United Arab Emirates. “What worries us is that some investors will not continue to invest,” Al Mazrouei told reporters in Abu Dhabi. “Not us, others, are not going to […]

Early signs of a pullback in US oil drilling

Watch out, US shale boom: Plummeting oil prices are challenging the economics of expensive shale drilling. Low oil prices make shale drilling less profitable, and some oil companies are paring back spending and drilling plans as a result With oil prices low and showing no sign of an immediate rebound, the industry is beginning to […]

An Oil Price ‘Cold War’ With Saudi Arabia?

Some analysts contend that Saudi Arabia’s latest price cut targets U.S. producers. Others argue it’s aimed at other exporters It’s an oil-wrestling match – but it might only be as real as the WWE. Last week, Saudi Arabia slashed its crude oil prices for the second month in a row – and unlike the last […]

Sapping the sweet spots: How long will US energy boom last?

In his 2012 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama said that the U.S. had a supply of natural gas “that can last America nearly 100 years.” But that unbridled optimism, shared by the natural gas industry as well as politicians who want to see the U.S. become more energy independent, is worrying a […]

The EIA’s International Energy Statistics

The EIA, a few days ago posted their International Energy Statistics. They publish lots of statistics here but on monthly basis I only follow their  production of world Crude Oil including Lease Condensate. The data on all charts below is Crude + Condensate production through July 2104 and is in thousand barrels per day. World C+C […]

Group wants to tap into Mexico’s oil, gas wealth

In preparation for the drilling of Mexico’s Burgos basin — a geologic formation similar to the Eagle Ford Shale north of the Rio Grande Valley — regional business development leaders formed a new bi-national group. Dubbed the Burgos Shale Consortium, organizers said they want to help ensure the Valley and Tamaulipas, is prepared to reap […]

Keystone XL Pipeline Still Economically Viable In Era Of Cheaper Crude Oil

Falling crude oil prices are forcing developers in Canada’s oil sands region to rethink their expansion plans. But the economic challenges are unlikely to reduce the need for the Keystone XL pipeline to Texas, energy analysts say. Even if developers cancel or delay some projects, the overall volume of oil coming from western Canada is still […]

Shale Drillers Pulling Back as Rigs Are Idled Across U.S.

The shale-oil drilling boom in the U.S. is showing early signs of cracking. Rigs targeting oil sank by 14 to 1,568 this week, the lowest since Aug. 22, Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) said yesterday. The Eagle Ford shale formation in south Texas lost the most, dropping nine to 197. The nation’s oil rig count is […]

Saudi Arabia Won’t Win This Oil-Price Standoff

There’s a standoff happening between the old oil powers and the booming US shale industry, as the OPEC oil cartel is thought to be pushing down prices to drive new production offline. But the investment bank Citi says it’s not a fight that OPEC leader Saudi Arabia is going to win. Although no one is […]

Libya Plans for Biggest Oil Field to Resume Output Soon

Libya will resume pumping crude “soon” at Sharara, its biggest oil field, after an attack that halted output, reducing the North African nation’s production by almost a third, an official said. Sharara was shut as a precaution after gunmen stormed the on-site production compound, Mansur Abdallah, director of oil movement at the Zawiya refinery and […]

Natural Gas production continues to skyrocket

Natural gas production in the lower 48 United States averaged 69.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in October, breaking its previous monthly average high for the 10(th) consecutive month, according to Bentek Energy®, an analytics and forecasting unit of Platts.  This was up 7.9% or 5.2 Bcf/d from the daily average production this time […]

Falling Oil Prices Make Fracking Less Lucrative

Oil prices are down than more than 25 percent since June and are staying low for now. Drivers may appreciate that, but for oil companies, it’s making some of the most controversial methods of producing oil less profitable — and in a few cases, unprofitable. Most of the world’s oil is selling for about $80 […]

A New Oil Boom in Mexico’s Aging ‘Golden Belt’

More than a century ago, an enterprising Californian struck oil near this Gulf of Mexico port city, the first of many finds that tagged this area as “the Golden Belt” and propelled Mexico into the top ranks of oil producers. Now the cradle of Mexico’s oil industry is set to kick-start a new energy boom, […]

Statoil Forecasts New North Sea Oil Bonanza

  Norway’s Statoil AS A said on Monday that the giant Johan Sverdrup oil field in the North Sea could generate revenue of 1.35 trillion Norwegian kroner ($204.55 billion) over the next five decades. The Norwegian oil producer said the oil field could produce up to 650,000 barrels of oil a day at its peak. […]

Norway ranked the world’s most prosperous country

Legatum Institute’s 2014 Prosperity Index ranked Norway as the world’s most prosperous country for the second year in a row, The Local reports. The United States came in 10th. The study, now in its eighth year, takes into account each country’s economy, entrepreneurship, governance, education, personal freedom, health, security, and social capital. The research included […]

Global Oil and Other Liquid Fuels Production Update

Global conventional crude oil + condensate production (C+C) attained a value of 73 million barrels per day (Mbpd) in May 2005. Since then conventional C+C has been bumping along a jagged plateau with the all time high of 73.3 reached in July 2008, immediately prior to the Chinese Olympic Games and the financial crash. It […]

Peak Oil Is Happening

The media is full of peak oil refutations. Unfortunately for the pundits, while they’re heavy on rhetoric they tend to be short on data. In comparison, way back in 2009, Praveen Ghunta, used the BP Statistical Review of World Energy to make a list of countries past peak oil on his True Cost blog. He […]

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