by John_A » Fri 25 Oct 2013, 09:47:26
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ROCKMAN', '&')quot;According to Rockman, EROI is most that matters, but it's hidden in balance sheet $$ numbers." No so much whether EROEI matters more than the economics. The two are connected. It just that EROEI doesn't play a direct role in the calculation by the oil patch to drill or not. But it is in the balance sheet in that it would be very unusual for any project with an EROEI much less than 6 to pass the economic threshold. IOW ROR will kill a project long before EROEI could.
Tell us Rockman, how many AFE's have you completed in your storied career which EVER included a category for the amount of BTU's you needed to do the job?
Of course the two are RELATED, that is because different BTUs have different values, but it is those VALUES which go into your calculation, not the BTUs. When you sell your BTUs on the open market you aren't rewarded in BTUs, you are rewarded in $$$. When you input work into your drilling, you don't hand the sub-contractor running the water truck a signed job ticket rewarded him with BTUs, you reward him with $$$.
If I promise to provide all the electricity to run your rig that your generators normally would, and do it for half the cost, you don't give a DAMN how many BTUs I need to do it, only that it gets done. You don't care if I use a SMR, a wind tower, batteries, run power cables from a nearby nuclear submarine or have 1,000,000 hamsters running in little wheels. In other words, not only do you not care about the cost of those BTUs as long as they do the work you need, you don't even care about HOW I do that work for you.
EROEI does tend to miss the concept of work done from energy, as well as its value. It is why you don't put BTUs on an AFE, and people who want to do net energy calculations predicted all drilling would stop in the US around the year 2000. Tell us Rock, you notice all drilling stopping in the US back in 2000 did you?

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