The number of oil rigs drilling in the United States has surpassed the number of natural gas rigs for the first time in 18 years. Low natural gas prices discourage drilling and the discovery of oil in shale plays such as the Utica Shale, Bakken Shale and Eagle Ford Shale has attracted attention.
More in the Houston Chronicle.
The Energy Policy Research Foundation has released a report titled: The Bakken Boom: An Introduction to North Dakota’s Shale Oil. Oil production from the Bakken could surpass 700,000 barrels per day within the next few years.
On July 28th Chesapeake Energy announced spectacular drilling results for multiple wells in the Utica Shale of eastern Ohio. In this video, Chesapeake CEO Aubrey NcClendon tells Jim Cramer about the significance and potential value of their discovery. See the video and more at CNBC.com.
The Deep Carbon Observatory is an initiative dedicated to achieving a transformational understanding of Earth’s deep carbon cycle, including its poorly constrained reservoirs and fluxes, the unknown role of deep biology, and unexplored influences of the deep carbon cycle on critical societal concerns related to energy, environment and climate.
Oil production in North Dakota has been rising rapidly over the past few years, driven by the success of the Bakken Shale. A “Chart of the Day” article on the Bloomberg.com website forecasts that the crude output of North Dakota is likely to surpass that of Alaska within the next couple of years.
To improve their income many natural gas companies are moving to shale oil plays where the hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling strategies that worked for natural gas can be adapted to produce oil. More at Bloomberg.com.
