Alan von Altendorf

Seismic Services and the Price of Oil

Most seismic is shot on spec, then added to a library available for lease to E&P companies when they bid an exploration block. New surveys are commissioned over greenfield plays.

Schlumberger, Core Laboratories: What's Up with Downhole Measurement?

LWD that I've seen had gaps, noise, wacko values from time to time. What bothers me most about digital log suites is awkwardness of scaling and scrolling on a screen. Too many people take digitally generated shows as proved, without looking at the curves. Endless problems trying to explain that all that green stuff blew past a subtle gradation of facies change. Finding 1-inch paper logs in the library is a pure delight. Love sliding them against each other to correlate. Can't be done with digital.

Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy

"you live in Houston Tx, thus you are obviously backward"

(laughs hard) Y'all don't use linen table napkins at lunch I reckon?

Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy

"Illogical government policies derived by brain-dead, socialism breathing, college professors with grudges against the industrial world which refused to hire them due to their lack of competence and common sense"... like Ben Bernanke?

The comment by 'carbonates' above is absolutely true, at least among the oil people who know what they're doing. Rugged individualism still exists. We don't give a damn what happens to the world as such. And if you get in the way, we go elsewhere.

Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy

Thanks Cajun. I wanted to add my highest sincere respect for the G&G work done in the 70s by geologists, engineers and exploration managers at Sun, Amoco, Arco, etc -- excellent companies that were wiped out in the 80s along with most of the rig owners. I swear to God, there's no one left who can read and correlate 1" paper logs. When we plot them out from digi files, the cubicle people scold us for "killing trees again!"

Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy

I concur with the data and analysis presented in the article, but not the concluding thesis about alt energy. Oil is vital for heavy transport, rail, OTR, jet aircraft, construction, mining, etc. There will never be a solar Dreamliner.

hotforoil wrote: "The lack of success for the current drilling is because they can't drill where the untapped fields are."

Correct. Offshore California, offshore Washington State, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, and the Bering Sea/offshore western Alaska have significant potential. However...

hotforoil continues (wrongly): "Todays Drilling technology is miles ahead from ten years ago. Wells are drilled in a quarter of the time required than then and the new enhanced recovery techniques and production proceedures are vastly expanding the amount of hyrocarbons recovered from new field discoveries."

Drilling costs have risen exponentially in the past decade, partly because remaining reserves are offshore in deeper plays, partly because exploration and construction costs ballooned, but more importantly because the oil business has sacrificed and blunted its scientific and entrepreneurial edge. Candidly, the geologists (now retired or dead) who explored in the 1970s were far superior to the high tech boat anchors and touchy feely corporate "team members" who survived the merger frenzy of the past decade. I know this to be a stone fact. We routinely see bad work at the majors. Exploration has become a lost art, and billions are being wasted attempting to make phony Monte Carlo guesswork into profitable production. That's why the majors have cut back on E&P. They fired or retired their best people.

Ultimately, what the domestic oil business needs is better financing. M&A deals do not grow production. If the US musters the political will to drill "environmentally sensitive" prospects, there has to be a change in tax laws, too. Make it profitable for VC start-ups to wildcat.