Michael66

Crude Reality: How Long Can Oil Stay Down?

The cost of production for the Bakken oil field in North Dakota is less than $16.00 per barrel.

There is as much recoverable oil in the Bakken field as in all the oil fields in Saudi Arabia. The Bakken oil is the best kind - light sweet crude.

This should certainly put a cap on the price of oil in the US. I think that the maximum sustainable price in the US will be in the $20.00 to $25.00 per barrel range for many years.

Crude Reality: How Long Can Oil Stay Down?

Here is information regarding the Bakken oil formation in North Dakota and Montana. The following is quoted from a web site:

"Dr. Leigh Price estimated that the Bakken formation was capable of generating between 271 and 503 Billion Barrels of oil with an average of 413 BBbls. Dr. Price also re-calculated the data previously presented by Schmoker and Hester (1983) and Webster (1984); the re-calculated values also fall within the range stated above. Price also states that 50% of this oil is recoverable (on average, 200 to 250 billion barrels of recoverable oil)"

The Bakken oil field has about the same amount of recoverable oil as all the oil fields in Saudi Arabia put together. The number of oil wells in the Bakken oil field has more than doubled in the past several years.

Saudi Arabia has producible reserves of 267 billion barrels (Wiki). Bakken has producible reserves of 200 to 250 billion barrels according to Dr. Leigh Price.

There are approximately 800 wells in the Bakken field either in production or drilling at this time.

Dr. Leigh Price's study of the Bakken field is the most thorough. He personally studied the field and then studied all the prior surveys of the field by both private and public entities. His conclusions are considered the most accurate and authoritative. His conclusions are also considered to be very conservative.

dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/Bakken...

grinzo.com/energy/inde.../

www.wealthdaily.com/ar...

Oil Stocks: Where Can You Find Black Gold?

Thanks for your comments.

I neglected to include methyl hydrates in my list.

There is more methyl hydrates deposits than all other fossil fuels in the world combined.

The test wells to extract methyl hydrates are producing much more gas than anticipated. The researchers are quite excited about their progress so far.

This will be a significant fuel source in the future. It is still too early to say when commercial production will begin.

Oil Stocks: Where Can You Find Black Gold?

Why Crude Oil Prices will Decline

Recently OPEC reduced crude oil production twice over just a few months. There are three wars going on in Gaza, Iraq and Afghandistan. A year ago these things would have spiked the price of crude oil by at least $50.00 per barrel. Today, oil price declined by a record amount.

There are several reasons the price of oil is decreasing in the face of so much news. These reasons are:

1. New oil has been found in Canada, Montana, North & South Dakota and in the ocean near Brazil. Each of these oil fields has more oil than Arabia.

2. New natural gas has been found in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. This is the largest find in North America.

3. New methods of injecting CO2 and surfactants into oil wells is being used to double their output.

4. Production of bio-fuels is beginning to reach critical mass. Bio fuel is being produced from many plants and algae. The production potential per acre in some cases is astounding. Many countries are racing to produce bio fuels.

5. Virtually every restaurant in the US and all food processing plants are now selling their used oil to bio-diesel producers. Every pork, cattle, turkey and chicken processing plant will soon sell their fat to bio-diesel producers. One pork processing plant in Oklahoma is producing 30,000 gallons of bio-diesel per day from pork fat.

6. There are 99 nuclear reactors in various stages of planning and construction around the world at this time. Several hundred more are expected to be built in the future. Much of the energy they produce will replace oil.

7. Every company in any form of transportaion business is replacing older equipment such as trucks, airplanes, train engines, ships, etc. with new more fuel efficient equipment. Airlines and railway companies are experiencing 20% to 25% better fuel econony with the new equipment.

Airlines are flying airplanes with bio-fuel. They are finding the bio-fuel is cleaner and performs better than jet fuel.

8. Cities and counties throughout the US are selling the rights to capture methane gas from landfills. This is a huge source of gas available at very little cost or risk. The gas is displacing crude oil.

9. Coal is being transformed into a clean burning liquid fuel. The CO2 produced as a byproduct is sold to oil companies for injection into oil wells.

10. Solar, wind and ocean energy is displacing oil as an energy source. Three new wind turbines are being erected every day in the US.

Each of the above by itself will not make a large difference in the price of crude oil but the sum of all of them together is world changing. The important thing is that OPEC no longer has the ability to control oil prices.