In May, the Argentine oil company YPF announced that it had found 150 million barrels of oil in the Patagonian field, and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner rushed onto national television to praise the discovery as something that could give new impetus to the country’s long-stagnant economy.PEAK OIL IS PART OF THE "GREEN ECONOMY" SCAM.
“The importance of this discovery goes well beyond the volume,” said Sebastián Eskenazi, YPF’s chief executive, as he announced the find. “The important thing is it is something new: new energy, a new future, new expectations.”
Although there are significant hurdles, geologists say that the Vaca Muerta is a harbinger of a possible major expansion of global petroleum supplies over the next two decades as the industry uses advanced techniques to extract oil from shale and other tightly packed rocks.
Exploration of similar shale fields has already begun in Australia, Canada, Poland and France. Indian and Chinese oil companies are investing in pilot projects that, if successful, could make their countries significant oil producers, possibly reshaping energy geopolitics and stemming future price rises. Ukraine and Russia are also thought to have sizable shale fields of oil and gas, as do many North African and Middle Eastern countries.
“The potential is huge, on the order of hundreds of billions of barrels of recoverable reserves,” said Michael C. Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research, a consulting firm, who is preparing a report on global shale oil.
Similar fields in North Dakota and Texas are already beginning to gush oil. The techniques used to extract it include hydraulic fracturing, in which high-pressure fluids are used to break up shale rock to release the oil, and horizontal drilling, which allows drillers to tap thin layers of oil-filled shale that are sandwiched between layers of other rock.
DON'T BE DUPED BY CO2PHOBIA AND THE CALL FOR GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES FOR RENEWABLES AND THEIR DEMAND FOR CARBON TAXES.
CO2 IS HARMLESS AT WORST, AND PROBABLY BENEFICIAL.
SO-CALLED FOSSIL FUELS - INCLUDING COAL - WHICH CAN BE BURNED CLEANLY AND ONLY EMIT SOME CO2 ARE PERFECTLY HEALTHY AND GOOD FOR PLANT LIFE AND AGRICULTURE.
LEFT-WING GOVERNMENT SCHEMES TO LIMIT THEIR USE HURTS THE POOR AND THE THIRD WORLD THE MOST.
THAT'S WHY I HAVE LONG ARGUED THAT TO MAKE POVERTY HISTORY WE NEED TO MAKE THE LEFT HISTORY.
Just one question. Just how fast do you think they can extract shale oil? Or Canadian tar sands oil for that matter.
ReplyDeletePeak Oil is not AND NEVER WAS (seeing as you seem to have a fascination with the Caps Lock key) about reserves. It is about the rate of extraction!!!
The big super-giant fields that used to yield millions of barrels a day are almost gone.
Have a look at the most optimistic estimates of how many barrels a day they will EVER get out of the Canadian tar sands. And the Velezuelan heavy oil. AND the stuff that KSA are starting to have to resort to.
Have a good life Reliapundit. Beware the gas queues that will happen where you live.
a reserve is oil in the ground that can be extracted with current technology and market prices.
ReplyDeleteas technology has improved and prices gone up huuuuuuuuuuuge amounts of previously known oil deposits of various types are no extractable.
ergo: there is no shortage; there are more reserves now than ever.
some older fields may have less, but there are new fields which have more.
i have been around long eneough to know all the nasty dire doomsday scenarios from the likes of erhlich and others.
all of them were wrong.
i used to be a lefty and a greenie but i have seen the light.
all that peak oil bs is just that:
bullshit.
have a nice life tubaboy.
Well, just how much is that 150 million barrels of oil?
ReplyDeleteThe US imports 10 million barrels a day, so it is enough to cover 15 days of import! Fantastic discovery!! Hurray, hurray!!!! We're safe now!!