AltonFan It may very well be that current market prices are what makes exploiting the Bakken field financially viable.
It may very well be that current market prices are what makes exploiting the Bakken field financially viable.
I don't think there's any doubt about that. But then, market prices are what makes basically anything finacially viable. Whatever it is, it has to be worth more than it cost or it's not gonna' be financially viable.
For me, and I've been around for a while, the amazing thing is that this crude oil is moving through to destination by rail. In years gone by the oil would have gone into a barge at the closest river terminal. Either St. Paul or Sioux City. The government would have seen to that by forcing the through rail rate to be high enough to cause the transfer to barge.
They had the idea that they could allocate better than the market. Some of 'em still believe they can hold hearings, listen to lawyers present arguments, and do a better job than the market. They can't.
Bakke Crude is more expensive to get. I also hear stuff occasionally come up about the extraction of shale oil in Canada. Are we running out of oil? No, I really don't believe so. But, are we running out of cheap, easy to extract oil? That may be the case. As all the "easy oil" gets used up oil companies will have no choice but to pursue the harder, more expensive to extract stuff.
ericsp Who said anything about shipping oil to OK, LA, or TX via the West Coast?
Who said anything about shipping oil to OK, LA, or TX via the West Coast?
Nobody, as I see upon review. I read carelessly -- sorry.
Sawtooth500 Crude is more expensive to get. I also hear stuff occasionally come up about the extraction of shale oil in Canada. Are we running out of oil? No, I really don't believe so. But, are we running out of cheap, easy to extract oil? That may be the case. As all the "easy oil" gets used up oil companies will have no choice but to pursue the harder, more expensive to extract stuff.
Crude is more expensive to get. I also hear stuff occasionally come up about the extraction of shale oil in Canada. Are we running out of oil? No, I really don't believe so. But, are we running out of cheap, easy to extract oil? That may be the case. As all the "easy oil" gets used up oil companies will have no choice but to pursue the harder, more expensive to extract stuff.
Exactly. Bakken oil is great for us to have and it's very clean and sweet, as others have mentioned in this thread. Think of aquifer water as opposed to sewer water. But the oil market influence itself will be negligible since the ability to extract this crude will depend entirely on the market prices.
The USGS estimates there may be 3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of "technically" recoverable Bakken oil in the U.S. "Technically," because Bakken oil doesn't lie in fields the same way as in many other places. It exists in fields of fractures in the bedrock. Geologists can only tell where the oil should be. Then they'll drill, hoping to hit a fracture. If they succeed, then a reservoir of oil becomes available. But they could happen to drill just 20 feet away and never hit anything. As a result, even confirming fields will be expensive. And once a field has been confirmed, just establishing wells will be much more expensive because of this fracturing.
Right now they've been lucky to hit some well-fractured fields, but the drilling expenses will become greater the less fractured the fields are. And finally, as a method of extracting oil from the very poorly-fractured shale, they'll have to shatter the bedrock themselves to create the fractures that they can then drill into. The technologies for this are prohibitively expensive at the moment because oil just isn't worth enough yet.
One method may be to superheat the bedrock and then flash-freeze it. I can't imagine that being done on the cheap. But by the time it becomes feasible to extract that kind of oil, we'll be pretty much squeezing Earth's oil sponge anyway, so price won't be as much of an object. I shutter to think how much refined fuel will cost at that point.
But as the more expensive oils becomes feasible to extract, that extra oil on the market will have a more stabilizing affect on the already high prices.
A good portion of this formation lies in Canada. CN has a respectable line through, and CP has a myriad of lines within the formation. I wouldn't doubt they're both watching this.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.