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2015-02-02 Arabia
Saudi Arabia Is Putting Aside Billions For Its Own Gas-Fracking Revolution
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Posted by Hupineger Glomomp0033 2015-02-02 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11127 views ]  Top

#1 This is one field where I'd support government intervention. Prices aren't going to stay that low, so why not make sure that fracking companies can keep on producing?
Posted by European Conservative 2015-02-02 01:00||   2015-02-02 01:00|| Front Page Top

#2 No worries, we still have our earthquake division.
Posted by Besoeker 2015-02-02 01:02||   2015-02-02 01:02|| Front Page Top

#3 No problem, aftr all the "Gimmes" get through thre'll b nothing left.
Posted by Redneck Jim 2015-02-02 02:27||   2015-02-02 02:27|| Front Page Top

#4 I am told that gas prices are starting back up again. The dollar keeps losing value so its bound to go back up. 1929 dollar value was it 24-1 now its 77-1. Probably much higher than that.Print more and get even less impact. So the Fed will be no help this time. The attack on the dollar is nearly done. I guess we go Euro. Provided Angela Merkel allows that. She hates Putin. I think she would go for it just to poke him in the eye.
Posted by Dale 2015-02-02 07:25||   2015-02-02 07:25|| Front Page Top

#5 A rep from the oil industry said that this is a strategic fight and they will not give into the soddies. They have slowed new exploration, but have not slowed their current production.
Posted by 49 Pan 2015-02-02 10:05||   2015-02-02 10:05|| Front Page Top

#6 
Posted by Besoeker 2015-02-02 10:54||   2015-02-02 10:54|| Front Page Top

#7 Prices here have climbed about a nickel in the last week....
Posted by USN, Ret. 2015-02-02 15:19||   2015-02-02 15:19|| Front Page Top

#8 The Sierra Club is calling the house of Saud an important ally on defeating the Keystone Pipeline.
Posted by Deacon Blues 2015-02-02 15:31||   2015-02-02 15:31|| Front Page Top

#9 @49pan,
That's good to hear. My understanding is that people see the $25-95/bbl production cost of shale-oil/gas-fracking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_shale_economics) and don't always factor in whether that includes up front exploration and initial drilling (i.e. more expensive) or whether it's just the extraction cost (somewhat cheaper).

Either way, I would love to see a number that says where US 'fracking' is still profitable. And although I'm not an American, and don't go in for Government intervention, it would please me immensely to have a tariff placed on all imports into the US to give a floor price of say $80/bbl (isn't this something Sarah Palin brought up?)
Posted by Tony 2015-02-02 15:51||   2015-02-02 15:51|| Front Page Top

#10 The more efficient companies, when operating in the 'sweet spots' of the shale/tight sand frac plays can make money at $40 per barrel. At that price the average operator in the average location will go bankrupt. It's always been that way in the oil patch - the only thing that changes is the technology and the price.
Posted by Glenmore 2015-02-02 16:05||   2015-02-02 16:05|| Front Page Top

#11 Might be able to find something in Oil & Gas Journal. I don't have graphs, numbers, or statistics, so I guess [like most of the comments I make] this is too anecdotal, but oil well fracking has been going on for decades. It's a process that is likely to remain profitable.

On a side note, I enjoy seeing comments from non-U.S. Citizens, with the possible exception of g(r)om, but even he I often find interesting.
Posted by Besoeker 2015-02-02 16:12||   2015-02-02 16:12|| Front Page Top

#12 Fracking has indeed been around a LONG time - I'd guess 100 years. Wells would be drilled until traces of oil showed up in the cuttings bailed out of the hole, then they'd lower a few coffee cans of nitrogycerine into the well to the prospective zones and 'shoot' the well. The nitro would fracture the oil-bearing rock, and would push the heavy drilling fluid out, cutting the back pressure, and the well would 'come in', often creating the famous 'gushers.'
Today fracking is done differently, as a slow motion process with massive amounts of fluid - sand, water and chemicals - pumped into the well until the pressure exceeds the fracture strength of the rock. Pumping then continues to enlarge and lengthen the fracture, exposing thousands of feet of rock to bleed oil into the well. A little oil seeps in at any given place, but it adds up to hundreds of barrels per day. (The fracture is kept open - 'propped' - by the sand carried in by the water, and left behind as the chemicals that kept the water 'thick' enough to carry the sand lose their gel and flow back with the water.
Posted by Glenmore 2015-02-02 16:50||   2015-02-02 16:50|| Front Page Top

#13 I wonder how much reserves the Saudis really have. Supposedly it is 279 x 10^9 bbl. But other sources that I have been reading say that the Saudis have been using a lot of seawater to keep well pressures up. Because of secrecy on the Saudis part, they could be seriously inflating their reserves, and are playing a big game of chicken.

Glenmore---what is your take on this?
Posted by Alaska Paul 2015-02-02 16:51||   2015-02-02 16:51|| Front Page Top

#14 I suggest this is more about torpedoing Iran's gas exports.

Much easier to get Saudi NG to European markets.
Posted by phil_b 2015-02-02 17:04||   2015-02-02 17:04|| Front Page Top

#15 AP, I share your suspicion on the Saudi reserves. Their big fields are cutting serious water.
That said, I suspect those same big fields have a LOT of oil remaining in the ground that won't come out with just water-flooding, but might very well yield 50% more if they can CO2 and/or polymer/surfactant flood them. If I was in charge over there I would be researching those options very energetically right now.
Posted by Glenmore 2015-02-02 19:28||   2015-02-02 19:28|| Front Page Top

#16 Glenmore, of course the Saudis wouldn't be doing that. They would hire some of the untermeschen to do the work.
Posted by Rambler in Virginia 2015-02-02 19:32||   2015-02-02 19:32|| Front Page Top

#17 I may be available.....
Posted by Glenmore 2015-02-02 19:37||   2015-02-02 19:37|| Front Page Top

#18 I think by April something's gonna happen to drive the price of oil back up. Maybe the Houthi will take over Yemen, maybe Putin will cut off natural gas to Europe...
Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2015-02-02 21:00||   2015-02-02 21:00|| Front Page Top

#19 Since the Saudi's generally get westerners to pump their oil out of the ground who will ISIS get when they take over? I suspect few westerners will stay stick around to help out.
Posted by rjschwarz 2015-02-02 21:53||   2015-02-02 21:53|| Front Page Top

#20 Glen, it is where we get the term Fire in the hole!!! You are correct on the fracking with dynamite.
Posted by 49 Pan 2015-02-02 22:51||   2015-02-02 22:51|| Front Page Top

#21 @Besoeker, you're welcome. I've been coming to Rantburg for a long time to get pukka information on 'the issues of the day'. I've not been disappointed.
Posted by Tony 2015-02-02 22:54||   2015-02-02 22:54|| Front Page Top

#22 Iff the Saudis = Iran, etc. = MSM-Net = Are allegedly "Sitting of a Sea(s) of Oil", THEN WHY THE NEED TO FRACK AT ALL.

When I hear the term "Frack/Fracking", the first thing I think of is that somebody's traditional, already pre-established/existing deep oil field(s) are either running low or is out of [Cheap = Plentiful?] Oil.

Again, I'm still waiting for a genuine OWG Global Consensus on the REALITY-VS-FALLACY/HOAX/MISTAKE of so-called "PEAK OIL".

The World could de facto be running out of Oil [Other Resources?] right now but we're not going to know it, or be informed of it, because PCorrectness-Deniability + Electoralism is the PRIORITY, ... ... and a time when our OWG Govts-Perts are also mostly or wholly uncertain about the depths or magnitude of GWCC = SOLAR ACTIVITY/CHANGE.

Where is Humanity + Earth right now on the astronomical timeline whereby our Middle-Aged Sun will soon begin, or maybe has already begun, its natural evolution toward becom a Red Giant???

IFF THE NASA BOYZ DON'T KNOW, ASK A MADONNA FAN!

lol.

Lastly, lest we fergit "MINI-ICE AGE" = ANOTHER WAY OF SAYING EXPANDED OR INTENSIFYING SUN-LED HEATING OF PLANET EARTH AS AFFECTED BY TEMPORARY OR RANDOM INTERIM PERIODS OF "LIGHT/BENIGN" ICE OR ICY PERIODS.

E.g. THE GREAT "ASIA-PACIFIC/PACIFIC SLUSHY".
Posted by JosephMendiola 2015-02-02 23:12||   2015-02-02 23:12|| Front Page Top

23:33 Zenobia Floger6220
23:28 JosephMendiola
23:26 gorb
23:26 JosephMendiola
23:12 JosephMendiola
22:54 Tony
22:51 49 Pan
22:48 abu do you love
22:45 JosephMendiola
21:56 rjschwarz
21:53 rjschwarz
21:33 OldSpook
21:30 OldSpook
21:20 abu do you love
21:02 Thing From Snowy Mountain
21:00 Thing From Snowy Mountain
20:49 JosephMendiola
20:27 Squinty Smiter of the Mongol Horde1951
19:37 Glenmore
19:32 Rambler in Virginia
19:28 Glenmore
19:02 Procopius2k
19:02 Count Galeazzo Smith8994
18:52 Count Galeazzo Smith8994









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