In this update to Drilling Deeper, David Hughes explores how the EIA’s 2015 tight oil projections and assumptions have changed over the last year, and assesses the AEO2015 against both Drilling Deeper and up-to-date production data from key tight oil plays
In this update to Drilling Deeper, David Hughes explores how the EIA’s 2015 shale gas projections and assumptions have changed over the last year, and assesses the AEO2015 against both Drilling Deeper and up-to-date production data from key shale gas plays
This is a Spanish translation of the Executive Summary of Post Carbon Institute’s report Drilling Deeper.
Drilling Deeper reviews the twelve shale plays that account for 82% of the tight oil production and 88% of the shale gas production in the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reference case forecasts through 2040. It utilizes all available production data for the plays analyzed, and assesses historical production, well- and field-decline rates, available drilling locations, and well-quality trends for each play, as well as counties within plays. Projections of future production rates are then made based on forecast drilling rates (and, by implication, capital expenditures). Tight oil (shale oil) and shale gas production is found to be unsustainable in the medium- and longer-term at the rates forecast by the EIA, which are extremely optimistic.
Drilling California: A Reality Check on the Monterey Shale provides the first publicly available empirical analysis of actual oil production data from the Monterey Formation. It lays out some of the play’s fundamental characteristics compared to other tight oil plays, including geological properties, current production, production potential, and associated environmental issues.
The rapid spread of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) has temporarily boosted US natural gas and oil production… and sparked a massive environmental backlash in communities across the country. The fossil fuel industry is trying to sell fracking as the biggest energy development of the century, with slick promises of American energy independence and benefits to local […]
In this landmark report, PCI Fellow David Hughes takes a far-ranging and painstakingly researched look at the prospects for various unconventional fuels to provide energy abundance for the United States in the 21st Century. While the report examines a range of energy sources, the centerpiece of “Drill, Baby, Drill” is a critical analysis of shale gas and shale oil (tight oil) and the potential of a shale “revolution.”
This is a Spanish translation of our 2013 report Drill, Baby, Drill. En Perfora, Chico, Perfora, J. David Hughes ha analizado en profundidad e investigado rigurosamente la posibilidad de diversos combustibles no convencionales para generar abundancia energetica. Aunque el informe se centra principalmente en cuestiones relacionadas con la producción del gas y el petróleo de […]
Oil shales, if they live up to proponents’ expectations and can be produced commercially, could change the economic and political fortunes of the United States and transform the geopolitical map of the world. But any large-scale effort to exploit oil shales will threaten wildlife habitat and water quality, and exacerbate climate change. This is a […]
Global fossil fuel consumption has accelerated rapidly over the last few decades, requiring an enormous stream of resources to meet even current demand. Claims that future demand can be met simply by opening new areas to exploration and increasing production of relatively new resources like deepwater oil, tar sands, shale oil, oil shale, and shale […]