Letters to the Editor
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Horizontal Drilling
Andrew,
Horizontal drilling isn't any dirtier than the usual kind. Yes, any drilling is pretty dirty: the word after all is "drilling mud" and that only weakly describes the witches brew of solvents and lubricants suspended in it. But if the formation is warm enough that the oil is mobile, and it's only the impermeability of the rock that prevents it from flowing to the well, then horizontal drilling with fracturing is a pretty benign way to get at it. Way better than digging up northwestern Alberta.
It's nice to know it's there, but personally I'd rather keep it for the future. Humanity must wean itself from liquid hydrocarbons for fuel or perish; that's clear. But boy that stuff is wonderful for other uses.
We're like 18 year olds who've inherited a Buffett- or Gates-sized fortune. In our case it's a 120 million year old savings account we've busted into and are spending like --- well, even sailors aren't that crazy!
Here's a little thought experiment: imagine all the people from the future of humanity (stipulating that there IS one) lined up at the NyMex with dollars in their hand to buy oil to be sequestered for their use.
How much do you think a bbl of Light Arabian would bring in such a scenario? 10G's? It's not unthinkable.
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Americans always claim to have altruistic motives in refraining
From drilling for oil anywhere near America. Anywhere else though, it's a little squishy.
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North Dakota-not quite ready for OPEC prime time
Typical of news reporters who know nothing of technology but have an opinion about it, I live in an oil rich area of Alberta, conventional oil and not the oil sands further north. I am not involved in any way with any of it and admit to not being too happy with the energy sector's often lack of sensitivity to the environment but the comment by the author regarding horizontal drilling obviously being a big energy consuming mess is frankly anti tech bull. Horizontal drilling has been going on for a long time..perhaps a decade or more and it well described in journals and is used to catch smaller deposits that are now profitable that heretofore were left untouched. One well does the deed rather than a number of drillings and thus, contrary to the comment, it is less of a mess and more sensible, lower in energy costs and so forth. The Bakken deposit which is huge and covers not only North Dakota but parts of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and so forth is a 30 or so metre thick deposit of dense oil bearing stone but it is a contiguous body and thus amenable to horizontal drilling techniques and the processes of fracing as it is called ( pronounced frak-ing) opens the dense materials to permit the oil to flow into the created channels. This particular oil is a huge find as it is of a low density measured to 41 degrees which is high grade sweet oil and not the tar sands oil as in the ATHABASCA OIL SANDS area of Alberta which is nastier to extract. Rather than complain about it as a new mess to contend with, better, drink a glass of bubbly so that you guys can keep driving those fat cat SUVs another few years. For me as a Canadian, I am glad you found it so that there will be somewhat less pressure to build yet more oil/tar sands plants here which has resulted in the impossibility for a normal person to find any employees, driven up prices and lowered the quality of life in Alberta for anyone not associated with that industry. No doubt the USGS is being conservative as to the size of the find as there are competent people around that say that it is more like 400 billion barrels of oil in that deposit and with tech coming around the corner, it will be a lot bigger than the 4 billion described. Incidentally, Saskatchewan's side of this deposit is half as deep in the ground and will be easier to access so the oil will be flowing and not such a mess at all.