More Oil Where That Came From

Resource scarcity and peak oil doomers like to say that the shale oil & gas boom is just a "flash in the pan," a very limited and short-lived phenomenon.


But the reality is that not only does oil production continue to spike from North American shale oil deposits such as Bakken and Eagle Ford -- oil drillers are also beginning to break through into profitable layers of chalk, sandstone, and limestone, above and below layers of shale that are already producing millions of barrels per day. And it looks as if discovery of and production from these tag-along "not shale" deposits has just begun.

The Eagle Ford is a 50-mile-wide swath of shale that runs from the Mexican border to East Texas, and 4,970 wells have been permitted in 25 counties.... There's an increasing amount of drilling in the layers above and below the South Texas shale play... _MySanAntone

Almost the only bright spot in the US economy during the Obama years, has been the shale oil & gas boom -- the result of horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and other advanced exploration and drilling techniques. And as long as the Obama EPA and Interior Department allows it, the boom seems likely to expand further.

While the Eagle Ford appears to be the mother lode — the largest and most consistent South Texas formation holding the most oil and gas — there are at least 10 other rock layers sitting above or below it that also are producing oil or gas.

This has the oil and gas industry returning to some old friends — formations such as the Austin Chalk and the Olmos Formation — that for decades have produced using traditional vertical wells. Now, the industry is applying new horizontal drilling techniques with success.

Laredo Energy so far has drilled wells in six geologic layers on its acreage: the San Miguel Formation, Navarro Group, Wilcox Formation, Olmos, Escondido and Eagle Ford. And two-thirds of its production is coming from outside the Eagle Ford Shale.

“This is not just a local phenomenon for us,” Hart said. “It's starting to become widespread.”

Peggy Williams, editorial director with Hart Energy, said horizontal fracturing techniques are being used not just for shale, but in other rock such as sandstone, chalk and limestone.

“What's happening is these technologies to extract oil and gas from tight formations like shale have been developed to the point where they're fairly effective,” Williams said.

It's early in the exploration phase of these other formations, so it's hard to make generalizations. _MySanAntone

Read more at the link above.

One has to wonder what goes through the minds of peak oil doomers, in their online alabaster temple-mausoleums of groupthink. But not too much or too often. In the real world, there is much to be done.