The Midwest/Plains Oil Boom Thread

[Bond James Bond]

This stuff about the man camps and people sleeping in the backs of their vans is really starting to make the press big-time. Here's a 5-page article on it in the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/22/yo...1&ref=business

At least they're making good money.

[skiumah]

I work for a large package delivery company and we are really struggling to keep people with the company. Before the oil we paid a pretty high wage (approx. $28/hr for drivers) plus overtime. Now we are having to pay the same wages plus weekly bonuses of a couple hundred just for showing up to work 5 days in a week, just so that we can retain the people that haven't left yet. I've heard the McDonald's up there is paying around $15/hr starting wages just to get people to show up. Crazy.

[VoltAmps]

Originally Posted by Bond James Bond

This is starting to border on the unreal.

According to Continental Resources, the amount of in-place oil in the Bakken shale and associated Three Forks formation now stands at ....

..... *drum roll * .... *trumpets* ......

900 billion barrels!!

CLICKY

Everywhere else in this thread the estimates have been from 5 billion - around 30 billion. How did it all of a sudden grow to 900 billion? I think your calculations are off

[Bond James Bond]

Originally Posted by VoltAmps

Everywhere else in this thread the estimates have been from 5 billion - around 30 billion. How did it all of a sudden grow to 900 billion? I think your calculations are off

900 billion is the total amount of oil in the formation. 5 billion - 30 billion would be the estimates of how much of the 900 billion they think they can eventually recover.

[VoltAmps]

Originally Posted by Bond James Bond

900 billion is the total amount of oil in the formation. 5 billion - 30 billion would be the estimates of how much of the 900 billion they think they can eventually recover.

Interesting, thanks

In comparison, do you know how many barrels of oil the province of Alberta, Canada produces per day?

[Bond James Bond]

Originally Posted by VoltAmps

Interesting, thanks

In comparison, do you know how many barrels of oil the province of Alberta, Canada produces per day?

Not sure. 1.5 million barrels/day? 2 million barrels/day? That's just a guess.

[Bond James Bond]

New map of where the dry gas, wet gas and oil areas are located. Subject to yet more change as they drill more wells.



With shale, there’s lots at ‘play’

Ohio geologists continue to redraw the maps highlighting where the Utica shale is expected to yield the most oil and gas across the state.

The newest map by the Ohio Geological Survey excludes some areas that had been in “play” and includes others that had been left out of the “fracking” boom.

At stake is the potential for landowners to cash in on oil and gas drilling. Energy companies are offering bonuses that exceed $5,000 an acre in some areas.

There’s Utica shale beneath most of Ohio, but for drilling companies it’s all about the “play,” the core area where the shale is deemed most likely to yield a lot of natural gas, propane, butane, ethane and oil.

The newest map from the Ohio Geological Survey shows a potential oil reservoir in portions of Delaware, Marion and Union counties.

In southeastern Ohio, Athens, Meigs and portions of Morgan and Washington counties are no longer in the play. Most of Cuyahoga, Lake and Lorain counties in northeastern Ohio also now are excluded.

[desertpunk]

It's everywhere now:


http://www.circleofblue.org/waternew...ry-over-water/

[Bond James Bond]

^
There's actually even more than that. Though it's not a "shale," there's a new one emerging in south Kansas and northern Oklahoma described in this article here. Last week I looked at Sandridge Energy's website and this particular play might extend all the way to NW Kansas.

There's also a MASSIVE one in Nevada that no one has even touched yet.

[cmj2k2]

OIL


We has it.

Williston developments thread coming soon?

[desertpunk]

Originally Posted by cmj2k2

OIL


We has it.

Williston developments thread coming soon?

The way things are going, why not? I clicked over to City-Data to check out that scene and it's gone CRAZY: http://www.city-data.com/forum/north-dakota/





.

[Bond James Bond]

Utica shale bringing jobs to Eastern Ohio: Liquids-rich shale stokes economic development

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) —The hardscrabble city of Youngstown, Ohio, hadn’t seen a major industrial expansion in decades.

That finally changed in 2010, when European conglomerate Vallourec SA said it would significantly scale up in the region with an investment of $650 million and 350 jobs for a new pipe-making plant for its V&M Star unit.

“It’s probably the largest steel plant in Youngstown since the 1920s,” said Tony Paglia of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.

At first, the V&M Star planned to supply pipe for horizontal drilling in the oil and gas fields of Marcellus shale, mostly across the state line in Pennsylvania.

Now, more job creation opportunity has emerged closer to home as energy companies develop one of the newest and hottest shale plays in the U.S. -- the Utica shale of Ohio. Much of the oil-rich region lies within a corner of the country that’s suffered from high unemployment for many years.

“V&M Star decided when they saw the Marcellus shale they needed to have a plant nearby that provided products [there],” Paglia said in a telephone interview. “Once they started that, then the Utica shale became prominent -- so that makes it an even better project.”

A spokesman for V&M Star referred to published remarks by President Joel Mastervich, who said the region is “extremely well-suited” to supply local shale plays and that the area offers high quality workers.

About 1,500 jobs have been added or announced in the last 18 months in the Mahoning Valley -- the region that includes Youngstown and the surrounding region.



[...]

[Bond James Bond]

This is, like, a perfect route!

It will also traverse a new and upcoming oil play in Kansas.

ONEOK Partners to build 1,300-mile pipeline from North Dakota to Cushing hub

Tulsa-based natural gas transporter ONEOK Partners LP announced Monday that it plans to enter the crude oil business by building a 1,300-mile pipeline from the Northern Great Plains to the Cushing hub in central Oklahoma.

The Bakken Crude Express Pipeline project, scheduled for completion by 2015, will cost $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion, ONEOK said. The line will deliver light, sweet crude from the Willison Basin wells to Cushing, one of the nation's largest oil storage hubs.

"As producers continue to aggressively develop crude oil from wells in the Bakken Shale, more crude-oil pipeline takeaway capacity will be required," Terry K. Spencer, ONEOK Partners president, said in a statement.

The pipeline will parallel more than 80 percent of ONEOK Partners' existing and planned natural gas liquids systems, including the Overland Pass NGL pipeline. The Crude Express also will connect into the liquids-rich Niobrara Shale in Colorado before heading to Cushing.

[...]

[atrain5371]

North Dakota is now number 2 in the nation in oil production.

[desertpunk]

Chesapeake Raises Big Bet In Ohio

Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corp., once described oil buried in a layer of rock that stretches from the outskirts of Cleveland to West Virginia as "the biggest thing to hit Ohio since the plow." Mr. McClendon bet big on that new oil field, the Utica Shale, paying billions of dollars over the last two years for drilling rights to 1.3 million acres of it, or about 5% of Ohio's land area.

Now, Chesapeake is raising its bet—ramping up drilling on a promising but unproven oil field, at a time when the embattled natural-gas giant is under financial stress and facing heightened scrutiny from investors.

Key to its ambition is the Utica, which Ohio officials estimate holds 1.3 billion to 5.5 billion barrels of oil. The Utica, which spans parts of five states, often draws comparisons to the huge Eagle Ford Shale in Texas, which could hold 3.4 billion barrels of oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. On Tuesday, a Chesapeake executive told an industry conference in Austin that the Utica could generate a higher rate of return than any of Chesapeake's other properties.

[Bond James Bond]

Originally Posted by Bond James Bond

Maybe I'll eventually turn this into a 'Midwest Oil Boom' thread.

Done!

And the main reason I did it is because CNN today had news about the one I mentioned in post #129. This one is in southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma.

CNN - Oil boom strikes Kansas

Oil companies began exploring Southern Kansas over a year ago, seeing enormous potential in the area now that new technologies like horizontal drilling and fracking have made it possible to tap into the oil-rich Mississippian Limestone formation.

SandRidge Energy, which holds the most horizontal drilling permits in Kansas, estimates there are about 15 billion barrels of recoverable oil in this part of Kansas. The company plans to drill 130 wells in the state by the end of the year -- up from 10 last year. And its wells are hitting oil 100% of the time.

"[The oil companies] aren't hitting any dry spots," said Mike Lanie, economic development director of Harper County. "This is looking like it could be the largest economic impact in the state's history, and for many people in these small towns, this will be a blessing."

Here's where it's located.


The Mississippian Lime — A big deal for Kansas?

[TU 'cane]

Been thinking about taking off to North Dakota in a couple months and trying to find something that I could do for 6 months to a year and save up some money...

I'll be frequenting this thread more often, I wish I knew it was here. Oil is always interesting to talk about.

[Bond James Bond]

Originally Posted by TU 'cane

Been thinking about taking off to North Dakota in a couple months and trying to find something that I could do for 6 months to a year and save up some money...

I'll be frequenting this thread more often, I wish I knew it was here. Oil is always interesting to talk about.

If you're in Tulsa, you probably don't need to go any farther than 50-100 miles to your northwest (see map immediately above). I've already been reading quite a bit about it, it's really starting to take off.

[Bond James Bond]

Back to Ohio ...

Ohio's big oil and gas boom should come in 2014-15

The oil and gas industry likely “will hit its peak phase in the Tuscarawas Valley in 2014 and 2015,” with as many as 4,000 wells drilled in the Utica shale play in eastern Ohio by then, according to this story from The Times Reporter of Dover-New Philadelphia.

“In 2014 and 2015, we'll see a big ramp-up,” said Rhonda Reda, executive director of the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program, during the recent Tuscarawas Oil and Gas Alliance Summit at Kent State University's Tuscarawas campus.

Here are some of the statistics she shared during her presentation, according to the newspaper:

- Ohio's oil and natural gas producers could distribute more than $1.6 billion in royalty payments to landowners, schools, businesses and communities, based on the estimate of 2,837 new Utica wells drilled and completed between 2011 and 2015. This could exceed the total amount of royalties paid for all geological formations between 2000 and 2010.

- The industry could reinvest about $14 billion on new exploration and development by 2015. Among those investments are more than $500 million by MarkWest in Harrison County, $225 million by Timken in Canton and $64 million by Baker Hughes in Stark County.

- Between 2011 and 2015, the industry will help create and support more than 204,520 jobs statewide due to the leasing, royalties, exploration, drilling production and pipeline construction activities for the Utica Shale formation in Ohio. Wages in the industry are projected to grow to more than $12 billion in annual salaries and personal income to Ohioans by 2015.

[...]

[TU 'cane]

Originally Posted by Bond James Bond

If you're in Tulsa, you probably don't need to go any farther than 50-100 miles to your northwest (see map immediately above). I've already been reading quite a bit about it, it's really starting to take off.

I'll keep my eye on it, thanks.