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On The Plains, The Rush For Oil Has Changed Everything

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Re: On The Plains, The Rush For Oil Has Changed Everything

#31

Post by mapt »

pilom wrote: post #23
Steltek wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds a lot like the Paradox of Plenty [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse ]. ND is fixated on the oil industry to the detriment of absolutely everything else. Hell, aren't they just burning all the extracted natural gas because it's basically a distraction from the liquid crude? There was an terribly sad update of the "Earth at Night" satellite image showing ND lit up like a Christmas Tree.

My understanding was they were extracting natural gas and burning off methane. Methane is much more difficult to transport (because the molecules are so small it leaks out of everything as a gas and its very difficult to get it cold enough to be a liquid). Eventually they'll have methane transport capabilities but for the moment it just gets burned off.

Natural gas is perhaps 80% +- 15% methane. The rest is a variety of gasses, some of which constitute useful fuels in themselves, like propane and butane: these may be incorporated into the finished product (which is why we don't sell it as "methane"), or fractionated out.

Historically, one saw 'stranded natural gas' flared from oil wells that produced too little natural gas or were in too remote a place to make a pipeline economical. Compressed natural gas is so low-energy-density that it's rarely economical to transport it outside the context of a pipeline - though this has changed in the last few decades with the adoption of liquified natural gas tanker ships and terminals to serve them; Still, the percentage of the value consumed by transportation is an order of magnitude higher than for oil tankers.

Re: On The Plains, The Rush For Oil Has Changed Everything

#32

Post by learc83 »

dilap wrote: post #20
w1ntermute wrote: post #5

That animated GIF near the bottom of the article is super creepy.

I have to say, I really dig 'em both (there's another in the article headline). A very unique effect.

They're called cinemagraphs, here's a link: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/cinemagraph/

Re: On The Plains, The Rush For Oil Has Changed Everything

#33

Post by vardump »

saryant wrote: post #21
jeza wrote: post #18

I gather this is the result of the increasing price of crude oil, making small oil fields that weren't previously considered viable now viable. The output of these wells is enough to essentially stop oil prices from going through the roof for the time being.

It's not just that the cost of crude is up, advances in horizontal drilling and fracking have made these wells economical despite lower crude prices. Fracking has been tried on and off for decades but it was only recently that wildcatters struck upon the right formula and techniques to unlock the Bakken. Horizontal drilling is key in this region because the Bakken is like an oreo cookie: a thin layer of crude sandwic…

Fracking and horizontal drilling are 20-30 years old technologies. The only reason they're practical now are high oil prices. Technological improvements have been rather incremental in last 20 years in those.

What was needed was not technology, but oil prices over $80 per barrel.

At least that's what someone who does this for living said.

Re: On The Plains, The Rush For Oil Has Changed Everything

#34

Post by dools »

girvo wrote: post #4

Heh it's exactly like the rural towns that get turned into mining towns here in Australia. I've worked as a labourer out there with my dad (he's a civil engineer, works on the roads out in these towns). They start as a tiny rural area, developed into a boom-bust town that caters to the fly-in-fly-out workers who come in to work for 6 figures. Then the mine closes, and the town is left as a shadow of its former self,…

And then everyone complains about lost jobs ..

Re: On The Plains, The Rush For Oil Has Changed Everything

#35

Post by ChuckMcM »

girvo wrote: post #4

Heh it's exactly like the rural towns that get turned into mining towns here in Australia. I've worked as a labourer out there with my dad (he's a civil engineer, works on the roads out in these towns). They start as a tiny rural area, developed into a boom-bust town that caters to the fly-in-fly-out workers who come in to work for 6 figures. Then the mine closes, and the town is left as a shadow of its former self,…

Seems like there is a design project waiting to be done for dynamic infrastructure.

Re: On The Plains, The Rush For Oil Has Changed Everything

#36

Post by ahelwer »

hueving wrote: post #24
chantech wrote: post #13

The salaries in the oil sands in Canada are even more ridiculous. > 100k for truck drivers. Entry level engineers at 150k + 30% bonuses. > 200 + 40% on site bonuses for a manager.

I don't suppose you mean software engineers? :-)

Nope, software dev salaries around Calgary are stuck at $65-70k starting.

Re: On The Plains, The Rush For Oil Has Changed Everything

#37

Post by eric-hu »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #35
girvo wrote: post #4

Heh it's exactly like the rural towns that get turned into mining towns here in Australia. I've worked as a labourer out there with my dad (he's a civil engineer, works on the roads out in these towns). They start as a tiny rural area, developed into a boom-bust town that caters to the fly-in-fly-out workers who come in to work for 6 figures. Then the mine closes, and the town is left as a shadow of its former self,…

Seems like there is a design project waiting to be done for dynamic infrastructure.

You mean burning man?

Re: On The Plains, The Rush For Oil Has Changed Everything

#38

Post by eric-hu »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #35
girvo wrote: post #4

Heh it's exactly like the rural towns that get turned into mining towns here in Australia. I've worked as a labourer out there with my dad (he's a civil engineer, works on the roads out in these towns). They start as a tiny rural area, developed into a boom-bust town that caters to the fly-in-fly-out workers who come in to work for 6 figures. Then the mine closes, and the town is left as a shadow of its former self,…

Seems like there is a design project waiting to be done for dynamic infrastructure.

You mean burning man?

Re: On The Plains, The Rush For Oil Has Changed Everything

#39

Post by andyjohnson0 »

The NYT had an interesting video-based article [1] looking at the life of a female truck driver who moved to North Dakota due to the oil boom.

tldr: steady work but lower-than-expected wages, poor conditions, male dominated environment, housing problems.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/opinion/running-on-fumes-i...

Re: On The Plains, The Rush For Oil Has Changed Everything

#40

Post by saryant »

vardump wrote: post #33
saryant wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just that the cost of crude is up, advances in horizontal drilling and fracking have made these wells economical despite lower crude prices. Fracking has been tried on and off for decades but it was only recently that wildcatters struck upon the right formula and techniques to unlock the Bakken. Horizontal drilling is key in this region because the Bakken is like an oreo cookie: a thin layer of crude sandwic…

Fracking and horizontal drilling are 20-30 years old technologies. The only reason they're practical now are high oil prices. Technological improvements have been rather incremental in last 20 years in those. What was needed was not technology, but oil prices over $80 per barrel. At least that's what someone who does this for living said.

You're ignoring improvements in fracking that have only happened in the last 15 years. Certainly fracking itself isn't new at all, the first attempts date back under a century, but the cost has come down. Most fracking was done using vastly more expensive chemical concoctions which were largely unsuccessful in a lot of shale formations—until someone tried with a solution that was mostly water. Not only was it more effective, it was half the price!

Moreover, fracking came in to vogue due to drilling for natural gas, not crude.

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