Unlocking oceans of shale oil

Mark Perry writes:

The chart above shows the combined daily oil output in America’s three most productive oil fields — the Bakken in North Dakota, the Eagle Ford Shale in south-central Texas and the Permian Basin in west Texas — from January 2007 to June 2014, based on estimates released this week by the EIA. From combined output of 1 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) in 2007, total crude oil production in those three oil fields will top 4 million barrels in June, based on drilling rigs data and EIA estimates of changes in production from existing wells.

Thanks to the revolutionary drilling technologies of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, America’s petropreneurs have unlocked oceans of shale oil in Texas and North Dakota, which is reflected in the four-fold increase in the combined oil output of the Bakken, Eagle Ford Shale and Permian Basin oil fields between 2007 and 2014. That three million barrel per day increase in oil from just three US oil fields has to be one of the most remarkable energy success stories in American history. It’s a newfound shale bonanza that has brought unprecedented energy-based prosperity to America, in the form of millions of shovel-ready jobs throughout the economy, a huge boost in state tax revenues, millions of dollars in royalty payments to landowners and farmers, lower energy prices, and greater energy independence. “Saudi America’s” Amazing Shale Revolution, captured graphically above, has brought us from an era of “energy scarcity” and increasing reliance on foreign sources of oil, to a new era of energy abundance and increasing energy self-sufficiency.

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