...drilling, high volume hydraulic fracturing has enabled companies to tap into billions of barrels of tight oil that were previously thought to be inaccessible. Tight oil, trapped in microscopic pores within impermeable layers of shale, is an unconventional oil reservoir. Unconventional reservoirs cannot be extracted through a traditional ‘well and pump’ procedure. Conversely, conventional oil reservoirs can be extracted through this traditional process. Conventional reservoirs are layers of rock that allow oil to flow relatively easily through a series of pores in the rock, thus are high in porosity and permeability. However, there are a diminishing number of conventional reservoirs, leading to the increased demand for the production unconventional oil – tight oil. Hydraulic fracturing is a technique that creates cracks within shale formations, allowing tight oil to flow freely for efficient and profitable extraction. This process has only recently been utilized to its great potential, and has proven to have profound economic implications. What is shale? Shale is fine-grained sedimentary rock that is often rich in in petroleum and natural gas. Sedimentary rocks are formed through an accumulation of sediment both on earth’s surface and within bodies of water. When shale is formed, the grains of the rock are compacted very tight and thus produce very low porosity and permeability. Porosity allows for the storage of copious amounts of organic material to cook and become oil, while the permeability...
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...slowing in oil and gas rig growth, which indicates that the early skeptics who thought this was a temporary production boom requiring numerous new wells to keep output up were wrong. Rather than drilling in new shale formations, oil and gas producers are finding ways to get more out of the formations they have already found. (U.S. Oil & Gas Production On the Rise Thanks to Fracking) Not everyone forecasts new and lasting supplies of oil and gas. David Hughes of the Post Carbon Institute offers this about availability: “The analysis shows that U.S. tight oil production cannot be maintained at the levels assumed by the EIA beyond 2020. The top two plays—Bakken and Eagle Ford—which account for more than 60% of current production, are likely...
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...1 Name University WGU Student ID# Deep Impact: Fracturing Planet Earth for Clean Energy 2 Shale gas has been acclaimed as the solution for a clean energy alternative. It burns cleaner than both coal and oil. There are vast quantities located in several shale formations domestically, in the United States (U.S.). Natural gas is an odorless, colorless hydrocarbon composed mostly of methane found deep in the earth in formations known as shale. In mid-1997, George Mitchell, an independent prospector made a discovery that would change the natural gas exploration industry for the twenty-first century. (Hinton, 2012). The modification of the well completion technology known as hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and horizontal drilling allowed the oil and gas industry the ability to tap into natural gas reserves trapped in shale deposits miles beneath the earths’ surface. (Hinton, 2012). Mitchell found that forcing fracking fluid at extremely high pressure into the shale formations created fissures in surrounding rock releasing the hydrocarbons and capturing them in the well head. The fracking fluid, also referred to as slick water, is made up of water, chemicals, and sand. Heywood (2012) reports that members of the energy and commerce committee of the U.S. House of Representatives said that between 2005 and 2009 the oil and gas service companies were using over 2,500 fracking products with 750 different chemicals. Some of these chemicals are harmless including salt and citric...
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...Agnes Kurthy BUS 140 – Research Paper December 2, 2013 Should the State of California Permit Fracking on a Large Scale Despite a recent decline attributed to a relatively nominal growth over the past couple of years, California continues to rank among the top 10 of the world’s largest economies. It is currently ranked as the world’s ninth largest economy, surpassing many developed nations with an annual GDP exceeding two trillion Dollars, according to a report by CNN last year.1 California’s crude oil and natural gas deposits are located in six geological basins in the Central Valley and along the coast. California has more than a dozen of the United States' largest oil fields, including the Midway-Sunset Oil Field, the second largest oil field in the contiguous United States. California is sitting on a massive amount of shale oil and could become the next oil boom state. But only if the industry can get the stuff out of the ground without upsetting the state's powerful environmental lobby. Running from Los Angeles to San Francisco, California's Monterey Shale is thought to contain more oil than North Dakota's Bakken and Texas's Eagle Ford, both scenes of an oil boom that's created thousands of jobs and boosted U.S. oil production to the highest rate in over a decade. In 2010, California produced 12% of the natural gas, 71% of the electricity, and 38.11% of the crude oil it consumes. The remaining electricity and natural gas was purchased from Canada, the Pacific Northwest...
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...In the mid-2000s, oil prices began to surge due to an increase in global oil consumption. Since oil production in conventional fields could not meet demand, oil prices continued to rise. With oil prices increasing, energy companies saw it profitable to begin obtaining oil from shale formations that were traditionally hard to drill using techniques such as hydraulic fracturing. Such techniques led to a boom in unconventional oil production. Due to these techniques, the United States alone has added 4 million barrels of oil per day to the global market since 2008 (Figure 1). However, such an increase in supply was initially masked by political conflicts in key oil regions (Figure 2). As oil companies in the U.S. continued to see productivity growth, the global market began to drastically change. Oil demand flatlined as economies weakened and cars became more fuel-efficient; this ultimately led to a surplus of oil (Figure 3) that caused oil prices to drop. While companies have utilized hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) to increase oil production in the U.S., they now are starting to feel monetary constraints due to increased marginal costs. Fracking a well is extremely sensitive to the law of diminishing returns, with output falling about 65% after the first year, causing new wells to be constantly drilled in order to maintain production (Plumer, 2015). However, the decreasing marginal product does allow companies to quickly adjust to falling oil prices by scaling back on...
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...In the mid-2000s, oil prices began to surge due to an increase in global oil consumption. Since oil production in conventional fields could not meet demand, oil prices continued to rise. With oil prices increasing, energy companies saw it profitable to begin obtaining oil from shale formations that were traditionally hard to drill using techniques such as hydraulic fracturing. Such techniques led to a boom in unconventional oil production. Due to these techniques, the United States alone has added 4 million barrels of oil per day to the global market since 2008 (Figure 1). However, such an increase in supply was initially masked by political conflicts in key oil regions (Figure 2). As oil companies in the U.S. continued to see productivity growth, the global market began to drastically change. Oil demand flatlined as economies weakened and cars became more fuel-efficient; this ultimately led to a surplus of oil (Figure 3) that caused oil prices to drop. While companies have utilized hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) to increase oil production in the U.S., they now are starting to feel monetary constraints due to increased marginal costs. Fracking a well is extremely sensitive to the law of diminishing returns, with output falling about 65% after the first year, causing new wells to be constantly drilled in order to maintain production (Plumer, 2015). However, the decreasing marginal product does allow companies to quickly adjust to falling oil prices by scaling back on...
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...Chesapeake Energy T E A M - C Members: Misti Smith Kyle Thompson Daniel Ogeto Harding University Spring 2013 TEAM C: The team assignments for our research paper are as follows: Week 2 - Outsourcing – Daniel Ogeto Week 3 - Overview of the Oil and Gas Industry – Daniel Ogeto Week 4 - Chesapeake Energy & its four affiliates - Kyle Thompson Week 5 - Chesapeake Company Operations - Misti Smith Week 6 - Chesapeake Company Future - Daniel Ogeto Abstract Chesapeake Energy is headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This independent company is involved in oil and natural gas exploration and production. The company’s operations, shares and debt; affiliations, outsourcing and future will be discussed in this paper. The oil and gas industry overview will also be covered. CONTENTS 1. Overview of the Oil and Gas Industry ------------------------Page 4 – 21 2. Chesapeake Company Operations ----------------------------Page 21-27 3. Chesapeake & Affiliates ----------------------------------------- Page 28-32 4. Outsourcing -------------------------------------------------------- Page 32-37 5. Chesapeake’s Future --------------------------------------------- Page 37-42 References ---------------------------------------------------------- Page 43-44 OVERVIEW OF THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY Companies in this industry develop and operate fields to extract crude oil and natural gas. Major players include Apache, Conoco Phillips, and...
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...Political Factors - Governments controlling world hydrocarbon reserves → significant impact - OPEC controlling 75.5% of world reserves → highly influential - Political risks: Instability, expropriation/nationalization of property, terrorism, civil conflicts, strikes, wars, etc. → adverse effect - Environmental treaties (Kyoto protocol) → negative impact Economic Factors - Interdependence between world economy and oil industry: economic growth → growing demand for oil; but also: continual supply of oil at reasonable prices → stable economy - Inelastic demand → positive effect - US dollar (and US economy) →significant impact - Exchange rates → impact on buyers and suppliers Socio-cultural Factors - Values and beliefs shape preferences for energies → energy mix changing towards greener energies - Need for companies to show social responsibility → supporting sustainable human development through investments in education, training, social and environmental activities Technological Factors - Extremely technology-driven: improved upstream technologies →better recovery of hydrocarbon, recovering oil from reserves considered exhausted → improved profitability (gains) - Breakthrough technology in ultradeep-water extraction →competitive advantage for Petrobras - Advanced technology → profound impact on long-term sustainability . Industry Competition Analysis (Porter’s five forces) In order to create a profitable competitive strategy, a firm must first examine the basic competitive...
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...Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Dissertations Graduate College 8-1-2012 Deepwater, Deep Ties, Deep Trouble: A StateCorporate Environmental Crime Analysis of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Elizabeth A. Bradshaw Western Michigan University, brads2ea@cmich.edu Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Bradshaw, Elizabeth A., "Deepwater, Deep Ties, Deep Trouble: A State-Corporate Environmental Crime Analysis of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill" (2012). Dissertations. Paper 53. This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact maira.bundza@wmich.edu. DEEPWATER, DEEP TIES, DEEP TROUBLE: A STATE-CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME ANALYSIS OF THE 2010 GULF OF MEXICO OIL SPILL by Elizabeth A. Bradshaw A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology Advisor: Ronald C. Kramer, Ph.D. Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan August 2012 THE GRADUATE COLLEGE WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN June 29, 2012 Date WE HEREBY APPROVE THE DISSERTATION SUBMITTED BY Elizabeth A. Bradshaw ENTITLED Deepwater, Deep Ties, Deep Trouble: A State-Corporate Environmental...
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