North America to Drown in Oil as Mexico Ends Monopoly
http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=BLOOM&date=20131216&id=17195903
Forum Discussion
Number 1 - fracking costs money - they have to force materials into the well to open up the fissures - this can be an ongoing process - and they have to dispose of the used materials.
Number 2 - it is the depth of these new wells in the new finds and the new technological processes they have to use to get the oil out. They could not afford to do this if the prices stayed down - not cost effective. The wells are very deep - two miles or more down. Once they get down they have to turn the drilling equipment so it goes sideways and horizontally out from the vertical shaft. Then they must force heat down into these horizontal wells to soften/liquefy the oil to make it liquid enough to pump it out. Then of course they must pump if up from great depths. All of this is very costly. There have been many estimates of how much oil is there and how much is recoverable. Though Bakken has been known about for many years it has only been recently that new technology has made it possible to get it out - and higher oil prices have made it cost effective. Below is the Wiki website where research into all of this can be started - there is a great deal more to it than old Jed Clampet getting crude bubbling out of the ground. The deeper the oil is the more costly it is to recover.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakken_formation
Number 2 - it is the depth of these new wells in the new finds and the new technological processes they have to use to get the oil out. They could not afford to do this if the prices stayed down - not cost effective. The wells are very deep - two miles or more down. Once they get down they have to turn the drilling equipment so it goes sideways and horizontally out from the vertical shaft. Then they must force heat down into these horizontal wells to soften/liquefy the oil to make it liquid enough to pump it out. Then of course they must pump if up from great depths. All of this is very costly. There have been many estimates of how much oil is there and how much is recoverable. Though Bakken has been known about for many years it has only been recently that new technology has made it possible to get it out - and higher oil prices have made it cost effective. Below is the Wiki website where research into all of this can be started - there is a great deal more to it than old Jed Clampet getting crude bubbling out of the ground. The deeper the oil is the more costly it is to recover.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakken_formation
