Just saw a blurb on the news the the U.S. Department of Energy + 17 major energy companies will be doing exploratory drilling in Western PA/ Eastern OH (the location of the world’s first oil fields) for what they believe will be the motherload of new oil.
According to the story, new geological information strongly suggests a mamoth oil field located 20,000 ft below the surface. One geologist interviewed said the orginal wells toped out at 1400’, and only scatched the surface of the oil field. The orginal wells produced over 600 million barrels of oil from the late 1800’s to mid 1900’s. Another geologist called the new field larger than the West Texas field, but cautioned that more research needs to be done.
If the link dosen’t work, it can be found in the online Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (www.postgazette.com) in the Business Section.
The story says pretty much the same thing I heard on TV.
There are probably more links out there to this story, if one has the time to search.
One more thing: Before anybody gets too excited (or bent out of shape) over this, geologists feel there is evidence of a large deep field in that area, but nothings been proven yet.
One of the reasons why we are still only importing about 60 percent of our oil needs is that in many areas of the country, including Texas, a lot of oil wells are today pumping more than one day a month… The price has risen to the point the wells are pumping, and the oil companies are drilling again for more hard to find and more expensive oil… If they are doing so in Texas, I assume they are doing so elsewhere, including Pennsylvania…
However, our demand is still going up 3 percent a year, and I doubt whether we’ll dig or pump enough in the future…the so called peak oil scenario…
In fact, T. Boone Pickens is among those who are worried about this year’s fourth quarter… We definitely need to conserve in the very near future or we’ll come up short in supply to meet the ever increasing demand…
When the gas stations close in the fourth quårter, and we run short on supply, we’ll see a big increase in the price of gasoline… Yes, this year… Pray for a cool summer and a warm winter…doing so may delay this bad outlook one more year…
What I find disturbing is that we’ll have to relive the first oil embargo of 1974 long gas lines, stores closed, etc., etc., before our Congress does anything to lift demand or increase supply…
The first item of business should be a 55 MPG speed limit, which should reduce demand 17 percent… a very unpopular move but the most effective move…
One must be blind not to read the tea leaves… The price of oil has increased over 40 percent in the last two years, and demand has met our refinery capacity… It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that as demand rises and our refinery capacity don’t, we’ll have a supply problem in the near future…
Those Texas wells are generating a lot of income for some of Bush’s biggest campaign contributors, but neither he or the war in Iraq will last forever. Bringing Iraq’s production back online can happen a lot faster than anything we drill in the lower 48 or Alaska and Iraq has substantial proven reserves. In addition, the Saudi’s have plenty of sour crude at much lower prices but our refineries aren’t set up to handle it and aren’t converting, probably because they know Iraq will eventually come online and sweet crude prices will come down.
It’s going to be really interesting to see how the administration can beat the drum for energy independence while at the same time allowing the sale of Unocal to the Chinese.
UP829: Can you explain the difference between sweet and sour crude oil? I’ve heard of sweet crude oil before, but never gave it much thought until you mentioned sour crude. Thanks
So far, everything about a large oil field under Pennsylvania is speculative and won’t be confirmed until wildcatters start drilling and find out what’s there. Keep in mind that Pennsylvania crude from previous eras is heavy like Venezuelan crude and is better suited for lubricants and other products from the low end of the fractionation process. Getting more high-end stuff like gasoline and kerosene out of a barrel of that sort of crude requires a lot of extra processing.
Titusville Pennsylvania is home of the Drake oil well. Its the worlds first oil well. Oil drilling still takes place in Ny and in pa. Pennsylvania has oil, ever heard of PENNZOIL or QUAKER STATE?
Sour crude is high in sulfer and requires extra steps and catalysts to refine into low sulfer clean gasoline. According to CNBC, the Saudis built a huge refinery for it and have begun exporting refined products made from it. One of the smaller independent refiners in the U.S. has also started using it, as the difference in price is currently greater than the extra cost to refine it.
Why aren’t there more refineries in the middle east,next to the wells? Wouldn’t it make more sense to refine the oil and ship the finished product,like gasoline,instead filling a tanker half way around the world with crude oil to refine in the U.S.? And who would have lots of capital to invest in a refinery? Perhaps the oil rich Arabs? Just wondering.
I think it is becasue its cheaper to place the refineries near towns so employees dont have to drive the distance to the refinery or have to ride a bus, also it would probably be more expensive to build it away from town becasue it would be harder to connect utilities and to get the equipment there to build it.
The reason they pump the oil and the send it here to be refined is possibly becasue it is cheaper to build the refineries here and to possibly be able to staff the refinery.