$all fracked up$

$all fracked up$

With brutal precision, Hughes highlights the difference between the actual figures and those in the EIA/INTEK report: The claim in the EIA/INTEK report that 1,750 square miles can be drilled to a density of 16 wells per square mile is likely not true. The Monterey’s productive oil regions are a relatively small part of the overall formation.Total lifetime oil production (“ultimate recovery”) per well is likely to average one-third or less of that assumed by the EIA/INTEK report.The initial production rates of the existing Monterey wells are only about one-half to one-quarter of those claimed in the EIA/INTEK report.The gap between the reality and the hype could not be more stark: Now, some 10 months after the ballyhooing in February, Canadian geoscientist David Hughes has blown the Monterey Shale story to bits, with a report offering the “first publicly available empirical analysis of actual oil production data from the Monterey Formation,” published by Post Carbon Institute and Physicians, Scientists & Engineers for Healthy Energy.īased on an analysis of actual production data from the Drillinginfo database, the most comprehensive oil and gas production database publicly available, “ Drilling California - A Reality Check on the Monterey Shale” explains in exacting detail what the geological properties, current production, and production potential of the formation really are. Investigative research by labeled the report as bogus “frackademia,” since it was funded by the oil and gas industry, but it would have been lucky to reach one percent of the readers who believed every word of the credulous coverage in the Los Angeles Times. The press exploded with enthusiasm for the Monterey Shale region all over again. The following month, teams at the University of Southern California (USC) and a public relations firm released an economic assessment based on the EIA/INTEK report, saying the formation could increase the state’s tax revenue by $24.6 billion per year and create 2.8 million new jobs, slashing seven percentage points off the state’s unemployment rate. The only data anyone cited was that the formation covered 1,750 square miles and contained 15.4 billion barrels of oil - figures that came from a July 2011 report published by consultancy INTEK, that was commissioned by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The Monterey Shale resources could slash California’s oil imports, bolster its balance sheet, and create lots of good jobs, if only those damned environmentalists would get off the industry’s back. Industry money was pouring into the region, which could become the next Bakken or Eagle Ford. Millions of readers took away a wafer-thin narrative about how fracking would create a new California “ gold rush” in the Monterey Shale, which contained two-thirds of the nation’s estimated tight oil resources (or “reserves,” in the case of the more energy-illiterate writers). Investor’s Business Daily wondered if it could “ save California.” The Economist quoted the president of a small oil producer in the region, Santa Maria Energy, as saying that the formation would be “California’s way out of the ‘fiscal toilet’.” Fox News gushed about the region’s potential for “making California the country’s top oil producer and revving up the state’s economy like a smaller shale-oil deposit did for North Dakota.”Īs usual, the purveyors of this pablum were mainly interested in generating buzz, not investigating the reality. “ Vast Oil Reserve May Now Be Within Reach,” declared The New York Times. In February, coverage of California’s Monterey Shale exploded in the mainstream press.

$all fracked up$

Read it here: Monterey Shale isn’t all it’s fracked up to beĪ detailed new report on California’s Monterey Shale finds previous claims about its potential were vastly overstated.

$all fracked up$

Widely touted as the next big play in fracking, the Monterey looks to be a dud. For SmartPlanet this week, I featured a new report by geoscientist David Hughes, which is the first publicly available empirical analysis of actual oil production data from the Monterey shale formation in California.

$all fracked up$

All fracked up