"Drill, China, Drill!": GOPers & Chinese Oil Companies Frack Up America

[doeriver]

So much B.S. about GOPers wanting to extract America's crude oil reserves for U.S. "energy independence":



With new drilling method, oil industry booms in West
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110210/BUSINESS01/102100339/With-new-drilling-method-oil-industry-booms-West
Written by
Jonathan Fahey
ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 10, 2011

A new drilling technique is opening vast fields of previously out-of-reach oil in the Western United States, helping reverse a two-decade decline in domestic production of crude.

Companies are investing billions of dollars to get at oil deposits scattered across North Dakota, Colorado, Texas and California. By 2015, oil executives and analysts say, the new fields could yield as much as 2 million barrels of oil a day — more than the entire Gulf of Mexico produces now.

This new drilling is expected to raise U.S. production by at least 20 percent over the next five years. And within 10 years, it could help reduce oil imports by more than half, advancing a goal that has long eluded policymakers.

"That's a significant contribution to energy security," said Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Credit Suisse.

Oil engineers are applying what critics say is an environmentally questionable method developed in recent years to tap natural gas trapped in underground shale. They drill down and horizontally into the rock, then pump water, sand and chemicals into the hole to crack the shale and allow gas to flow up.

Because oil molecules are sticky and larger than gas molecules, engineers thought the process wouldn't work to squeeze oil out fast enough to make it economical. But drillers learned how to increase the number of cracks in the rock and use different chemicals to free up oil at low cost.

"We've completely transformed the natural gas industry, and I wouldn't be surprised if we transform the oil business in the next few years, too," said Aubrey McClendon, chief executive of Chesapeake Energy, which is using the technique.

Petroleum engineers first used the method in 2007 to unlock oil from a 25,000-square-mile formation under North Dakota and Montana known as the Bakken. Production there rose 50 percent in the past year, to 458,000 barrels a day, according to Bentek Energy, an energy analysis firm.

It was first thought that the Bakken was unique. Then drillers tapped oil in a shale formation under South Texas called the Eagle Ford. Drilling permits in the region grew 11-fold last year.

Now newer fields are showing promise, including the Niobrara, which stretches under Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas; the Leonard, in New Mexico and Texas; and the Monterey, in California.

...(more at hyperlink)



New York Times OCTOBER 11, 2010, 5:07 AM MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
Cnooc in $2.2 Billion Deal With Chesapeake Energy
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/cnooc-in-2-2-billion-deal-with-chesapeake-energy/
BY CHRIS V. NICHOLSON

Cnooc, one of the largest Chinese state-run oil companies, has agreed to buy a third of Chesapeake Energy’s oil and gas assets in a south Texas shale deposit for $1.1 billion, in a deal that will ultimately be worth double that amount. It is the largest Chinese purchase of United States energy assets ever and the latest in a string of similar deals by Beijing around the world.

As part of the agreement, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, as the company is formally known, will also finance most of Chesapeake’s drilling costs for another $1.1 billion. The deal, announced Sunday, is expected to close by the end of the year.

“Cnooc has struck a good deal given the assets are liquid-rich,” Neil Beveridge, a Sanford C. Bernstein analyst, wrote in a research note, saying the company “continues to ‘Go Global.’ ”

Five years after political pressure in the United States led to the humiliating defeat of Cnooc’s plans to buy the American oil giant Unocal, the Chinese company has adopted a strategy of buying assets and smaller stakes abroad, rather than pursuing all-out takeovers, as it seeks to secure enough energy to fuel China’s economic growth.

...

With Cnooc’s backing, Chesapeake, the largest independent oil producer in the United States, said Sunday that it planned to quadruple the rigs operating on the so-called Eagle Ford Shale project, from 10 to 40, by the end of 2012 and to bring the shale fields to a peak production of up to 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day within 10 years.

Aubrey K. McClendon, Chesapeake’s chief executive, said the transaction would speed drilling, reduce United States oil imports, create jobs and result in ‘‘the payment of very significant local, state and federal taxes,’’ presenting arguments that may have appeased politicians still sensitive about Chinese acquisitions in the sector.

Fu Chengyu, chairman of Cnooc, said the deal ‘‘satisfies the spirit of Sino-U.S. cooperation in the energy sector’’ and reflected the company’s ‘‘win-win philosophy.’’

Chesapeake has been trying to raise money to expand exploration and reduce its debt. The company, based in Oklahoma City, said in May that it planned to raise $5 billion over the next two years through stake sales, stock placements, share issues and joint ventures, with $3.5 billion going toward debt and the rest toward drilling and development. It raised $446 million with an initial public offering for its natural gas arm in July.

The deal with Cnooc also grants the Chinese company the option of buying a third of any other fields Chesapeake acquires in the area.

...

(more at hyperlink)

[HopeHoops]

1. And PA is the only state that doesn't tax them and fuckhead Corbett wants to blow the CEOs.

No shock here, but the major contributors to Corbett's campaign were gas companies and - wait for the shock - he's stacked his cabinet with gas company people. Corbett sucks moose cock.

[AsahinaKimi]

2. Most tea baggers will tell you

If you drill far enough, you will reach China.

[DURHAM D]

3. Life is strange -

Last night I had a conversation with my brother about hydrofracking - he didn't know anything about the Pennsylvania situation. He stayed up most of the night reading up on it and called me this AM to discuss it. He finds this alarming and depressing.

One of the things he was going to do is more research on the possibility of using this (or similar) technology for oil, not gas. I will send these articles on to him.

How can I copy the map into his email? (Never mind - I got it.)

Thanks for your post.

As a side note: I have met Mrs. McClendon. She is a lovely person.

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. When You screw up your water supply

you will end up like the Anastasi Indians holed up
in cliff dwelling fighting each other.

The West is a desert and using water for fracking is just stupid and slow suicide by poison and waste of water.
Fracking takes a ton of water and then destroys the water table at the same time