Five people are confirmed dead and 40 people remain missing in the small hamlet of Lac - Megantic, Quebec, where a train with 73 carloads full of
Bakken shale oil derailed explosively, incinerating 30 buildings on Saturday.
But rather than prepare for a change in our daily doings, such as rebuilding the railroad system or promoting walkable neighborhoods over suburban sprawl, we tell ourselves fairy tales about how
the Bakken shale oil play will make America «energy independent» to provide the illusion that we can keep driving to WalMart forever.
Some of the biggest fossil fuel deposits in North America lie to our East: Powder River Basin coal,
Bakken shale oil, and Alberta Tar Sands.
The proposal is the latest in a series of planned pipelines and expansion projects as a flood of crude from the oil sands and
the Bakken shale oil field stretches existing networks.
Another is Harold Hamm, owner of Continental Resources, who opened up
the Bakken shale oil fields and supports Republicans.
The companies say the pipeline would carry
Bakken shale oil more cheaply and safely from North Dakota to Illinois en route to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries than it could be shipped by railroad or tanker trucks.
Not exact matches
For the second consecutive quarter, Continental bested rival Whiting Petroleum Corp to be the largest
oil producer in the
Bakken, solidifying that crown and its place as one of the most - prolific U.S.
shale companies.
The largest
oil producer in North Dakota's
Bakken shale formation posted a net profit of $ 15 million, or 16 cents per share, in the quarter ended March 31, compared with a loss of $ 87 million, or 96 cents per share, a year earlier.
The U.S. can produce as much
shale oil as it wants, but its Gulf Coast refineries are geared toward heavier kinds of crude that can easily process
oil sand bitumen but aren't geared toward the lighter crude coming out of, say North Dakota's
Bakken play.
When fully connected to existing lines, the line would be the first to carry crude
oil from the
Bakken shale directly to the U.S. Gulf.
Workers with Raven Drilling line up pipe while drilling for
oil in the
Bakken shale formation outside Watford City, North Dakota.
Production is growing not just in Canada's oilsands but in the huge
Bakken oilfield shared by Saskatchewan and North Dakota, and in the
oil shales of the Rocky Mountain states.
Protesters have been buoyed by the recent success of Native American groups and environmentalists in their campaign against construction of the 1,100 - mile (1,770 - km) Dakota Access pipeline, a project spearheaded by Energy Transfer Partners (etp) that would carry
oil from North Dakota's
Bakken shale fields into Texas.
Refiners in the U.S. Midwest, Ontario, Alberta, B. and Washington get their raw material from the Western Sedimentary Basin, production from which is growing thanks to the Alberta oilsands, the
Bakken field in Saskatchewan and North Dakota and
oil shales in the Rocky Mountain states.
Advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing over the past 20 years led to a U.S. energy boom in «unconventionals,» a category that includes the
shale gas and «tight»
oil found in
shale fields like the Cretaceous Eagle Ford and Mowry and older ones like the Barnett and
Bakken.
Getty Images Floor hands work on an
oil rig in the
Bakken shale formation outside Watford City, North Dakota.
Most of the
shale oil in the
Bakken is sweet, or low in sulfur.
His company, Knightsbridge Risk Management, a private security firm in Dallas that serves the
oil and gas industry, is getting calls from companies that want to plan ahead in case they shut down drilling operations in North Dakota and the
Bakken shale formation.
The boom in unconventional fuels — such as bitumen extracted from Alberta's tar sands and
oil extracted from North Dakota's
Bakken shale formation by hydraulic fracturing («fracking»)-- has swelled global reserves even as climate scientists issue ever - sterner warnings that burning more than a small fraction of these reserves would be suicidal.
According to UBS,
oil at US$ 45 «slows most U.S.
shale plays,» and the
Bakken, the Eagle Ford, and the Niobrara struggle below US$ 45.
Since 2008, he's called practically every major
shale play before the mainstream press got wind of them — including the now - famous
Bakken oil formation and the companies that have raked in billions in profits for their shareholders.
Many local towns and cities have expressed opposition to the project, citing the local dangers of pipeline leaks and wider implications of fracking (the
oil bound for the Pilgrim Pipeline originates from the
Bakken shale in North Dakota, the same deposits that have increased the volume of
oil carried by trains and barges through the Hudson Valley to New Jersey refineries).
That was the case with several recent derailments involving trains carrying North Dakota
Bakken shale crude
oil exploding violently.
Roosevelt, which lies in the heart of the
Bakken shale formation, is surrounded by
oil and gas development.
Increased water use in the rapidly growing
oil industry in North Dakota's
Bakken oil shale region, or play, is surprisingly due not only to
oil well development but also to people, according to a recent study by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.
The
Bakken is a
shale oil deposit underlying parts of North Dakota and Montana in the United States, and Saskatchewan and Manitoba in Canada.
Yet another train carrying volatile crude
oil from the
Bakken shale formation in North Dakota derailed yesterday, this time in northwestern Illinois near the historic tourist area of Galena overlooking the Mississippi River.
The recent growth in unconventional
oil production from the
Bakken (North Dakota), Eagle Ford (Texas) and other tight
oil plays has drawn attention to the potential of
shale in California's Monterey Formation.
With
oil prices now below $ 50 a barrel, I think it's safe to say that TV has missed its chance to come up with a relevant, compelling drama about the
Bakken shale boom and the fascinating rush mentality it brought to small cities and towns in North Dakota and eastern Montana.
The growth in
oil production in the US has almost entirely resulted from increased production out of Eagle Ford and
Bakken shale.
In many respects, North Dakota has been the top success story in the U.S. over the past couple of years, thanks to the huge impact of
oil and gas development in the
Bakken shale formation.
In case you missed it, the
oil was being carried from America's new
oil patch, the
Bakken shale fields of North Dakota, to a St. John, New Brunswick, refinery that, according to the owner, Irving Energy, sends more than half of its 300,000 daily barrels of petroleum products back across the border to the northeastern United States.
On Twitter, Jeff Tollefson, a reporter for Nature who's written on pollution from America's
shale boom, pointed to the
Bakken oil fields as illustrating why tighter rules for existing industry facilities is vital:
Oil from the
Bakken shale formation is one reason why North Dakota has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation, at 3.2 percent in June.
The Democratic governor of Missouri, Jay Nixon, announced this week that he favors construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to bring crude from the Canadian
oil sands and our own
Bakken shale region to refineries along the Gulf Coast.
In North Dakota, where
oil drillers lack the equipment and pipelines to capture the gas that accompanies extraction of crude, the practice of flaring off the methane lights up some areas over the
Bakken shale like big cities at night.
Low
oil prices will incentivize the rapid transfer of what has been learned refracking
shale gas plays for use in more liquids - rich plays like the
Bakken and Eagle Ford.
But I'd get ready for
Bakken and Bazhenov
shale oil in the decades to come.
But for potential foreign purchasers of that
oil, the key question is how much extra it will cost to extract the dirty compounds in Alberta bitumen so that its quality matches export
oil being produced at high - grade, low - cost US
shale formations like the
Bakken, Permian, and Eagle Ford.
The North America
oil industry is experiencing explosive growth, with transport of volatile crude
oil on rail from
Bakken shale fields of Montana and North Dakota increasing more than 2000 percent in just four recent years.
$ 1 million unconventional
oil and gas research program, which gathers critical data on the extreme impacts of fossil fuel development in the Marcellus and
Bakken shale regions.
Historically, fracturing in California has been used in vertical wells — not in combination with the horizontal drilling techniques that have wrested
oil from North Dakota's
Bakken and natural gas from the Barnett
shale of Texas or Marcellus
shale in Pennsylvania.
Close to Canada, North Dakota has a booming economy due to the
Bakken oil shale fields located in the western half of the state.