It remains unclear how quickly fracking could be ramped up in the state, and the geological problems with the Monterey shale are still challenging. But California is definitely not off-limits
California has some of the most stringent environmental regulations in the United States, so it might seem an unlikely place to welcome fracking. On Dec. 18, however, the state Department of Conservation published draft rules that could lead to widespread hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas.
The state is known for tough gasoline standards, an ambitious cap-and-trade scheme to cut carbon emissions and strong interest in developing renewable resources such as wind, solar and geothermal as well as stringent energy efficiency requirements for everything from new buildings to refrigerators.
But it was once the second-largest oil producing state in the union and still ranks fourth behind Texas, North Dakota and Alaska, with output of more than 200 million barrels a year (over 500,000 barrels per day), according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) and state regulators.
Speaking to a conference last year, California Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, said he would look into issuing more permits for fracking if it could be done in a safe manner. “I’m an optimist”, that environmental concerns can be resolved, he said. “California is the fourth-largest oil-producing state, and we want to continue that.”
Issuing draft regulation could be a first step towards a big expansion of the practice.
KERN COUNTY
In 2010, California had more than 51,000 active wells – 41,000 of them in Kern County, which accounted for three quarters of total oil production.
Centred on Bakersfield at the south end of California’s Central Valley, Kern is one of the country’s biggest producers of grapes, almonds, carrots and citrus fruit. But it also sits atop five of the state’s oldest and largest oil fields: Midway-Sunset (discovered in 1894), Belridge (1911), Kern River (1899), Cymric (1909) and Elk Hills (1911).
Like the rest of California’s oil industry, Kern has long appeared to be in a state of terminal decline. Statewide output has almost halved since 1985. Production continued to slide even as fracking resulted in sharp increases elsewhere. Output from Kern’s big five fell by 68,000 bpd (17 percent) between 2005 and 2009.
California’s oil is very heavy. Typically it has a specific gravity of less 20 degrees API compared with almost 40 degrees for benchmark West Texas Intermediate.
Most wells are exhausted “strippers”, which now yield less than 10 bpd. Fewer than 300 wells produced more than 100 bpd in 2009.
And California wells produce lots of briny water that must be re-injected or otherwise disposed of safely. The average California well produces eight or nine barrels of undrinkable water for every barrel of crude.
The state long ago had to resort to water flooding (secondary recovery) to maintain output from its aging oil fields. In 2009, California producers injected 1.4 billion barrels of water into oil-bearing formations to drive the remaining crude towards the wells, up from less than 1 billion barrels at the turn of the century.
Much of the oil is so viscous that the state also injected 500 million barrels of hot steam (tertiary recovery) to make it flow better.
Cited from http://business.financialpost.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment