Recently there have been a number of posts here at PO.com joining the MSM chorus that fossil fuels are coming to an end. I wish that this were true- but I do not let my wishes cloud my eyes. The mantra of Fossil Fuels extinction is based on multiple false premises:
1.That while renewables technology is improving to make them cheaper, fossil fuel technology is standing still
WRONG: fossil fuel extraction tech may make it go even cheaper than Renewables for the next 20-40 year
A technological revolution spurred the U.S. oil boom that resulted in the greatest increase in domestic oil production in a century, and while that has stuttered in the face of a major oil price slump and an OPEC campaign to maintain a grip on market share, the American response could be another technological revolution that demonstrates that the first one was merely an impressive embryonic experiment.
It’s not only about shale now—it’s about reviving mature oil fields through advancements in enhanced oil recovery, potentially opening up not only new shale fields, but older fields that have been forgotten.
There are myriad gloom-and-doom stories about what is often alluded to as a short-lived oil boom in the U.S. But what many fail to understand is that revolutions of this nature are phased, with the advent of new technology typically followed by a temporary halt in progress while we study the results and come up with something even better.
There are two very interesting EOR advancements that have caught our attention in recent months: CO2 EOR and Plasma Pulse Technology (PPT).
CO2, or carbon dioxide EOR, involves injecting CO2 into ageing oil fields to sweep residual oil to the surface. In some cases, it can extend the production life of a field by more than 25 years. The U.S. is fortunate in this regard because it has a large volume of low-cost, naturally occurring CO2 at its disposal; however, in order to be widely employed the infrastructure to deliver it to oil fields has to be in place.
Visiongain estimates that global CO2 EOR spending will be $4.74 billion this year. “This will decline in the short term as low oil prices take their toll on the capital spending programmes of CO2 EOR operators, but is expected to rise rapidly in the next decade.”
Then we have something a bit more futuristic, even though it is already commercially viable—Plasma Pulse Technology, or PPT. This is a patent pending technology that enables the “re-opening” of wells without water, without polluting chemicals and without causing earthquakes. The ”re-opening” side of this equation means that it doesn’t open rock like fracking, rather it comes in afterwards and cleans up well bores to clear the pathway for oil to flow faster and more efficiently to the surface like it once did.
Plasma Pulse Technology (PPT) creates a controlled plasma arc within a vertical well, generating a tremendous amount of heat for a fraction of a second, while the subsequent high-speed hydraulic impulse wave emitted is strong enough to remove any clogged sedimentation from the perforation zone without damaging the steel casing. The series of impulse waves also penetrates deep into the reservoir, which re-opens reservoir permeability for up to a year per treatment.
What OPEC knows is this: The U.S. has over 21 billion barrels of oil that could be economically recovered with today’s EOR technologies. And according to figures from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Western Governors Association (WGA), further advances in this technology could cause that figure to double.
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/OP ... -Boom.htmlWith enhanced extraction methods wells last much longer- heck that Red Queen is on the park bench eating a bag of Cheetos.
2.That governments are serious about creating binding agreements on reducing CO2
WRONG: every climate summit to date has produced more symbolism than substance and tons of loopholes. The US and China made a mockery of the last summit. There is NO international will to create a mechanism to punish nations for FF use and enforcement of this is impossible when the same nations are in a economic trade war with each other. Someone will always do business with bad actors to keep them going. Nobody has ever produced any evidence of the effectiveness of these summits. Look what has happened after Copenhagen:
3. Renewables are increasing greatly as a share of total energy production
WRONG: renewables are growing- but at a deadly snail's pace and have no hope of even becoming a majority source of energy this century. The real story of the first 15 years of this century is not the growth of renewables- but the growth of fossil fuels
Unlike the posts of the renewable energy Pollyannas who just keep posting fluff opinion pieces- I support my arguments with data