Oil's Only Option... Come Ashore or DrownOil companies are about to make a huge move back onto land, whether they like it or not.
And they're doing at a time when the world is demanding more oil than ever — with less of it available than at any time in history...
Just one week before the BP oil spill, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff released an eerily timed report.
It found, in part:
"By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day..."
It's rare that the U.S. military takes such a vested interest in energy affairs. But the fact that they have only shows how serious the situation is becoming.
Consider this: A 10 million barrel daily shortfall by 2015 almost equals the amount of oil the U.S. imports from foreign sources every day right now.
That almost assures that we could never continue to consume as much crude as we do. It would simply be impossible to keep up the pace...
Our traditional domestic sources aren't helping much, either...
The top 3 oil producing states in America are all in irreversible decline. Take a look:
Texas, Alaska, and California are running dry — and at the worst time possible...
Energy demand is hitting a new peak every day.
Alternative sources still aren't up to snuff and can't offset the decline in petroleum.
So with President Obama essentially cutting off access to some of the last remaining oil left in the country...
Where are companies expected to find it to keep up with this massive demand?
America's Next Oil Hot Zone...If you're at all plugged into the oil world, you've probably heard of the North Dakota region's Bakken oil shale discovery...
If not, all you need to know is this: The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that 4.35 billion barrels of recoverable oil lies in the Bakken region.
That's currently over $326 billion worth of petro...
Even as oil hovers at an uncommonly low $70 -$80 a barrel — a price that's sure to fly up thanks to the BP disaster.
Bakken was recently called "[T]he #1 oil play in the country," by the Oil & Gas Financial Journal.
Why is it #1?
Because while oil fields in Texas, California ,and Alaska continue to dry up, the crude that's coming out of North Dakota's tough shale rock is only increasing...
In fact, thanks to the Bakken formation, North Dakota is pretty much the only region in North America that's on the UPSWING of oil production.
Take a look...
You see, while solar, wind and nuclear power innovations capture the imagination of energy idealists throughout the country...
North Dakota stands as perhaps as America's sole oil hot zone.
And these three companies involved with extracting the Bakken oil from the shale rock could very well be looked upon as domestic oil's new pioneers.
No one's saying it's easy... Oil shale is difficult and dangerous to drill through...
Yet this is the new world the oil industry has been forced to live in. Come ashore to get the oil — or face untold economic liabilities as this ocean-less era unfolds.
"The easy stuff that you have access to . . . is already spoken for. All that's left is the frontiers, which are necessarily more technically challenging..."Says Chris Skrebowski, a former strategist for — how's this for irony — BP.