ISIS is flooding the market to fund the war.
ISIS is flooding the market to fund the war.
That could well be.
I heard an analysis today on NPR where one of those think-tank guys said that ISIS is running a huge deficit trying to manage territory. He described ISIS's military pay structure... so much per year for an infantry man, add to that dependent's allotments (many have more than one wife each with children), electricity in a major town they hold has always been free, then there are hospitals and schools to fund.. They control oil fields and need to pump like crazy to make ends meet.
It's a crazy world...
I've been hearing about "peak oil" since I was 20 years old. I'm now 64 and haven't seen it yet.
There is a credibility gap.
+1. Fossil fuels demand will outstrip supply eventually, but it now appears it'll be (much) later thanks to fracking and other geopolitical developments. Where I once expected major changes in my lifetime, now I wouldn't be surprised it it comes later, who knows.To be fair peak oil was reached in the United States in the 1970s as predicted by Hubbard (when you were 20 ), and most of the reason the peak has been delayed is due to better extraction technologies.
As for the long term, well. As they say: "the stone age came to an end not for lack of stones". Just as well, the alternative is not so good.
Peak oil/gas demand will be the real cause of peak oil/gas production. Investments are being scaled back quite a lot in the world, a.o. because of that effect already taking hold.
Disclosure: I also hold some oil/gas shares. The oil era will end eventually, but there's still good money to be made I believe in the mean time.
+1. Fossil fuels demand will outstrip supply eventually, but it now appears it'll be (much) later thanks to fracking and other geopolitical developments. Where I once expected major changes in my lifetime, now I wouldn't be surprised it it comes later, who knows.
I also hold oil/gas (VGELX) but I don't expect it to be the no-brainer I once thought, and it was always a bet on the character of consumers more than the value of oil/gas IMO.
I thought they went hand in hand but I see you're right - thanks for the correction. US production has changed dramatically to say the least.Point of clarification: We have been "fracking" wells since earlier than 1940. What's provided the largest improvement in extraction of existing oil and gas has been the perfection of horizontal drilling techniques and, on a smaller scale, the ability to drill in deeper offshore waters.
Point of clarification: We have been "fracking" wells since earlier than 1940. What's provided the largest improvement in extraction of existing oil and gas has been the perfection of horizontal drilling techniques and, on a smaller scale, the ability to drill in deeper offshore waters.
The term "fracking" is used so readily in the media and conversation, it has become almost a proxy for any endeavor involved in oil or gas drilling, adding to people's confusion. The sounds the word makes rolling off the tongue can be made to sound aggressive and sinister, giving it a larger role in drilling opposition statements.
An article appeared in the New Yorker magazine in 2011 detailing some of the story of the Bakken shale area, containing this quote that summarized for me the utility and near magic of horizontal drilling:
"Horizontal drilling has become extraordinarily precise. “If your house was ten thousand feet underground, these guys could bring a drill bit through the front door and out the back,” an oil-industry blogger wrote last year. Increasingly sophisticated sensors provide hundreds of calculations per minute as a drill bores ahead, dictating the angle at which to adjust the bit in order to maintain a graceful curve that won’t kink the pipe."
In spite of the range of issues that twist some people's tails about this latest frenzy of us oil production, this is technically pretty cool stuff, imo.
Kuwait on the Prairie - The New Yorker
The only beef I have with widespread use of fracking is the huge amount of fresh water used , drawing down aquifers. Disposal of the fluid is no problem, as a lot of the holes drilled don't result in a productive well , so the contaminated water is put down those abandoned holes. I am satisfied with the safety of that.
We are using up fresh water that took hundreds of thousands of years to fill aquifers , to get the harder to get at oil. If oil is hard to live without , just try growing food without water.
I'm starting to rant. Will get off my soapbox now.
The only beef I have with widespread use of fracking is the huge amount of fresh water used , drawing down aquifers. Disposal of the fluid is no problem, as a lot of the holes drilled don't result in a productive well , so the contaminated water is put down those abandoned holes. I am satisfied with the safety of that.
We are using up fresh water that took hundreds of thousands of years to fill aquifers , to get the harder to get at oil. If oil is hard to live without , just try growing food without water.
I'm starting to rant. Will get off my soapbox now.
Fracking doesn't stop with water...
My new nextdoor neighbor moved from his home near Utica IL... (Just down the road from us)... because of dynamiting, silica sand blowing through the neighborhood, and the 24/7 rumble of huge sand trucks.
The entire county is being affected by the expanded production. Positive side , jobs, negatives... loss of neighborhoods, increased road costs, tourism (Starved rock State Park), Illinois River barge traffic and potential ground stability problems.
In silica valley, the sand is moving - LaSalle News Tribune - LaSalle, IL