Cartoon Of the Month

The inevitable has finally begun to happen, U.S. crude oil and condensate production is running out of gas.

Shale oil production, however, is not running out of gas, it is fast becoming the biggest source of dry natural gas production in the country as tight, gassy oil wells become tight, oily gas wells. With total disregard for pressure preservation and "reservoir" management (resulting in <10% recovery rates of calculated oil in place) most of this amazing resource has been wasted and is now unrecoverable. For the sake of a quick buck. An estimated 337.1 BCF of natural gas was burned off the top of flare stacks in U.S. shale basins in 2024, so says the EIA.

Best not fall for the propaganda trap as to why tight oil production is falling... declining well productivity, rising D&C costs, fewer drillable Tier 1/2 level locations, higher GOR, politics, OPEC, poor economics, less capital to work with, rising debt are all individually and collectively the result of resource depletion...less affordable oil to extract by private enterprise that is deeply in debt.

It was bound to happen.

---

This cartoon is from the great, Etta Hulme. Its 25 years old but she saw the writing on the wall. Mrs. Hulme died in 2014; about the time the U.S. tight oil phenomena was taking off in earnest and that would have temporarily alleviated her fears. It was indeed temporary and very, very costly.