Energy In-depth: Oil Rigs Being Idled, But Boom Not Ending
by February 13, 2015 6:48 am 109 views
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BLOOMBERG: OIL RIGS BEING IDLED, BUT BOOM NOT ENDING
“The U.S. drilling frenzy is over. What’s not is the boom in oil production,” Bloomberg declares in a new article.
Industry experts have capitalized on technology to the extent that the once reliable rig count as a predictor of oil and gas drilling is nowhere near accurate in describing the productivity taking place. More than 150 rigs have been idled in the last three years and another 200 may be parked; however, industry experts point to federal government data that shows production more than doubling.
“In North Dakota’s Bakken formation, 551 barrels a day were produced in January for each drilling rig in the field, EIA data show. That’s more than double the amount pumped per rig three years earlier. The same is true for the Eagle Ford in South Texas. In the Permian, productivity increased 84 percent. In the Niobrara in northeastern Colorado, it has more than tripled,” the article states.
Read more of what’s at work and how production is bucking conventional wisdom at this link.
PICASOLAR IS AN EDISON AWARD FINALIST
Fayetteville-based PicaSolar, a startup company in the solar energy field, learned this week that its hydrogen super emitter (HSE) is among those innovations to be recognized at the Edison Awards Gala held April 23 in New York. The company knows it has earned a silver, bronze or gold level award and it will find out which during the upcoming gala.
As a 2015 Edison Award finalist PicaSolar went head-to-head against companies like Yahoo!, Motorola, Proctor & Gamble, Kellogg, Pepsico and Google, all of which were nominated for innovative products as well. Read more on the accolades at this link.
HUTCHINSON NAMES BECKY KEOGH TO HEAD ADEQ
Gov. Asa Hutchinson named Becky Keogh as director of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality on Tuesday. Keogh is a former Deputy Director at ADEQ. She currently serves as Regulatory and Environment Manager for BHP Billiton, which has significant investments in Arkansas’ Fayetteville Shale Play. Prior to that, she was a Vice President and Senior Project Manager for CH2M HILL, an international environmental and engineering consulting firm. She served as a commissioner of the Arkansas Geological Commission from 2006-2009.
LANNY NICKELL: SHEDDING LIGHT ON RELIABILITY
In a guest commentary, Lanny Nickell, Little Rock-based Southwest Power Pool’s VP for Engineering, discusses shortcomings in the EPA’s Clean Power Plan that he says understates the impact on the nation’s electricity grid.
“The presumption that the lights will stay on in the future because they haven’t gone out in the past is a dangerous one,” Nickells writes. Read his arguments here for why more thought must go into securing the reliability of the nation’s electrical grid before EPA rules are implemented.