Hacker News Reader

Comment by jeza | Hacker News Reader

I gather this is the result of the increasing price of crude oil, making small oil fields that weren't previously considered viable now viable. The output of these wells is enough to essentially stop oil prices from going through the roof for the time being.

View on HN

It's not just that the cost of crude is up, advances in horizontal drilling and fracking have made these wells economical despite lower crude prices.

Fracking has been tried on and off for decades but it was only recently that wildcatters struck upon the right formula and techniques to unlock the Bakken.

Horizontal drilling is key in this region because the Bakken is like an oreo cookie: a thin layer of crude sandwiched between two huge layers of rock. Fracking breaks up the small inner layer while horizontal drilling lets a single well drill down into that layer and then within that layer, unlocking far more crude than with regular vertical drilling.

Fracking and horizontal drilling are 20-30 years old technologies. The only reason they're practical now are high oil prices. Technological improvements have been rather incremental in last 20 years in those.

What was needed was not technology, but oil prices over $80 per barrel.

At least that's what someone who does this for living said.

You're ignoring improvements in fracking that have only happened in the last 15 years. Certainly fracking itself isn't new at all, the first attempts date back under a century, but the cost has come down. Most fracking was done using vastly more expensive chemical concoctions which were largely unsuccessful in a lot of shale formations—until someone tried with a solution that was mostly water. Not only was it more effective, it was half the price!

Moreover, fracking came in to vogue due to drilling for natural gas, not crude.

Most of this is natural gas and not crude oil. The reason these fields are now viable is because of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Before fracking, no one thought you'd ever get any oil out of that area. Now all of a sudden its all available again. Its like finding a new gusher just because you can drill deeper than you could before.

Also natural gas is WAY cheaper now that it was 5 years ago. Its so cheap that a lot of oil companies are voluntarily not pumping out of some good wells because they want to decrease supply.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com