Study: Most Tight Shale Wells Will Be Strippers Soon; E.F./Bakken Peak As Soon As 2017
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Speaking at the Denver meeting of the Geological Society of America and later at Queen's University and an energy conference in Toronto, David Hughes challenged the assumptions of industry cheerleaders by spelling out startling depletion rates for high-cost unconventional shale and tight oil wells.
"The shale revolution has been a game-changer in that it has temporarily reversed a terminal decline in supplies from conventional sources," said Hughes in both talks given in late October and early November. "Long-term sustainability is questionable and environmental impacts are a major concern."
The geoscientist, who now lives on Cortes Island, has studied energy resources in Canada for four decades, including 32 years with the Geological Survey of Canada as a coal and natural gas specialist. After reviewing data from unconventional oil wells, Hughes found that these difficult and high-cost operations deplete so rapidly that between 47 to 61 per cent of oil from plays like the Bakken, the first major tight oil play developed, is recovered within the first four years.
Hughes noted that the Bakken and Texas' Eagle Ford plays, which currently produce two-thirds of U.S. tight oil and are supposed to take the country into energy independence territory, will actually peak in production by 2016 or 2017. Incredibly, most tight oil wells, such as in North Dakota's booming oilfields, will become "stripper wells" (producing less than 10 barrels a day) and be ready for abandonment within 11 to 24 years.
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http://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-12-12/us-energy-independence-another-pipe-dream-says-analyst