In the wake of the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami, the Japanese government shuttered the nation’s nuclear power plants (at the moment, all of them are closed), which had been generating 30 percent of the nation’s electricity. Consequently, electricity prices in the country have doubled, while electricity providers have scrambled…

Denbury Resources has announced the startup of the first oil production project in Montana that uses the “enhanced oil recovery” technique of carbon dioxide (CO2) flooding. In this process, CO2 is pumped underground into an oil-bearing rock formation. The CO2 mixes with the oil, releasing it from the surrounding rock,…

The National Research Council (NRC) recently published a study concluding that—contrary to claims made by industry opponents—crude oil from the Canadian Oilsands is no more likely than other oil to cause pipeline leaks. Diluted bitumen, the kind of oil that would be transported through the Keystone XL Pipeline if it…

A federal antitrust class action lawsuit has been filed against the companies that supply the pressure pumping equipment, fluids, and personnel essential to the hydraulic fracturing (fracking) revolution underway in the United States. The lawsuit alleges that the three largest suppliers, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, and Schlumberger, have “colluded to restrict…

The Energy Information Administration's annual survey of domestic oil and gas reserves reports: In 2011, oil and gas exploration and production companies operating in the United States added almost 3.8 billion barrels of crude oil and lease condensate [types of liquid hydrocarbons] proved reserves, an increase of 15 percent, and…

Recently the Mayor of London wrote that within two years, energy scarcity will “force some industries not to operate at peak times” in the city. His solution is to bring hydraulic fracturing to the country; he said, “We should leave no stone unturned, or unfracked, in the cause of keeping…

When Jimmy Rose performed part of his song “Coal Keeps the Lights On” on America’s Got Talent, he struck a chord with both the audience and the judges. Rose’s lyrics depict a coal miner whose hard work shows in his calloused hands and whose rewards shows in the “sundress on…

The June 2013 BP Statistical Review of World Energy reported “that 2012 had the largest single-year increase in US oil production ever recorded.” Of all countries, the United States attained the “highest growth in production of both oil and natural gas,” an achievement made possible by horizontal drilling and hydraulic…

French president François Hollande recently stated, “As long as I am president, there will be no shale gas exploration in France. The debate on shale gas has gone on for too long." The debate is whether France, Europe's second largest energy consumer, will maintain its moratorium on oil and gas…

In April, I highlighted the enormous wealth being generated in the Texas Eagle Ford shale. Now that April’s oil production numbers have been made public, there is even more to celebrate. Oil production was 54 percent higher than it was the previous year. This enormous increase in productivity was achieved…

In the August 1920 edition of Oil and Gas News, an excited reporter wrote about a region that “is attracting much attention due to the good [oil] wells that are being brought in.” Oil had been discovered on the Bertha Hickman farm in Oklahoma, a discovery that started the industrial…

[caption id="attachment_9894" align="alignright" width="300"] Image: Wikimedia Commons[/caption] On Thursday, the British Geological Survey (BGS) released a report estimating that 1,329 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of shale gas exists in the Bowland shale beneath central Britain. According to the BGS, in the United States, roughly 10 percent of a shale gas…

Relative freedom and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in Texas continue creating business opportunities and attracting capital investment from around the world. Austria’s largest steel company, Voestalpine, has signed a lease to build a $716 million iron-ore pellet plant in Corpus Christi, Texas. CEO Wolfgang Eder stated, “It would have been impossible…

On Monday, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that the technically recoverable shale gas resources throughout the world increased 10 percent from the 2011 estimate. This rise is a consequence of increased geological knowledge combined with the wondrous technologies of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Of the forty-one countries within…

For decades in California, oil producers have successfully used hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract vast quantities of oil from the earth, and recent technological advances could unlock orders of magnitude more oil from California’s Monterey Shale. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the shale may hold 15.4 billion barrels…