From Benny Peiser's Global Warming Policy Foundation

Refracking Ready To Rejuvenate Shale Revolution

Amazing Shale Revolution To Bring Down World Food Prices

Wells sunk as little as three years ago are being fracked again, the latest innovation in the technology-driven shale oil revolution. Thanks to the dual-deployment of horizontal well drilling and hydraulic fracturing, oil and gas firms have unlocked massive new reserves across the United States, completely transforming America’s energy fortunes in just a matter of years. It’s a common but very serious mistake to predict the future based on what holds true today. In this case, those who have predicted the demise of the shale revolution may soon be forced to eat their words. The pace of technological change is accelerating, redefining possibilities along the way. --Walter Russell Mead, The American Interest, 20 August 2014

History has taught us that nothing transforms a society or improves the quality of life more than man’s ability to effectively and efficiently harness and develop previously untapped sources of energy. The discovery of fire took us out of the stone-age, hydro-power, combustion, and coal power birthed the Industrial Revolution, our discovery and development of fossil fuels such as oil and gas catapulted us to the modern and technological age we are in today. The recent expansion of oil and gas production in Northern Mexico is expected to top $1 trillion in investment over 10 years and create over 2.5 million new jobs by 2025 creating a new energy paradigm for North America. By combining the United States, Canada, and Mexico, oil and gas production in North America will be bigger than OPEC. --Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, Bakken News, 20 August 2014

The “gale of shale” is hitting the US and the world with surplus energy. In 2000, shale was 2% of natural gas supply; in 2012, it was about 37%; and will be about 65% within the next two decades. The US is poised for shipping out shale gas in liquefied form as net exporter of energy. American motorists are consuming less gasoline, thereby limiting the blend of biofuels like ethanol. The “energy security” lobby of the US is no longer supportive of biofuels. With sufficiency and viability of shale gas, the future demand of ethanol will shrink, resulting into demand compression of corn, especially in the US, and its price will move southwards in the coming years. --Tejinder Narang, The Financial Express, 19 August 2014

Europe may be on the cusp of developing a shale natural gas sector that could mimic the expansion in the United States, analysis from Wood Mackenzie finds. Robert Clarke, director of research into the area for Wood Mackenzie, said U.S. shale gas production has evolved from operations in easy-to-reach and highly productive basins to what he’s describing as “unconventional 3.0″ —a phase characterized by a lessons-learned approach to areas once considered too difficult for commercial drilling.“Europe is one of the best areas outside of the United States for this to occur,” he said Wednesday in an e-mailed statement. --Daniel J. Graeber, UPI, 20 August 2014

The violence and cutthroat politics of the Middle East, combined with declining oil and gas production levels, has triggered a subtle but significant shift away from what has long been the center of the energy industry to other regions around the world. On top of that, the region’s production and share of the market is in decline. It all adds up to a subtle but significant shifting of the center of the oil and gas universe toward Africa, Asia, and North and South America. As the Reuters report says, “Advances in horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing, seismic surveying and deepwater drilling have opened a much broader global oil and gas resource base, giving exploration and production companies many more options.” --Claude Salhani, Oil Price, 20 August 2014

China is looking to the West – and especially to Texas – as it seeks to unlock its vast shale formations in hopes of launching an American-style energy revolution. Facing stubborn rock and high costs, Chinese oil companies are giving U.S. firms a bigger stake in exchange for the tools and technology of hydraulic fracturing, which helped turn American production around and gave the nation new status as an energy power. --Collin Eaton, Houston Chronicle, 16 August 2014