How To Stop Deliberate Fouling of Aquifers by Frackers

(No, I don’t approve of criminal forfeiture laws as they exist right now (seizure before guilt is proved), nor do I approve of RICO. But if they’re being used against ordinary people, they should be used against the executive class. Best way to get them repealed, too.)

Agree 100% with this!

Looks like Saudi Arabia riding to the rescue. With it deliberately driving down oil prices, that’s the end of the (unprofitable and overloaded by debt) fracking industry in the US.

Looks like SA is going all out to hammer all other oil producers in the world. Obvious victims are Russia, Iran, etc. But the US tar sands and oil fracking ones are right in the spotlight, as well as US deep water oil production too.

With friends like these….. Looks like they have got fed up with US politicians banging on about ‘the energy revolution’ they are having and have decided to do something about it. Even a year of sub $90 oil (let alone sub $80) will pretty much end the industry.

Wonder how long SA can keep it up though?

That said…there is a wide range of production costs on fracking wells, from what Ive seen ranging from $60 ish to $100 per barrel. So the marginals will get killed off first, there will be a lot of consolidation, and its unclear how all that will play out. It may not obliterate the industry, but it will at least clip it, and create a heck of a mess if turns out to have been more of a ponzi than we realize with the decline rates as they are and the best wells likely already tapped.

My comment probably doesnt make a lot of sense, since my prior one got moderated out of existence. Sorry Ian – was just being silly but also being serious. I’ll try to stick to the latter going forward. My point was that Saudi breakeven oil price is (depending upon whom you ask) about $85 or so….so yes, they can push oil to $80 for a good long while, as they have pretty massive FC reserves, and even running a modest deficit they could could continue to buy off dissent via their public infrastructure plans, public sector wage hikes, etc. They likely only need to hold oil around this point for two years to crush a large slice of fracking, tar sands, Venezuela, etc, and they can easily manage that with respect to their budget. What I’m unclear about, is, if fracking is largely forced to shut down, how quickly can it be restarted, and at what cost, and, would anyone, given that they know SA has the Hank Paulson bazooka in its pocket.

how quickly can it be restarted, and at what cost, and
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A lot depends on the economy. Some places on the internet say fracking and tar sands are already unprofitable and require nearly as much energy inputs as the energy outputs, so that it is basically a ponzi scheme, raising cash flow from investors desperate for the illusions of profits in a zero interest investment environment.

With the world economy wobbling some more, don’t count on consumers to pick up the slack in the vehicle miles department, Mary Margaret McC. Fewer jobs mean less commuting, less vacation travel, etc., even if a few jerks at the top can afford huge SUVs. And let ebola get a toe hold outside of Africa, and you can kiss the airline and cruise ship industries goodbye too (norovirus schmorovius).

Instead of burning itself out in a huge blaze trying to extract every last hydrocarbon fuel, some predict we could see the energy industry slowly extinguish itself from a vicious cycle of lack of demand and lack of investment.

I know a bit about hydrofracking and disposal wells–it would be best if I don’t say how–and would like to make a few clarifying points about the RT source article.
First, these wells are formally known as Class II underground injection control wells (UICs). All UICs are required by federal law (Safe Drinking Water Act) to be physically isolated from underground sources of drinking water, meaning they shouldn’t have been anywhere near this aquifer. The California Department of Conservation is in charge of permitting UICs in California, and EPA is responsible for making sure California does its job.
Second, the main pollutants identified in the article–arsenic, thallium, and nitrates–are not chemicals commonly used in hydrofracking. The arsenic and thallium could have gotten into the aquifer from the UIC well if they were present in the formation that was fracked, and came back up with the flowback water. But they could have gotten into the aquifer from other industrial wastewater, if industrial wastewater were illegally injected into the well. The nitrates probably had nothing to do with fracking but came from excess fertilizer leaching in or contamination with sewage or livestock waste.
It turns out that the major pollutants in flowback water are usually salts–not exotic carcinogenic metals or hydrocarbons–but very, very effective in destroying water resources for agricultural or drinking water use. There were excess salts in some of the wells tested in this case.
Fracking clearly is not benign; it has hugely revved up a wide variety of environmental stresses and the companies involved have gotten away with ruining ordinary families and their land for far too long. But fracking is not a unique evil either, and even if the
Saudis’ predatory pricing gambit stops it in its tracks, groundwater in California and elsewhere is still at risk, and attention should still be paid. The punishments suggested would be a start.

Yes Sam (et al) it is an amazing move, especially at this time. There is a lot going on in the whole economic/resource/energy world at the moment.

The US starts to unwind ‘Quantitative Easing’ (ie money printing for the Banks and elites), China shafts (very cleverly) Australian coal exports to them, the US (though it has slipped off the radar right now) trying to get the EU to end oil and gas purchases from Russia, SA ‘going all in’ to hammer competing oil production (including running around the EU to try and sign up countries for long term ‘sweetheart’ deals).

So WTF is going on? Is this just the usual chaos of an empire breaking up, where the satraps are all trying to position themselves for their best advantage for when it goes, while those in the empire’s crosshairs (like China) are working hard to pick off the US’s peripheries (kill Australia?) and weaken/collapse it even faster?

Because none this makes any real strategic or economic sense for just about anyone (except Russia and China).

Take one example: Does Turkey really think that after IS has killed off the Syrian Kurds and taken over Syria (which seems their ‘wet dream’ wish) wiping out all the Shias, Christians, etc , then it will then roll over and let Turkey take over, touching forelocks as they do to their betters, as the ‘new Ottomen’ create a new caliphate?

Another: Does SA not realise, that if the US wants (even in its depleted and dying state) it can still really, really hurt it? Quick setting of SA as a ‘terrorist state’ (real easy that one) and then hammer it economically (sanctions, seizures, etc), or if they were really smart (unlikely) cut a deal with Iran to create unrest in SA’s Shia areas?

The Best One: Israel seeming to prefer having a whole bunch of screaming, monsterous, Wahabbi Sunni Jihadists on their border than a functioning State that they have been at peace with for the last 40 years, just to get at a small Shia population in Lebanon that has stopped them grabbing the Wantani River for so long? This is ‘target fixation’ to the Nth power.

With the exception of Russia (maybe Iran) and China you are seeing a lot of people doing some strategically questionable things at the moment, with a heck of a lot of ‘what could possibly go wrong’ potential.

Popcorn time….

Just a wicked thought, the US oil industry has been taking a hammering from the the Wall St dominated US Govt (Russia sanctions) and now SA. Given their political clout it will be interesting to see if we get an ‘oil President’ in 2016.