Here is Schlumberger admitting that "We the People of the United States…" are the guinea pigs for hydraulic fracturing.
By Ryan Dezember, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
HOUSTON -(Dow Jones)- Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) Chief Operating Officer Paal Kibsgaard said Wednesday that refinements must be made in shale drilling before the underground oil-and-gas-filled rocks can be exploited beyond North America.
"We are convinced that the brute force approach established in North America will not be practical overseas, either from a financial or an operational standpoint," Kibsgaard, who is widely believed to be in line to become the next chief executive officer of the world's largest oilfield services company, said in a webcast of a speech made during the company's two-day analyst meeting at Schlumberger's Cambridge, Mass., research facility.
Schlumberger is among the companies that have helped develop North American shale exploration, which involves complex techniques like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. On Tuesday, Petrohawk Energy Corp. (HK) said that Schlumberger's new hydraulic fracturing technology, called HiWAY, boosted output from its Eagle Ford shale wells in south Texas by as much as 37% and lifted estimated ultimate recovery as much as 90% in some reservoirs.
Energy companies are now aiming to export the techniques they're using to produce vast amounts of natural gas and oil from North America to international markets. Producers have identified and are studying energy-bearing shale formations in countries including Poland, Argentina, China and France.
Shale drilling requires large amounts of water, ceramic material or fine sand called proppant as well as pumping equipment that can often be in short supply. And before shale exploration can take root internationally, the process needs to be come more efficient, Kibsgaard said.
"We need to establish a workflow and corresponding technology offering built around a better evaluation of shale gas reservoirs," he said. "The goal will be to only drill the best wells, and only stimulate the best intervals, while we continue to look for [fracturing] solutions that further minimize the usage of both water and proppant."
Shares of Schlumberger traded 0.43% higher at $93.31 on Wednesday.
-By Ryan Dezember, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9208; Ryan.Dezember@ dowjones.com
I do not recall signing an informed consent. Do you?
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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TadGhostHole says
It's like how DARPA invented the active denial system years ago and pretended like it was for riot control in the middle east. But to this day they just can't seem to use it operationally in Iraq or Afghanistan. But what's this it's being installed at LA county lock up?!? Cause its for YOU America!
Anonymous says
Taken way out of context.
It is a regulatory and logisitcal issue, not a safety issue.
zoe says
It's not good enough for the rest of the world, but hey, let's just frack up America into Oblivion. Let's use American Citizens, and American Aquifers as the laboratory test.
And when we finally get it down, we'll frack up the rest of the world too.
Does this seriously make anybody else's head spin?
I interpret it as,
"We really don't have any of this figured out, and we'll figure it out on our own people, Americans, and then, once we figure it out, we'll take it overseas. In the meantime, we will continue to fracking make mistakes, but we promise to fix them before we go overseas. And while we don't have the process down yet, we will sell all the extra natural gas to Europe and Asia, because we are really fracking gasholes with no heart for our country.
"oh, rah, rah, America."
Let me tell you how it's working out for me:
Abandoning home.