Bedtime Facts (91/365)
The United States was the top oil producer in the world in 2016 (the most recent year stats are available)
The United States produced 14.86 million barrels of oil or 15.3% of the world's production that year. The USA has been a net oil exporter since 2011. This fact is due to fracking shale formations in Texas and North Dakota. Conventional crude oil sources have stopped being a major source of growth in crude oil production. The world's appetite for crude oil has grown to such a degree that unconventional sources such as oil sands in Canada have become competitive.
Unconventional oil reserves being tapped on a large scale has had the effect of shifting power away from OPEC and Russia. If OPEC tries to cap production, unconventional production in North America will soon become very profitable. The last few years have seen revenue from oil drop in the Persian Gulf countries. From an environmental point of view shale fracking, that is, hydraulic fracturing of the rock that contains the oil (or gas) is more problematic than conventional production. The risks include groundwater contamination and potential triggering of earthquakes.
I think when I grow up I want to become a wikipedia scientist! That's my dream! And become super rich!
All the time i was thinking It should be some Saudi Country.
It might be if we think about the top oil producer per area. The USA is a big country hence why it has a lot of resources
If a country has a large area, the likelihood of oil found is larger than in case of small countries but it's still a matter of geological accident. There are many countries with very large reserves whose areas are small, the Gulf countries being prime examples.
Thanks for clearing up my comment.
Isn't oil supposed to be going out of business eventually? Do you think its possible for the world to go completely clean in its energy source?
Once the ill effects of increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere become too painfully obvious for anyone to deny, a hard cap on the use of fossil fuels may be introduced and it might be enforced using military power and trade embargoes. If the political will were there, the world could drastically cut the use of fossil fuels by building a large number of nuclear power plants and utilizing renewables where applicable in about a decade without sacrificing economic growth. If there is an abundance of cheap electricity, it is possible to synthesize all liquid fuels from renewable sources if need be without totally wrecking ecosystems. Technologically it's possible even today, but I'm afraid that for economic and political reasons we're going to have to watch things get much worse before that.
In answer to your question, the rising carbon dioxide level is solvable but it would probably be impossible to have completely clean energy.
I'm just happy when I see people using more clean energy like some people's houses have solar panels and the use of electric cars.
I know there's a lot of politics in this issue with people thinking climate change is a hoax. There are those who will never believe that climate change is a real problem even if the evidence is right in front of their noses.
At this point we can say that climate change deniers are either ignorant or evil. I have nothing against solar and other renewables but nuclear fission is a critical piece of the puzzle society will have to accept or give up their modern lifestyle for the most part.
I had already read a little of fracking but I really don't know if they already use it here in Venezuela although it is a very aggressive technique it is very effective, but OPEC only tries to cap production just to stabilize prices ~60 USD is the sweet spot apparently.
According to the article linked below, Venezuela has the seventh highest reserves potentially recoverable by using fracking.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/091614/countries-highest-fracking-potential.asp
Yes this is one of the main reasons of the drop in the oil prices in the last few years
So this means that the shale fracking is not sustainable and long term beneficial?
Fracking can be sustainable in an economic sense even more so than other methods of extraction but the environmental cost is high.
They realized that they depended a lot on other countries. but they were not stupid they have their reservations from the year 2011 onwards and their reserves were full that is why one of the problems that happened in 2014 stopped external demand. Now they also export, that creates a huge imbalance in the world.
But the bad thing for them is the risk and they know it ..
I think the shale oil production and the Canadian oil sands production started simply because the technology to extract it came into existence and because the price of oil made it economical.
Its seems that the reference qualities of oil hover a little above $60 per barrel right now. That's a pretty normal price which you can see if you look at this inflation adjusted dollar price time series. There is a clear long-term uptrend in the price of oil which is not surprising as the the number of countries going through industrialization has grown.
If the geopolitical game is well underway, that also has a lot to do with the growing demand from China and the Russian supply that is changing the rules.
As for the price you also have the reason and it will be according to the specialists by mid-June, well I read that yesterday. But always things can change from one moment to another.
I saw the links, and seeing what the oil industry was like from 2000 to 2010 I only regret it, because in Venezuela in those years I enter so much but so much money that it can not be calculated. and the worst thing is that these criminals of the Venezuelan government stole everything.
Yes, the growing global demand is the demand side of the explanation for why unconventional oil has become feasible. By the way, Venezuela is also a big producer of unconventional oil.
Yes, here oil is a very heavy oil, it has to go through many processes to make it lighter. Here he invented a technique called orimulsion and it is presisamente to make it light.
https://steemit.com/@a-0-0