Roger Blanchard

Commentary: Texas and Eagle Ford – Where the Action Is

A lot has been made in the media about how rapidly oil production is increasing in North Dakota due to development of tight oil in the Bakken Shale region of the state. Less has been made of the rapidly increasing oil production in Texas. According to United States Department of Energy/Energy Information Administration (US DOE/EIA) data, oil production is rising faster in Texas than it is in …

ASPO Commentary: US DOE/EIA Forecast Estimates Face Reality

Among the many assumptions of the US DOE/EIA in their recent U.S. forecasts, there is the major assumption that U.S. 48 States offshore oil production will increase over time. The production increase would come mostly, if not totally, from the deep-water Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

A Closer Look at Bakken and U.S. Oil Production

Recent US news reports have highlighted the fact that US oil production has been rising and is now higher than it has been in years. Reports that highlight the recent US oil production increase don't mention that oil production outside of Texas and North Dakota has actually declined in the last few years.

How reliable are U.S. Department of Energy oil production forecasts?

No individual or organization is always going to be right when it comes to projections of future oil production. What we should expect is that in general, an individual or organization should more often than not be within some reasonable range of the actual future production level. Unfortunately, the U.S. DOE/EIA’s projections are too frequently off by a substantial amount.

Bakken shale and U.S. oil production

On Sept. 25, 2011 National Public Radio’s All Things Considered program had a segment consisting of what I considered highly questionable information concerning oil production in the Bakken Shale region of North Dakota and U.S. oil production in general. The segment indicated that U.S. oil production would rise dramatically in the foreseeable future due to new technological developments. …

The President, the media, and oil supply

The public’s understanding of oil supply issues has not been enlightened by media coverage. From my perspective, the media does a terrible job of providing factual information concerning oil supply and oil price issues. Aspects of these issues appear to be taboo even for a media outlet such as National Public Radio which supposedly has the objective of educating the public about important …

Commentary: A case study of cellulosic ethanol

The March 28, 2011 edition of the ASPO-USA Peak Oil Review had a brief which I found of considerable interest. It stated: "A perspective paper in Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology makes a case that conversion of biomass to cellulosic ethanol is the most efficient and productive use of biomass to create a high-octane, environmentally friendly transportation fuel. (3/23, …

A look back at North Sea oil production projections

The media, public, and politicians like the optimistic projections by the US DOE/EIA, US Geological Survey (on-shore), and Minerals Management Service (off-shore), but that optimism doesn't mean their projections and assessments are accurate.

America’s delusions of energy independence

If rhetoric could move mountains I'd like to see the Rocky Mountains moved to northern Michigan so I could view the magnificence of Lake Superior from the top of Long's Peak. Unfortunately I'm not expecting to see that day.

Drill baby drill - a second reality check

Last week President Obama announced that he would open [some] federal waters to oil and gas exploration and development... A stated objective of this move is to reduce United States dependence on foreign oil. Implied within the objective is that opening these offshore areas to oil drilling will lead to a long-term increase in the U.S. oil production rate. The possibility of that happening is …