Oklahoma business energy news

[Plutonic Panda]

Wow, this is fantastic news!

Oklahoma poised to surpass California, Alaska in oil production, Continental Resources CEO says | News OK

[oklip955]

I'm wondering with this news and the Tinker/Boeing news, how many new jobs is the Okc metro and state looking at adding soon? I would guess that this would up the number of new rooftops and be a boost for us getting more new retail.

[Plutonic Panda]

I really think OKC is going to hit a boom that will blow expectations out of the water soon.

[Plutonic Panda]

Energy company says Oklahoma on track to become nation's third-largest oil producer | Oklahoma City - OKC - KOCO.com

[ljbab728]

Energy company says Oklahoma on track to become nation's third-largest oil producer | Oklahoma City - OKC - KOCO.com

Plupan, did you forget about your post number 279 or did you intend to post the same information twice?

[Plutonic Panda]

Well that was from NewsOk, I just thought I'd post the article from Koco 5... guess they pretty much are the same thing though

[ljbab728]

Well that was from NewsOk, I just thought I'd post the article from Koco 5... guess they pretty much are the same thing though

And it pads your post count.

I know you're just trying to catch up with me. LOL

[Plutonic Panda]

Energy company announces layoffs in Oklahoma City - Tulsa World: Employment

http://newsok.com/energy-company-ann...rticle/5345671

[s00nr1]

Just another prime example of why OKC needs to focus on diverse economic growth, without relying too heavily on oil and gas.

[ljbab728]

Just another prime example of why OKC needs to focus on diverse economic growth, without relying too heavily on oil and gas.

Which, of course, is what OKC is doing. With 97 jobs, that company really has no impact on OKC's business climate. Even the major layoffs at Chesapeake had little affect.

[PhiAlpha]

Just another prime example of why OKC needs to focus on diverse economic growth, without relying too heavily on oil and gas.

This isn't really new news, it's been coming for awhile and is a non-HQ, isolated corporate acquisition issue that is not indicative of the industry's strength as a whole. This type of layoff could happen with any company in any industry.

I agree that we should continue diversifying the economy, but this is a terrible example of why we should be doing so.

[zookeeper]

Despite my problems with Big Energy, I certainly don't wish for another energy "bust." But....

I have been reading some things that truly frighten me. Talk of a "Shale-Oil" bubble burst is on the rise and this could absolutely decimate Oklahoma City. The talk of a "shale bust" is scary enough. In all sincerity, it worries me. Just google - oil gas shale bubble bust - and start reading. If it turns out the major investments in shale gas plays created a bubble (in the economic sense), the burst could be awful. Not to be alarmist at all, I am sincerely worried that Oklahoma City's eggs are disproportionately in one basket. We are no sooner off the ground as a great and growing city and - in a heartbeat - it could all tumble and we'd be saying, "What the ^&^$ happened?" Is anybody daring enough in this city to draw up a contingency plan for a major bubble burst in oil and/or gas? Wall Street and the financial industry was bailed out and it still did horrible damage to many areas of the country. Would Washington be so kind to, especially, bail out the shale players, (who are already seen as reckless and brash by many in our capital)?

Dead serious. What would we do?

A few weeks ago: The Popping of the Shale Gas Bubble - Forbes

http://www.businessweek.com/articles...-staying-power

http://www.outsiderclub.com/report/t...gas-ponzi/1041

http://grist.org/climate-energy/is-t...dit-thinks-so/

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-fra...bubble/5326504

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessecol...ed-for-a-bust/

[Plutonic Panda]

Oil, natural gas industry growth shows in Oklahoma as conferences flourish | News OK

Oklahoma City holds two oil, gas expos | News OK

[Plutonic Panda]

Iodine production booming in Oklahoma ? and only in Oklahoma | News OK

[bradh]

Oil, natural gas industry growth shows in Oklahoma as conferences flourish | News OK

Oklahoma City holds two oil, gas expos | News OK

One expo is held and ran by local people for local people, and has been doing this expo for 18 years.. The other, ran by an out of state company, says they aren't trying to compete with SOER's expo, but last year ran ads saying "have your expo returns been marginal?" which was a shot at the former Marginal Well Commission. They also nickel and dime the hell out of their exhibitors like Spirit Airlines for everything from internet, power, forklifts, golf carts, while SOER's expo charges one flat fee for everything. That company also paid to have their Google ad show up first if you searched for SOER's expo, and flat out lied about it to the public. They also tricked exhibitors into thinking they were registering for the SOER show.

[pw405]

Despite my problems with Big Energy, I certainly don't wish for another energy "bust." But....

I have been reading some things that truly frighten me. Talk of a "Shale-Oil" bubble burst is on the rise and this could absolutely decimate Oklahoma City. The talk of a "shale bust" is scary enough. In all sincerity, it worries me. Just google - oil gas shale bubble bust - and start reading. If it turns out the major investments in shale gas plays created a bubble (in the economic sense), the burst could be awful. Not to be alarmist at all, I am sincerely worried that Oklahoma City's eggs are disproportionately in one basket. We are no sooner off the ground as a great and growing city and - in a heartbeat - it could all tumble and we'd be saying, "What the ^&^$ happened?" Is anybody daring enough in this city to draw up a contingency plan for a major bubble burst in oil and/or gas? Wall Street and the financial industry was bailed out and it still did horrible damage to many areas of the country. Would Washington be so kind to, especially, bail out the shale players, (who are already seen as reckless and brash by many in our capital)?

Dead serious. What would we do?


A few weeks ago: The Popping of the Shale Gas Bubble - Forbes

U.S. Shale-Oil Boom May Not Last as Fracking Wells Lack Staying Power - Businessweek

The Coming Bust of the U.S. Shale Oil & Gas Ponzi

Is the carbon bubble about to bust? One unlikely pundit thinks so | Grist

The Fracked-up USA Shale Gas Bubble | Global Research

9 Reasons Why Oil Prices May Be Headed For A Bust - Forbes

Good question... can anybody with more knowledge speak to the credibility of these articles? I read them all and it certainly doesn't inspire much confidence for the long run. We all know that fossil fuels won't last forever, and I feel that our state needs to prepare for another downtown. While a huge oil bust certainly won't be good for OKC, I couldn't imagine what it would do to Houston. There is soooo many energy industry companies there.

[Bellaboo]

If the US would allow crude oil (not refined products) to be sold overseas, there would be no bust.

Let there be an extremely cold winter, that would help too.

Also keep in mind, the initial flows are good, but they taper off significantly. If drilling would slow, they could impact the price.

Just my thoughts.

[PWitty]

I haven't read those articles, but I can tell you without reading them that they're probably regurgitating the same views on shale gas/tight oil that have been written about over and over the last 10 years.

I don't understand the cynics insistence on shooting down the potential for shale gas/tight oil because of their decline curves. Yes, the wells have VERY steep decline curves over the first couple years of production. But what seems to get lost is that the wells come on at such outrageously high flow rates (relative to a cheaper conventional well) that in almost all cases the drilling/completion costs are completely recovered within a year or two, if not much sooner. So from a financial standpoint, it is far from a ponzi scheme like some would like to proclaim. Even after the wells have declined and their production begins to flatten out, they're still producing at higher rates than a typical conventional well would be. And at that point it's just money in the bank.

Replacing production from these declining wells, on the other hand, is a little different. It is true that because of the steep decline curves that new wells must continuously be drilled to offset the production loss. But that is true of any oil and gas field anywhere in the world. Now days most operator's wells are coming on MUCH stronger than their older wells in the field, because their drilling/completion techniques continue to become much more cost effective and efficient. Also, the geologic nature of these unconventional reservoirs actually REQUIRE operators to drill more wells to improve their overall recovery from the formation. The low porosity and permeability of these unconventional formations restrict flow of oil and gas from the formation into the wellbore. Because of that, in many cases a single well is most likely only producing the hydrocarbons that were contained inside the fracture network created by the hydraulic fracturing stimulation. In other words, these operators have plenty of inventory to drill. They won't be running out of locations any time soon. And all that is assuming that there are no new innovations that take place from this point forward.

One thing that I get annoyed by is folks pointing at overall production trends and using that to proclaim that US oil and gas is a bust or that a field is dead. One such instance right now is that many US shale gas fields appear to already be in production decline. That isn't because operators couldn't keep production up, it's because natural gas prices cratered so all the operators shifted their rigs from dry gas to wet gas and oil rich fields. The commodity price drop also means that the field's reserve numbers are cut down. But neither of these things mean that the gas is gone. All it takes is an upswing in gas prices and you'll see those field's production numbers start climbing once again. Heck, in some fields it has nothing to do with the price at all. Up in the Marcellus, production is some regions of the play is flatlining. But it has nothing to do with gas prices or the reservoir reaching its limits. It's simply because there isn't adequate pipeline infrastructure to bring the gas to market, so the operators have to slow down their operations. The same thing could apply to US oil production right now. If production from the Middle-East starts coming back online, thereby driving down global oil prices, then rig counts in the US may eventually begin to drop and production may therefore begin to decline. But the production decline doesn't mean the formation has hit its limits, or that production couldn't be increased again if prices were to raise. There are so many things that factor into oil/gas production trends. It just seems shortsighted to me to look at a production trend and proclaim the death of the US oil/gas industry.

[progressiveboy]

Interesting article posted. Even the residents of Houston are wondering how long will the O&G business thrive?



Houston boom is raising eyebrows and worries about an eventual bust | Dallas Morning News

[bradh]

PWitty as usual, dropping great knowledge about O&G, thanks again.

The Houston boom is OKC x10000000, it's nuts.

[gopokes88]

It's gotta be exhausting constantly worried about how things could go wrong and destroy us all. Everything booms and busts it's the way business is. Ask Sears.

[zookeeper]

I can't believe Pwitty's post got so many likes. He even admitted to not reading the articles! It was clear he hadn't as he actually argued the case for a coming bubble burst without realizing it. Did anybody else not see how he actually showed WHY a bubble burst is possible? It was funny - he talked about the articles probably "regurgitating" the same old anti oil and gas line, while he did nothing but regurgitate the non-response to the worries (nothing partisan about it) discussed in the articles. EXCEPT, he basically argued the same arguments. Surely I'm not the only one that realized that?

To see something like this a real possibility ahead of us is NOT partisan and it's NOT wishing it would happen. To ignore it, or act like it's nothing more than some tiny blip is irresponsible. Sears? Really? Quite different...by trillions of dollars.

PWitty basically lays out why a bubble burst is on the way (while thinking he's debunking it) and he receives all the "likes" and accolades for having the answers that put people at ease. Scary.

[bradh]

I have no idea how you got that from that post, but whatever. Look no one is saying that a bust can't happen, but PWitty took the time to type out a thoughtful informative post about O&G (which he/she always does) which I found informative.

I don't know what your end game is, if it's diversification of OKC's economic profile, sure, who is going to argue against that? If it's "down with oil!" or whatever the cry of the week is from that crowd, then I don't know what to tell you.

[PWitty]

Thanks Pahdz, I appreciate it.

Zookeeper, I don't know what to tell you if that's what you took away from my post. When most shale skeptics talk about the impending "bust", they're referring to what they believe to be unsustainable levels of US oil and gas production due to the well's initial depletion rates, and the well's "ponzi scheme" financials. I tried to briefly explain why I personally believe that both of those concerns are invalid. Yes, I did briefly touch on how it is possible for there to be a fluctuation in each commodities prices, which can effect rig count and thereby lead to a decline in production. But my point in mentioning that was to show that just because there is a decline in domestic production, doesn't mean that the reservoirs have reached their limits or that the shale gas/tight oil revolution has ended as many of those authors tried to imply.

Looking back at those articles, almost all of them mention the large cuts in shale gas reserves and lean on that as one of their biggest reasons why the latest O&G revolution is a failure, and use that as proof that widespread "fracking" isn't producing as much gas as initially thought. In reality, they're only proving that they don't fully understand the topic they're writing about. Like I mentioned in my previous post, shale gas production in many basins hasn't declined because the reservoirs have reached their limits, it declined because the price of natural gas dropped so significantly that it made more sense economically for the operators to shift those rigs from dry gas to liquids-rich basins, therefore sending those fields into production decline. The price of natural gas dropped because the reservoirs were TOO good, and they brought more gas online than the market could handle. Proved reserves, as the SEC defines them, are gas volumes that can be extracted with current technology under the present economic environment. So when the price of natural gas dropped, it resulted in a reduction in proven US shale gas reserves. The drop in reserves had nothing to do with the reservoirs not being as good as initially thought, and is not an indictment on the quality of the reservoirs, like several of those authors try to claim. All that gas is still sitting in the ground waiting to be extracted. And when the price of natural gas raises, in the future, all of those reserves that were dropped within the last few years will be re-added.

As I've said before, I'm just trying to bring an educated perspective to the table to combat all the doom-and-gloom articles that I see posted on here from time-to-time. In the end, you're free to believe whatever you want.

[zookeeper]

I'll be back with more later (don't have time right this second) because it bothers me that people fail to see the dangers to Oklahoma City with no plans in a desk drawer somewhere.

Here's the problem with what PWitty is saying, and I have to hurry - forgive any typos, etc. He is making excuses for the production drops, even conservative writers are starting to ask the tough questions about production levels.

First - what is a bubble? Value held in the stock market that's based on NOTHING, or perceived value that turned out to not be what everyone thought it was. The shale gas plays - the respective companies involved have all promised, to irresponsible levels, down to figures, and the number of years of "independence" that are in these big shale gas plays. Is it there? If it is - belly up to the bar and show us, quit making excuses about prices, etc. All the market knows is that, for whatever reason (and that is a key), it's beginning to look like the value that so many have invested in - is simply not there. If it is not - what happens? Millions (billions and billions of dollars) flee from these companies (many based right here in Oklahoma City) who have sold a bill of goods based on false value. It wasn't the intention - it was just new - and nobody realized how quickly these things dry up. Why the dismantling, PWitty? If they're just waiting for prices....I could go on.

As for doom and gloom. It's called financial responsibility. Many have poured billions of dollars into the trust of those numbers. If the value isn't there, as more and more people are questioning - bubble burst. Just like the the Internet bust, the housing bust (which triggered a domino effect).

Frankly, I don't need a lecture about boom and bust and doom and gloom. I lived through the eighties. We all saw the 2007 bust. Many right here on this forum insisted that Aubrey McClendon could do no wrong, that rumors about how he played the game were false and that McClendon would be at Chesapeake as long as he wanted to be there. He's lucky to be a free man and not in prison. Some of the very same names in this thread argued that those who were speaking the truth about McClendon before anything hit any media at all were "doom and gloomers" pushing the same old fears.

For whatever reason. That is so important as people make decisions as to whether the value is there or is simply "funny money." The consequences are bigger than anybody here could possibly imagine. Look away and make fun of the doomsayers, call them less than kind words. The warning signs are all there. They are lining up. Don't say anybody at OKCTalk wasn't asked to begin thinking of how we deal with a possible shale bubble burst. Or, we can shut our eyes, like many of you did with Aubrey McClendon at Chesapeake.

Nothing personal. Nothing partisan. I am worried - that's all.

Oh....PWitty wrote: "I'm just trying to bring an educated perspective to the table to combat all the doom-and-gloom articles that I see posted on here from time-to-time. In the end, you're free to believe whatever you want." Its is NOT a matter of "believing" one side or the other. There is staggering amounts of value (money) underneath - or there is not. We won't "believe" anything - we will all learn one way or the other. With all due respect your "educated perspective," is nothing more than PR spin from the same people who may have oversold dramatically the value that is there - or is not there. Period.