Reply to: RIP: Peak Oil - we won't be running out any time soon

[eek]

Dont we have lots of shale reserves in Irish Sea? And if Blackpool region gets devastated by an earthquake then isn't that a good thing?

(And before I get accused of being BlackpoolIst please note that I have alot of relatives in the area - in fact one of my ancestors was the first person to own a bicycle in Fleetwood.)

He's still the only one with a bike there. Its a new fangled technology that the witch hunters there wish to ban.

[BrilloPad]

That's us fracked then.

Dont we have lots of shale reserves in Irish Sea? And if Blackpool region gets devastated by an earthquake then isn't that a good thing?

(And before I get accused of being BlackpoolIst please note that I have alot of relatives in the area - in fact one of my ancestors was the first person to own a bicycle in Fleetwood.)

[OwlHoot]

Gas fracking will revolutionise the US economy - Telegraph

Cheap and plentiful energy is practically all a country needs to guarantee its prosperity, and without it prosperity is almost impossible.

Shame the UK won't have it for the foreseeable future, just the opposite, thanks to Labour's miserable and cowardly failure to even start on a program of nuclear power.

[BrilloPad]

Gas fracking will revolutionise the US economy - Telegraph

[doodab]

Actually doodab that myth was put into public awareness through the fictitious "Gasland" movie, hydraulic fracturing technology has been around for 70 years or more and the "spills, flames out of taps, spoilt water from natural causes" has been around for centuries and was embellished for this movie. The technology of fossil fuel removal or any type, has had risks, but natural gas has a lower risk but is not risk-free, but no energy source is.

Please, please, please sir, try and get the facts from engineers, not journalists or newspapers.

I got my facts from a recent acticle in scientific american, which drew on research from the EPA, the industry itself and various academics.

The modern technique of fracking in horizontal boreholes hasn't been in use for 70 years, because horizontal bores haven't been used for that long. it's got some significant differences from what was done before particularly in terms of number of holes drilled and volumes of water and chemicals pumped in. Many of the problems (and there have been problems in the US) are possibly down to lax management of this waste and also bad well construction resulting in leaks. The point is that at this stage nobody knows exactly, so they are doing further research. There is also talk of putting tracers in the chemicals they inject so that a source of pollution can be readily identified, as currently the cocktail of tulip that goes down the hole is a "trade secret".

[NotAllThere]

Quite. The magnitude of earthquakes from fracking is not perceptible, you will get more damage to your house from a passing lorry. Doesn't stop all the apocolyptic posters round here, they are planning to frack a few miles away...

But people don't let the facts get in the way of their prejudices.

We had a geothermal project here. It was implicated in a magnitude 3 earthquake, and the publicity triggered a whole load of insurance claims for earthquake damage. Despite the fact that in the previous years, we'd had M4 and 5 earthquakes which were barely reported - and caused no damage.

The geothermal project was closed down.

[hyperD]

Actually the concerns related to fracking are really around pollution of the water supply. The fracking itself can result in new cracks and stuff seeping into the water supply and also the stuff they pump in has been known to turn up in tap water and it isn't very nice.

Actually doodab that myth was put into public awareness through the fictitious "Gasland" movie, hydraulic fracturing technology has been around for 70 years or more and the "spills, flames out of taps, spoilt water from natural causes" has been around for centuries and was embellished for this movie. The technology of fossil fuel removal or any type, has had risks, but natural gas has a lower risk but is not risk-free, but no energy source is.

Please, please, please sir, try and get the facts from engineers, not journalists or newspapers.

[Freamon]

Oil was $140 a barrel in 2007 and $35 a barrel in 2008.

Take away the spekulants and it's cheaper than tap water.

Peak Oil doesn't mean oil prices will instantly rise, it means they will become much more volatile.

[doodab]

so this eco-loonism media driven nonsense about fracking is so, well, completely fecking traditional fabricated scare bollox).

Quite. The magnitude of earthquakes from fracking is not perceptible, you will get more damage to your house from a passing lorry. Doesn't stop all the apocolyptic posters round here, they are planning to frack a few miles away

Actually the concerns related to fracking are really around pollution of the water supply. The fracking itself can result in new cracks and stuff seeping into the water supply and also the stuff they pump in has been known to turn up in tap water and it isn't very nice. A lot of that can be traced to spillages and leaks, but obviously it costs money to prevent those.

Frankly if you trust the oil companies not to cause problems then you are mad. If they can still make a profit after buying people off or paying compensation they will happily lie about it, go ahead and **** things up, and pay the compensation or whatever afterwards.

[AtW]

It means oil can double and the cost of petrol/diesel only goes up by a few percent, thanks to 90% of the cost being duty and VAT.

Smashing, if only all Govts in the world thought of it then inflation would no longer be a threat

[DimPrawn]

Take away all the f* tax on it and it would be even cheaper.

No the tax thing is brilliant.

It means oil can double and the cost of petrol/diesel only goes up by a few percent, thanks to 90% of the cost being duty and VAT.

[xoggoth]

Take away the spekulants and it's cheaper than tap water

Take away all the f* tax on it and it would be even cheaper.

[DimPrawn]

Lets face it, oil won't be getting cheaper.

Oil was $140 a barrel in 2007 and $35 a barrel in 2008.

Take away the spekulants and it's cheaper than tap water.

[xoggoth]

so this eco-loonism media driven nonsense about fracking is so, well, completely fecking traditional fabricated scare bollox

Quite. The magnitude of earthquakes from fracking is not perceptible, you will get more damage to your house from a passing lorry. Doesn't stop all the apocolyptic posters round here, they are planning to frack a few miles away.

PS I did a pigging simulation once.

[Freamon]

In short, it's wrong. As others have said, Peak Oil refers to the point where the rate of extraction (number of barrels you can suck out of the ground per day) peaks. This is guaranteed to happen one day, the only debate is whether it will happen soon. Oil will never "run out" - there will never be a day when we transition from having some oil left to having none left. Peak Oil means that the rate of oil extraction can no longer rise to meet increasing demand caused by growing economies. This basically means economic growth is no longer possible, therefore the current economic paradigm collapses, with consequences of varying levels of seriousness depending on who you believe.

The fact that the article on TheRegister refers to oil "running out" in the title basically means it isn't even worth reading.