Play-by-play reserves
Continental Resources has usefully disclosed its booked 2011 and 2012 yearend proved reserves for the Bakken and some other plays—in addition to corporate-wide data (OGJ Online, Jan. 23, 2013). Year-by-year estimates of proved reserves, timely compiled for major plays, would enhance appreciation of industry performance in the United States. Individually, collectively, or through the Energy Information Administration, leading operators should consider putting more such data—by play—in the public domain.
David Jonas Bardin
Washington, DC
EDITOR'S NOTE: The writer is author of an article on enhancing information about oil and gas resources that appeared in the Nov. 5, 2012, edition of OGJ, p. 80.
Technology pipe dreams
In his second inaugural address President Barack Obama set forth clearly the science-proven threat to "our children and future generations" from global warming. He pledged that America would "lead on the path towards sustainable energy sources." His address did not offer any specific programs for achieving necessary reductions in global warming carbon emissions.
But we can look to the administration's current energy policies and those of the past 4 years. They should provide answers on how Obama's plans could change the US from its current position as a heavy greenhouse-gas(GHG) emitter to the leader among developed nations in the effort to curb GHG emissions.
What we observe from the administration's record is a litany of ill-advised, expensive, and premature attempts to put into production solar, wind, and biofuel projects. In general, those projects lack the technology for successful, large-scale implementation, and they are not competitive with current market-based programs. In my opinion, the result has been a loss of billions of dollars from taxpayers, rate-payers, and investors, with minimal impact on global warming.
Solar energy, whether photovoltaic (PV) or concentrated (CSP), has potential for research improvement and cost reductions. It is more predicable than wind energy, and it tends to peak when demand is highest. But it is currently expensive and low-density, and large investments in companies like Solyndra and Abound Solar have resulted in big losses.
Undaunted, the Obama administration is now supporting a $2 billion CSP installation near Ivanpah in the Nevada desert. More than 300,000 rotating mirrors will focus sunlight on three towers to heat liquid, which becomes a source of steam for power generation. Ivanpah's developer is estimating annual electricity production of about 1 million Mw-hr. By comparison, Minnesota's Prairie Island nuclear plant produces eight times that amount, rain or shine, clouds or fair, night or day. Power-washing of those CSP mirrors will use scarce desert water and foster weeds, which will grow to obscure the mirrors.
Wind energy's intermittent output requires continuous backup in order to avoid damage to the integrity of the delicately balanced electric grid. This backup is usually supplied by natural gas plants running in inefficient start-stop mode. This increases GHG emissions, wastes fuel, and hurts machinery life. The wind industry lobbies hard for the 2.2¢/kw-hr production tax credit without which wind farm installations would essentially cease. The 2.2¢ is nearly 50% of the wholesale price of electric power.
Undaunted, the Obama administration is supporting the $2 billion Cape Wind project, which would place 130 Siemens wind turbines in the sea off Cape Cod. In testimony before the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board, Cape Wind's developer conceded that Cape Wind would actually operate at about 100 Mw for 43% of the time, with lowest output in summer, when demand is highest. Former Congressman William Delahunt (D-Quincy) provided his own estimates: "This will be the most expensive and most heavily subsidized offshore wind farm in the country at over $2.5 billion, with power costs to the region that will be at least double."
I suggest that the administration's biggest energy folly is support for turning 40 million prime crop acres and 40% of the country's corn crop into 6-7% of US gasoline supply. The result is increased world grain prices and stresses to soils, ground water, and the environment from monoculture corn and additional nitrogen fertilizers. Microbes turn the fertilizer into a powerful GHG, nitrous oxide.
A University of Minnesota study led by Professor Sangwon Sue showed that on average in the US, 142 gal of water are needed to grow and process the corn for 1 gal of ethanol. In irrigation states like Kansas and Nebraska, it takes 500 water gal/ethanol gal, helping to drain the Ogallala aquifer. There are also those GHG emissions from diesel driven farm machinery, and dead zones in the Mississippi Delta region as excess nitrogen fertilizer runoff increases algae growth.
There are tough measures like carbon taxes which encourage conservation and provide funds for energy-efficient public transport. That's one way that many developed nations use half the energy per unit of GNP that the US does. Those politically unpopular choices are rarely seen in the programs offered by either major political party. It is easier to rely on "technology will save us" pipe dreams.
Rolf Westgard
Professional member,
Geological Society of America
St. Paul, Minn.