Petroleum’s end game part 2

Part one of this series is also available on this site.

Much of the global community still labors under the premise that our energy supply comes from fossil fuels almost exclusively and when we need more energy, we simply drill more holes in the earth. Unfortunately, though, “Drill baby drill,” doesn’t automatically mean “Find baby find.” As a matter of fact, we haven’t found new oil reserves anywhere on the planet since 2003. Today drillers are concentrating on extracting small deposits in tight rock formations in oil fields they already know about.

Hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling are the most useful and successful techniques used in this type of extraction. All that would be fine except for several important issues even beyond pollution.

1. The oil recovered through fracking comes from small deposits that can be exploited quickly meaning that the industry has an insatiable appetite for fresh sources of fracked oil.

2. More fracking and more drilling are more expensive than finding a large deposit and pumping the oil for years or even decades. Under normal circumstances those increased costs should be reflected in the price at the pump but they are not.

3. As a result, fracking doesn’t pay for itself and money from Wall Street chasing boom times and big profits is keeping the industry afloat. The oil industry is becoming less and less profitable.