Increased Fuel Needs Puts New Emphasis On Shale Oil

摘要

Necessity is the Mother of Invention. Nothing adds to the necessity of finding new fuels like crude oil reaching the $60-70/barrel range and maybe even higher. Long forgotten after the big push in the 1970-80s, shale oil development is getting a new look in the U.S. and worldwide. Ironically, the last all out effort on shale was in an earlier period when crude oil prices reached all time highs, which are yet to be beaten in the current round of increasing prices. In 1981, at the time of the Iranian revolution, crude prices went to over $35/B, which in today's dollars would make it around $80-90/B! There is little question that to meet the increasing demand for energy and especially for crude oil products, new, unconventional sources of oil need to be investigated and developed. Demand is up not only in the U.S. where gasoline use is running about 2% ahead of last year but also in almost every developing country. As economies improve, more energy is needed and more sources must be developed to supply the demand. If demand cannot be met with conventional crude sources, then unconventional become important.