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Shale Oil Formations Bringing More Companies to West Texas
Shale Oil Formations Bringing More Companies to West Texas 12/12/12
December 12, 2012
It's a question that most West Texans have asked at some point, when will the boom end?
Now oil industry experts are predicting advances that could promise decades of continued growth, and it's already paying off in millions of barrels of oil.
A second oil boom is coming to the Permian Basin when we exhaust traditional oil resources.
New oil shale formations promise the West Texas economy will continue to prosper well into the future.
Oil companies are drilling wells in five shale oil formations in the basin.
Shale, a sedimentary rock, has oil deposits that were too difficult to access until new technology came into the plays.
Mark Elliott, Vice President of Exploration for Laredo Petroleum says, "The modern technology has also allowed us to extract the liquids out of those tighter shale rock formations.
Laredo Petroleum is a public traded company that's putting a lot of its efforts into recovering oil from shale plays or formations in the area.
The Cline Shale Play is one of the most promising with almost 10,000 square miles reportedly containing 3.6 million barrels of recoverable oil per square mile.
Elliott explained, "Actually developed into a repeatable unconventional resource play so it can be developed repeatedly over and over and over again."
The exciting part of drilling in shale formations is that it is expected to extend the life of the Permian Basin's oil and gas production."
Kirk Edwards, President of Las Colinas Energy Partners, LLC told CBS7, "It allows the equipment, the people and the many men that are already built there and the infrastructure here to reach out to another couple of counties over and continue to work."
Edwards says the reason there hasn't been more shale production is that companies are busy extracting oil from current traditional oil fields.
Plus, where are West Texans going to house new workers?
Edwards says, "Again, there's a lot of strain right now on housing in Midland/Odessa of course. The schools, hotels, everything is just maxed out, but people are investing a tremendous amount of money in infrastructure right now."
Oil companies like Laredo Petroleum are developing their shale drilling rapidly.
Experts say it could be the largest shale play in American history.
Laredo, Chesapeake and Devon Energy are just some of the companies drilling in the Cline Shale Oil Field.