Talk:Tight oil

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Explanation needed[edit]

What is a "hydrocarbon play"? Does it mean "hydrocarbon plant"? Biscuittin (talk) 22:09, 8 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's commonly referred to just as "a play", but the article on it is filed under Petroleum play. Tight oil is the play. (talk) 14:00, 13 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Under "Characteristics," what is "dubious" about low-clay shales produced in marine environments being easier to fracture than high-clay shales produced in lacustrine or fluvial environments? The June 2013 EIA study treats this as fundamental throughout.Isidorpax (talk) 22:00, 5 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

"The Shale Oil Boom: a US Phenomenon"[edit]

I've added Leonardo Maugeri's very interesting discussion paper to the article and made a few revisions and additions based on it. Plenty more meat there. Also see Matt Ridley's recent column The dash for shale oil will shake the world (NB: published at the Times of London, but paywalled there: [1]), largely based on the Magueri paper.

At the least, we need a section specifically on the US shale-oil boom, and the economics. For instance, Maugeri calculates that at $85 a barrel most shale oil wells repay their capital costs in a year. This is quite attractive to operators! --Pete Tillman (talk) 19:18, 17 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Terminology confusion[edit]

See Talk:Shale oil for a discussion of the use of the terms tight oil, shale oil and oil shale. It appears that the oil industry now prefers "shale oil" for what we call tight oil -- probably by analogy to shale gas. --Pete Tillman (talk) 21:18, 17 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Per the EIA, June 10, 2013[2]:

"Although the terms shale oil and tight oil are often used interchangeably in public discourse, shale formations are only a subset of all low permeability tight formations, which include sandstones and carbonates, as well as shales, as sources of tight oil production. Within the United States, the oil and natural gas industry typically refers to tight oil production rather than shale oil production, because it is a more encompassing and accurate term with respect to the geologic formations producing oil at any particular well. EIA has adopted this convention, and develops estimates of tight oil production and resources in the United States that include, but are not limited to, production from shale formations. The ARI assessment of shale formations presented in this report, however, looks exclusively at shale resources and does not consider other types of tight formations." --Pete Tillman (talk) 07:07, 14 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

EIA prelim highlights in advance of AEO2014: wait for the full report.[edit]

This just released: AEO2014 Early Release Overview

Another editor picked out a bit from this, adding "The US EIA expects US tight oil production to peak in 2020, and then enter a slow decline". But the actual highlight that mentions this was: "Growing domestic production of natural gas and crude oil continues to reshape the U.S. energy economy, with crude oil production approaching the historical high achieved in 1970 of 9.6 million barrels per day."

In any case, it would be better to wait for the actual report, due in Spring 2014. This prelim cautions that "Readers are encouraged to review the full range of cases that will be presented when the complete AEO2014 is released in 2014, exploring key uncertainties in the Reference case." --Pete Tillman (talk) 00:34, 21 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]