As oil and gas exports surge, West Texas becomes the world’s “extraction colony”

Re:As oil and gas exports surge, West Texas becomes the worl... by austincheney on Monday December 31, 2018 @02:49AM (#18793565)

When ever I drive through west Texas all that sticks out to me are the giant wind turbines. Giant as in a 10-15 story building. When you drive up on a large patch of these turbines you might be able to see thousands at once, and there are possibly hundreds of such fields in west Texas.

I am not pro or anti gas, oil, or wind. The primary difference is that wind is linked to the grid. Its not a package available for export. Oil and gas are chemically stable (roughly speaking, non-degrading) liquids that can be transferred anywhere. This makes fossil fuels ideal for export where wind is not, but damn there is a lot of investment in wind energy generation.

As an additional matter of perspective I live very close to one of the largest oil refineries in the world, which is really close to one of the largest petroleum export harbors in the world. I am currently living in Kuwait. I really don't see anything here that would classify as a petroleum culture.

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Re:As oil and gas exports surge, West Texas becomes the worl... by petre on Monday December 31, 2018 @08:59AM (#18794488)

Most oil companies own wind and PV investments. They're aware that oil is going to run out or get expensive some day and diversify their assets. The enviromentalists are just ignorant and get all worked up.

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Re:As oil and gas exports surge, West Texas becomes the worl... by austincheney on Monday December 31, 2018 @10:18AM (#18794808)

I doubt we will ever run out of oil. Yes, there is a specific non-renewable supply of it underground, but there is just so much of it and people are only able to consume it at a measurable declining pace. I bet demand will almost completely fall off long before we get anywhere close to running out.

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Re:As oil and gas exports surge, West Texas becomes the worl... by dragonwriter on Monday December 31, 2018 @10:34AM (#18794886)

> I doubt we will ever run out of oil.

Of course we won't.

We will run out of oil that is worth extracting, because the cost to extract the next unit will exceed the value provided.

> people are only able to consume it at a measurable declining pace

The pace of global oil consumption has been increasing for a long time, other than a brief period of decline in the late 1970s to early 1980s.

> I bet demand will almost completely fall off long before we get anywhere close to running out.

Over the long term, consumption is going up as are real prices (though the price trend is noisier than consumption.) There's not really consistent with demand declining at all, much ledd heading to the point of completely falling off.

Instead, it shows demand increasing faster than supply.

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Re:As oil and gas exports surge, West Texas becomes the worl... by austincheney on Monday December 31, 2018 @10:47AM (#18794985)

In the US and Europe consumption is declining. Globally the growth of consumption is declining. Additionally, the US is now (recent estimations) the global dominant exporter of oil recently surpassing Russia. These trends break all traditional projections and are largely due to shifting energy consumption as a result of technological innovation and continued investment in the energy sector. Since the new trends are independent of market demand for oil, as demand for energy overall continues to climb, these new trends may well continue until killed by economic demand such that there is more oil available than people are willing to consume and store.

* https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/07/the-surprising-declin...

* http://www.energytrendsinsider.com/2014/07/10/world-sets-new...

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