interesting action in OIL today?

[lektrode]

and THEN theres this: (just as the primetime driving season gets underway....)

• Wednesday 3:05 PM The potential of the Bazhenov shale play in Western Siberia, where ExxonMobil (XOM) and Rosneft have agreed to start JV operations, is immense: It covers 570M acres, the size of Texas and the Gulf of Mexico combined - an area 80x bigger than Bakken. But the challenges will require patience: During the summer, weather in the area warms and softens the ground enough to prevent drilling. 2 Comments
  [Energy, Global & FX]
• Wednesday 9:09 AM ExxonMobil (XOM) takes a 10% stake in a JV to explore for gas trapped in Australian coal seams, a bet on an unconventional fuel that has become one of the world's hottest energy plays. The Gippsland Basin of southeast Victoria state contains potential reserves of methane gas occurring naturally in ~16B metric tons of brown coal close to the surface and ~280B tons in deeper seams.

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil...he-Bakken.html
Shale Play in Western Siberia is 80 Times Bigger than the Bakken

The Bakken shale is a huge expanse of oil-bearing rock that lies underneath Northern Dakota and Montana. Oil production in the Bakken has grown from just 60,000 barrels per day (BPD) five years ago, to 500,000 bpd now. It is predicted that the formation holds more than 24 billion barrels of oil, and that given enough rigs it could produce more than a million bpd by 2020 and continue that level of production for half a century.

The Bakken shale play is one of the biggest in the US, but is absolutely dwarfed by a shale play in Russia. The Bazhenov is located in Western Siberia, and according to Oswals Clint, Sanford Bernstein’s lead international oil analyst, it “covers 2.3 million square kilometers or 570 million acres, which is the size of Texas and the Gulf of Mexico combined;” an area 80 times bigger than the Bakken.

The region which is covered by the Bazhenov has many cracks and fractures which could make its oil flow more readily, and therefore production much cheaper. A couple of test wells have been drilled in the region which operated at 400 bpd; the same as an average Bakken well.

News of the Bazhenov may be new to many of us, but geologists have actually been studying it for at least 20 years, however it is only in the last few years that the technology and expertise necessary to drill the oil has been developed.

[photon555]

Re: interesting action in OIL today?

Looks like Peak Oil (as opposed to Peak Cheap Oil) will have to wait a few more decades. But then, "Prediction is very hard, especially about the future." The only prediction I'll make is that most people will continue to do whatever they perceive to be in their own short term best interests. As a practical matter, I interpret this to mean that there will be cars powered by some energy source as far as the eye can see. If you are a politician don't get between people and their cars if you want to stay on the gravy train.