Will a new gold boom, this time of the black variety, be coming to Wendover, Ely and the rest of eastern Nevada soon?
Some of the largest oil exploration companies in and out of the country are betting yes and with drilling going on all over the state including just 20 miles south of Wendover they are putting their money on the line.
‘In my opinion, Nevada will be the largest oil state ever to have happened in the U.S., including Texas and California,’ oil exploration expert Chuck Laser told KLAS-TV last week in a bullish prediction.
Exploration giant Noble Energy has leased 330,000 net acres in Northeastern Nevada and is looking for reserves of half a billion barrels with an exploratory drilling program beginning in 2013.
The drill head located just 20 miles south of Wendover near Ferguson springs is owned by Pebble Energy.
It is leased on land owned by the Ibapah Goshute tribe and exploratory drilling begin last month.
Since the early 1980 geologists have looked at Nevada as a prime candidate for oil exploration.
In fact the most productive oil well in the entire country call the Silver State home. Located in Railroad Valley in Nye county the well has been astounding the oil industry not only by the volume of oil it produces but because it is an orphan. All efforts to develop a field of wells have proved futile.
Finally geologists theorized that the oil had to be coming from somewhere else and seeped into the valley.
Just this month an Irish company announced that they may have found the mother lode.
Using ‘ground breaking’ technologies U.S. Oil and Gas, of Dublin claims its first major drilling project in Hot Creek Valley, Nevada, may have found an enormous oil lake.
Preliminary reports suggested a breathtaking 187 million barrels of oil, although the company has insisted testing is not yet complete and the size of the oil field is not yet certain.
Research has been carried out in an area named Eblana 1, or ‘Nelly’, which is adjacent to oil-rich Railroad Valley.
“We are looking at two oil systems: light sweet crude with gas condensate and the normal heavier oil that is found in Nevada,’ U.S. Oil and Gas CEO Brian McDonnell told Las Vegas channel KLAS-TV.
‘What we would need to do is a number of wells to actually define the geological structure and how much oil would be maintained in the geological structure. One well is not enough.”
U.S. Oil and Gas is said to have leased 25,000 acres in the valley – and legal disclosures made to investors caused the company’s share price to rise by 1,000 per cent.
‘What we would need to do is a number of wells to actually define the geological structure and how much oil would be maintained in the geological structure. One well is not enough’
The firm used techniques developed by oil expert Karim Akrawi, which included 3D imaging and sonic screening to identify the best drilling area. Mr Akrawi said he is ‘very, very positive’ about the find.
It was always known that there was some oil in the state. But the issue has been the economics. Back in the early 80’s, when oil was at a then very high $30 a barrel, the economics of exploration and production still weren’t very attractive. At $70 to $90 a barrel, the sales price vastly exceeding the lift cost causes the potential of Nevada to become far more attractive.
In addition to price fracking has put previously unrecoverable oil in reach.
Hydraulic fracturing is the propagation of fractures in a rock layer, as a result of the action of a pressurized fluid. Some hydraulic fractures form naturally—certain veins or dikes are examples—and can create conduits along which gas and petroleum from source rocks may migrate to reservoir rocks.
Induced hydraulic fracturing or hydro fracking, commonly known as fracking or fracking, is a technique used to release petroleum, natural gas (including shale gas, tight gas, and coal seam gas), or other substances for extraction.
Successful fracking has created an oil boom throughout the United States and will according to analysts help turn America into the largest oil producer in the world by the next decade.
And if preliminary tests yield anywhere near there forecasts, Wendover, Ely, Elko and Wells could become part of that boom.
Would like to know when oil is flowing and who is hauling it and where. I and a few friends are hauling oil in ND and would very much like to bring our trucks and get closer to home[ magic valley twin falls area] We cou;d put a small fleet of 7 or 8 trucks real easy.