The oil exploration boom in Nevada keeps booming.
According to a press release last week the federal Bureau of Land plans to lease about 350,000 acres of land (200 parcels) mostly in rural central and northern Nevada this December for oil exploration.
The BLM received requests to lease 216 nominated parcels of public land, totaling more than 399,000 acres. The BLM deferred several of the nominated parcels to protect sage grouse habitat. Other parcels were removed because of proximity to the Kirch Wildlife Management Area, the Robinson Mine Plan of Operations or the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation. The remaining 202 parcels have been analyzed for potential impacts in the environmental assessment (EA), in accordance with the Oil & Gas Leasing Reform mandated in 2010.
Some of the largest oil exploration companies in and out of the country have 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 year in a bullish prediction.
In addition to the 200 parcels to be leased in December, 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.
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.
