mousepad wrote:AdamB wrote:
Well, I was doing it during the mid-80's through the mid-90's. .
What about the rest of the world? Do they use all this advanced recovery stuff?
Hydraulic fracturing is nothing new, and isn't really an advanced recovery technique. I was taught completion engineering from engineers who had been doing it for decades, same as I was taught how to drill horizontal wells by folks that pre-dated early MWD systems. Advanced recovery in the form of secondary/tertiary recovery of discrete reservoirs is entirely something else, and is based on engineering expertise (of which there is plenty) and being able to afford it. It has also been around for a long time,, with steady improvements as computer power, scientific research, and data have all come together to get every last ounce of oil out of a field. Reserve growth, writ large.
mousepad wrote:
If they don't, is there any reason to believe they won't?
Nope. If the demand is there, and the price is right (which can include the need not just for costs of extraction but bribes to locals, logistics to get seaborne, building the roads to get there and whatever else comes up in (potentially) the middle of nowhere), it'll get done some day.
The key being, for a given price, can you convert the world over to something else, rather than spending $200/bbl to get some extra oil out.
I purchased my first EV when gasoline in the US was $4/gal or so, that was enough to push me over the edge.