New Drilling Method Opens Vast Oil Fields In US

by Jonathan Fahey - February 9th, 2011 - The Associated Press

A new drilling technique is opening up vast fields of previously out-of-reach oil in the western United States, helping reverse a two-decade decline in domestic production of crude.

Companies are investing billions of dollars to get at oil deposits scattered across North Dakota, Colorado, Texas and California. By 2015, oil executives and analysts say, the new fields could yield as much as 2 million barrels of oil a day — more than the entire Gulf of Mexico produces now.

This new drilling is expected to raise U.S. production by at least 20 percent over the next five years. And within 10 years, it could help reduce oil imports by more than half, advancing a goal that has long eluded policymakers.

"That's a significant contribution to energy security," says Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Credit Suisse.

Of course the immediate response of the Obama administration has been to seek some way to stop use of the new technique. They want to 'study' it and see if they can find some way to block its use. Every act of this administration is focused on denying American citizens access to energy unless that energy meets their ignorant definition of acceptable 'green' energy. That means it cannot be cheap energy. It has to be so expensive that it requires government subsidy. That reality assures that energy access is totally controlled by government bureacrats and not by citizens.