Petroleum Drilling and Production in the United States: Yield per Effort and Net Energy Analysis

For the past three decades the quantity of petroleum (both oil and oil plus gas) found per foot of drilling effort in the United States for any given year can be expressed as a secular decrease of about 2 percent per year combined with an inverse function of drilling effort for that year. Extrapolat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 1981-02, Vol.211 (4482), p.576-579
Main Authors: Charles A. S. Hall, Cleveland, Cutler J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Atoms
Carbon
Drilling
Drilling costs
Industrial efficiency
Mathematical extrapolation
Oil Fields
Oil industry
Oil well drilling
Oil wells
Petroleum
Petroleum industry
Production management
Statistics
Symmetry
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Summary:For the past three decades the quantity of petroleum (both oil and oil plus gas) found per foot of drilling effort in the United States for any given year can be expressed as a secular decrease of about 2 percent per year combined with an inverse function of drilling effort for that year. Extrapolation of energy costs and gains from petroleum drilling and extraction indicates that drilling for domestic petroleum could cease to be a net source of energy by about 2004 at low drilling rates and by 2000 or sooner at high drilling rates, and that the net yield will be less at higher drilling rates.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.211.4482.576