Oil experts say the United States' new golden age "is yet to come

Last winter, the fanatical fans of fossil fuels began to preach, new oil "Golden Age" will stimulate the U.S. economy and create millions of jobs, and to the United States from dependence on imported oil freed. Citibank chief commodities analyst Ed Morse is representative of these people. He published in the "Wall Street Journal" article said, "The United States became the world's fastest-growing oil and gas producing countries, but 2020 is likely to continue indefinitely."
U.S. energy production and optimistic forecast Canadian tar sands reserves are not unrelated. The results are obvious and undisputed. Morse pointed out that "America is turning into yet another Middle East." Some other analysts are carried out on such a fortunate situation more detailed analysis, which became a U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney raised in 2020 to achieve "energy independence" plan is based.
Use of deep drilling and  Hydraulic fracturing  of oil exploration and other advanced technologies, said energy companies coming in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico developed a number of new oil fields, the United States will find shale. Cambridge Energy consulting firm James Burkhart in January 2012 told the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee noted that U.S. oil production is revival, following 40 years of production declined after a major breakthrough.
In addition, there are forecasts that in other parts of the Western Hemisphere energy production is rising, especially in Canada and Brazil. President of consulting firm Cambridge Energy Daniel Yergin in the "Washington Post," the author pointed out that a new contour map of the world's oil is being formed, not only in the Middle East is the center, but also become the focus of the Western Hemisphere. New energy axis runs from Alberta, Canada, to the United States of North Dakota and Texas Southern, has been to Brazil's huge offshore oil discovery near.
But the fact is that the future will prove now U.S. energy forecasts may have been exaggerated. In order to achieve these ambitious goals that energy companies will have to overcome the severe geographical and environmental barriers, something happened recently that it seems difficult.
There are several factors that must be considered: in many oil analysts and experts have for the new "golden age" cheered the arrival time, there are few people emphasized that the new "golden age" can come to depend entirely on " unconventional "the exploitation of oil resources, such as shale oil, Arctic oil, deep-sea oil and tar sands. As conventional oil, no one doubts its North American production will continue to decline.
From the United States and its neighbors can be unreliable on Middle East oil dependence freed of the "unconventional" oil contains a variety of standard mining techniques can not be done under very hard substance or goo, or these resources located in difficult to access areas, need to use highly specialized mining equipment. These oil resources are also considered "difficult drilling for oil."
Such as shale oil is a petroleum resources in the rock, only with hydraulic fracturing technology to be mined, but this technique requires large amounts of water, but also doping substances, coupled with a large number of toxic waste subsequent processing. Shale oil is the oil of the original form, must be melted to use, and this process also requires a lot of energy. Tar sands mining will have to use open-air mining technology, or in situ steam injection through the underground and then pumped out of the melting, for a variety of chemicals used is essential. And only through the current is still controversial among the Keystone XL pipeline to transport the shale oil to refineries. Exploitation of deep-sea oil and Arctic oil also need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to set up a special rig, but also more dangerous for the environment in the implementation of operating a security system with substantial costs.
All of these processes have at least one thing in common: in difficult geographical and geological environments exploitation of oil or gas to the technical possibilities questioned. These resources belong to the "extreme energy", to production, energy companies must in extreme temperatures and extreme weather conditions, drilling, with extreme pressure, or operating under extremely dangerous conditions.fracturing proppant In each case, the occurrence of accidents, disasters, and the probability and consequences of the difficulties encountered under normal conditions are better than frequent and more serious. 2010 on the assumption that has become a reality: British Petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico, "Deepwater Horizon" drilling platform sank after a fire explosion, and this summer we saw signs of re-staged the disaster, some important unconventional Petroleum resource drilling program has encountered serious difficulties, they have represented the "golden era" coming of hope.
This year an unprecedented seasonal drought in North America ushered energy "golden age" of an unexpected obstacle.frac sand The drought in the U.S. 80% of farmland affected.