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Emerging markets have also revived America’s role as a big commodity producer. Soaring grain exports have raised farmers’ incomes to record levels, and regulators fret about incipient bubbles in agricultural land. At the same time, surging oil prices have triggered a gusher of new output. In 2011 crude-oil production reached its highest level since 2003, of 5.7m barrels a day (b/d). Production in the Gulf of Mexico is almost back to the levels reached before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010.

In recent years, techniques have been discovered to release gas from densely layered rock formations known as shale. These techniques—horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking—have released so much shale gas that its price has tumbled (see our special report). Now the same methods are being applied to race after oil.

In 1999 North Dakota’s rig-count stood at zero after small pockets of conventional oil had run out. Now the Bakken oilfield is pumping out more than 550,000 b/d of shale oil, and Williston, the town at the centre of the field, is booming. It used to take five minutes to cross town; now the weight of oil traffic means it takes 20, according to one resident of this remote corner of a thinly populated state. At Walmart, crowds of shoppers have pressed all the trolleys into service; and its vast car park, like many other similar sites in town, provides a temporary home for fleets of camper vans housing workers flooding to the region’s oilfields. New homes, hotels and “man camps”—row upon row of workers’ huts—are springing up all around.

This year shale oil should contribute some 720,000 b/d to America’s total production. And shale-oil deposits in Texas, Ohio, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas could eventually contribute as much as 5m b/d, according to the most optimistic forecasts. The Bakken field may well hold more than people think, and Ohio’s Utica shale has barely been tapped.

America is the world’s third-largest oil producer. The deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico could yield substantially more oil (perhaps 1m-2m b/d on top of the 1.3m b/d currently produced). America has plenty of other places where it might look if unfettered drilling were allowed, such as the east and west coasts and restricted parts of the Gulf of Mexico. Oil production in Alaska could also be expanded. America now imports 9m b/d; by “going back onshore” and exploiting all its options, optimists think it could produce 7m more b/d in a decade or so. Daily net imports of crude oil this year are the lowest since 1995, and will probably keep falling in the coming years (see chart 3).

Not so long ago, terminals were still being built in America to import liquefied natural gas (LNG). Now the country is enjoying a bonanza of domestic gas. Americans pay less than $3 for 1m British thermal units, where Europeans and Asians often pay more than $10. Accordingly, America is now planning to send the stuff abroad. Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations thinks that exports of 60 billion cubic metres a year would yield revenue of $20 billion, though higher imports of other goods would offset the benefit to the trade balance.

“America’s economy. Points of light – Amid the gloom there are unexpected signs of boom, especially in energy.” (2012-7-14). The Economist. Retrieved 2012-7-24.

By:  Bob van der Valk
Dateline:  Terry, Montana

A short crude oil pipeline connecting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a harbor on the Gulf of Oman was inaugurated on Sunday, July 15, 2012.

Iran will be the biggest loser is this game of brinkmanship and a game changer in future negotiations as a bargaining chip. Ironically, the Iranian theocrats are the main cause of this attempt to skirt the Arabian Gulf, which is currently being used by Very Large Crude Carriers to ship 20% of the world demand for crude oil. This pipeline is a reaction to Iran’s overt threats to shut down the Strait of Hormuz if the US, Europe, Israel and Saudi Arabia push them against the wall over nuclear fuel enrichment and allow UN nuclear inspectors into facilities possibly used for this purpose.

The US military has already bolstered its presence in the region and sent four mine sweeper ships in early June, joining four other mine sweeping vessels already in the region, according to its Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet spokesperson.

On Thursday, July 12, 2012 US officials said the United States deployed a fleet of robot subs in the Gulf to prevent Iran from blocking the strategic Strait of Hormuz with mines making good on their official pronouncements. And in late April, a squadron of F-22 stealth fighters was sent to an air base in the United Arab Emirates.

Crude oil exports have begun through the new pipeline bypassing the Strait of Hormuz by connecting Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, to Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman. The operation of the 263-mile $4 billion pipeline could represent about 30% of the amount currently shipped through Persian Gulf and will be sufficient to blunt the impact of any Iranian attempt to seal the Strait of Hormuz.

Fujairah is located in Oman and is the world’s third biggest refueling ports for commercial ships. In case Iran does not make good on its threats, the pipeline still makes economic sense because a new $5 billion refinery will be built on Fujairah, one of the U.A.E.’s seven sheikhdoms, for local sales of oil products. A terminal will also be built at the port for transiting liquefied natural gas.

Regardless of Iran’s actions, the oil pipeline and its future expansion will forever break dependence on the narrow and vulnerable Strait of Hormuz for crude oil bought by the US, Europe and the Far East. It renders hollow the ability of Iran to blackmail its Arab neighbors and the West to extract concessions for its regional ambitions.

The pipeline will also dampen the impact on the global economy, if Israel eventually does bomb Iranian nuclear installations or Washington leads sharper coercion of Tehran. Currently, about one fifth of world’s oil transits through the Strait of Hormuz. Abu Dhabi, which holds over 90 percent of the UAE’s oil, has taken a risk by angering the Iranian regime, although Tehran has dismissed the pipeline’s potential as Western propaganda.

However, Iran may be hit by a double whammy because prospects are increasing of turmoil in world oil and gasoline prices. In July, energy tensions became worse after the European Union started implementing a nearly total ban on crude oil imports from Iran as part of Western economic sanctions. Domestic US crude oil supplies, which are being extracted from shale rock through the use of hydraulic fracturing, will more than offset any of the Iranian crude oil not being shipped due to economic sanctions.

The expanding American domestic supply is turning the US into a decider of world crude oil prices overshadowing Saudi Arabia. American light-sweet crude is not easily exportable but the large supply capacity combined with heavy investments in infrastructure will allow the US to boost exports of products as a substitute for other types of oil.

Proven shale oil reserves have risen by 68 percent in the US and Canada since 1990 and the US may become energy secure by 2025 for both crude oil and natural gas as hydraulic fracturing becomes a widespread method for North America for their energy needs.

Some information for this article was obtained from The Moderate Voice web site by RIJ Khindaria.

 

By:  Bob van der Valk
Dateline:  Terry, Montana

  • US consumption estimated at 18.76 million b/d in 2012 and 18.88 million b/d in 2013 (EIA)
  • Only expected to recover to between 21-22 million b/d through 2035 (EIA)
  • Light / medium crude oil imports to US Gulf could be eliminated by 2014/2015 from rising Canadian pipeline deliveries and domestic production
  • Heavy crude imports from Venezuela and Mexico should continue in medium term
  • January-March crude imports from Venezuela and Mexico were 845,000 b/d and 995,000 b/d respectively

Political developments could influence stability of Venezuelan supply

► USAC (PADD 1) crude imports YTD are 1.5 million b/d, roughly 10% below 2008 levels

► USGC (PADD 3) crude imports YTD are 5.8 million b/d just over 15% below 2008 volume

► US crude stocks (excluding SPR) currently at 387 million barrels – highest level since July 1990

► Total US refinery utilization at 91.9% of capacity – spurred by export opportunities – week ending June 15

► PADD 3 operating at 93.2% and PADD 1 at 81.3% of capacity

US Crude Oil Production

► US crude production expected to 6.3 million b/d in 2012 versus 5.7 million b/d in 2011 (EIA)

► Production currently at 6.26 million b/d – strongest figure since July 1998

► 2013 crude production expected to rise by a further 400,000 b/d

► North Dakota production at 575,000 b/d in March – highest level on record

► Texas crude output at 1.7 million b/d in March up almost 30% year-on-year

► Heavy investment by Shell to start off-shore drilling in Alaska with reserves estimated at around 25 billion barrels further releasing domestic supplies

 

Bakken Crude Update

►Bakken field in North Dakota expected to produce around 600,000 b/d in 2012 and 650,000-700,000 b/d in 2013 – Breakeven point between US $40 $60 per barrel – WTI basis

► North Dakota rail export capacity increased from roughly 310,000 b/d in 2011 to 470,000 b/d and may be 700,000 b/d by year’s end

► Pipeline capacity at almost 440,000 b/d in Williston Basin (Eastern Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota)

► Bakken crude has approximately US $10/bbl and US $20/bbl discount to spot WTI/Dated Brent providing refiners in all PADDs to incentive gain access to supply

► Crude flows to East, West and Gulf Coasts as rail capacity expands and price differential entices refiners through reduced acquisition cost

► BNSF – controls roughly 75% of North Dakota exports – recently announced US $85 million railroad maintenance & expansion project

Pipeline Updates

► Enbridge to reverse the 240,000 b/d Line 9 pipeline from East to West from Sarnia, Ontario to Montreal

► After regulatory approval and infrastructure maintenance flows to begin spring 2014

► Crude to be sourced from Alberta, Saskatchewan & Manitoba and will primarily consist of light-sweet oil

► Used to feed the Nanticoke refinery (120,000 b/d) and process Canadian crude not foreign imports

► May lead to reversal of Portland, ME to Montreal, Canada pipeline

► Crude from Portland, ME would be required to sail on Jones Act vessels to PADD 1 refineries

► Total flows from Cushing to the USG will total 1.1 million b/d from these projects by 2013

Pipeline Updates

► Seaway pipeline has been reversed since mid-May delivering 150,000 b/d from Cushing, Oklahoma to US Gulf

► Seaway expansion to 400,000 b/d planned to be complete late 2012 / early 2013

► Southern leg of Keystone XL – Gulf Coast Project – construction will begin mid-2012 and should be completed by early 2013

► Gulf Coast Project will deliver crude from Cushing Oklahoma to the US Gulf with a capacity of 700,000 b/d with expansion potentially to 830,000 b/d

► This will eventually be linked to Keystone XL originating in Alberta

US Crude Oil Imports

► Nigerian imports contracted roughly 75% since March 2007 to March 2012 to approximately 10.5 million barrels (340,000 b/d)

► This was roughly 4% of total US imports compared to 10% in 2010

►  Reduction in Suezmax requirements (March 2007 to March 2012) was equal to 37 vessels

► Canadian imports rose to highest level on record of 76.4 million barrels (2.5 million b/d) – March 2012

► Imports from Saudi Arabia comparatively steady at 42.5 million barrels (1.4 million b/d) and still constitute around 15% of total import volumes

► Reduced spread between Dated Brent and WTI might help increase the attractiveness of West African grades

 

The above information was provided by McQuilling Services with additional data obtained from Oil Price Information Service at www.opisnet.com

 

 

 

 

 

Crude oil production in the Bakken rose almost 5 percent from April’s output. The number of producing oil wells went up more than 3 percent. There are almost 7,000 producing oil wells in western North Dakota, which is almost twice as many wells as it had five years ago, and crude oil production has increased five fold.

Meanwhile a dispute between Canadian pipeline Enbridge Energy LP and Saddle Butte Pipeline is brewing into what could become a political showdown between the two countries over whether Bakken oil production will be squeezed out by Canadian oil sands crude oil flowing from across the northern border.

The subsidiary of Saddle Butte – High Prairie Pipelines LLC is accusing Enbridge of denying its request to directly link a proposed 450-mile pipeline from the booming Bakken oil fields in North Dakota and Eastern Montana to a highway of pipelines currently feeding crude oil to Midwest East Coast refineries.

Saddle Butte is attempting to connect its High Prairie Pipeline to Enbridge at Clearbrook, MN. However, Enbridge Energy has so far refused to allow a pipeline interconnection by High Prairie Pipeline at its facility in Clearbrook, MN.

Even though oil prices have been falling, North Dakota’s crude oil production has been continuing to increase. The ND Department of Mineral Resources reported oil producers pumped an average of 639,000 barrels of oil each day in May 2012 or almost 20 million barrels of crude oil for the month.

Currently most the Bakken crude oil is being hauled to refineries and the Cushing, OK hub by rail car. The Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline is about two years away from being completed from Alberta, Canada to Cushing, OK. The permit for construction and operating the southern leg of the KXL from Cushing to the Gulf Coast has now been approved by the state agencies involved and is expected to be completed by the end of 2013.

Bob van der Valk is a petroleum industry analyst working and living in Terry, Montana. He can be contacted at (406) 853-4251 or e-mail: tridemoil@aol.com

His viewpoints about the petroleum industry are posted on his web page at: http://www.4vqp.com/pages/12/index.htm

Some data in the above article was obtained from E & E Publishing as well as Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) at www.opisnet.com

Photo courtesy of Travis W. Cooksey

Congratulations to the Bakken Oil Business Journal’s Advertising team member Larry Mosbrucker of New Salem, ND. Larry is the brains and entrepreneur of Stop Sensor, and contestant in this years Innovate ND Program. Larry garnered the Idea Champion title, and won the Value-Added Ag and Advanced Manufacturing category. North Dakotans sure know how to work, and bring a new level of entrepreneurship to business. Congratulations Larry!

Read the full article here by ND Commerce

Innovate ND Awarded Cash Prizes

Lt. Gov. Drew Wrigley and Commerce Commissioner Al Anderson announced five new Idea Champions at the sixth annual statewide Innovate ND program last night in front of a crowd of 130 people at the Ramada Plaza and Suites in Fargo. The 2012 Innovate ND Awards Ceremony was hosted by the ND Department of Commerce and the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber.

A panel of 10 private sector judges made the final selections out of a field of 20 finalists on Tuesday afternoon before announcing the five winning teams that each received $15,000 in cash and a valuable package of in-kind professional services to help them launch and grow their business. Cash prizes were made possible by the generosity of private sector business.

“Innovate ND is an exciting program that highlights hardworking innovators of North Dakota’s first-in-the-nation economy,” Lt. Gov. Wrigley said. “Our economic future is in the hands of creative, problem-solving individuals with a promising idea and the commitment to building their business right here in North Dakota.”

The five winning entries, unranked, are:

    • Equinox Analytics, Bismarck, ND
    • StopSensor, New Salem, ND
    • Theratainment, Fargo, ND
    • Webcast America, West Fargo, ND
    • Zoovio, Mandan, ND

The winners of the category awards and the winner of the People’s Choice Award were also named.

The winner of the People’s Choice Award went to Gimme Hockey. This is an idea a website for players and hockey camp organizers for promotion, selection, registration, payment, and review. An online database gives prospective customers the ability to sort camps based on the following criteria: skill level, gender, age, date, location, price, and/or name. More than 2,000 total votes were cast. For the fourth year, the $500 cash award was sponsored by the North Dakota Chamber of Commerce.

Category winners each received $500 each provided by industry sponsors. The winners in each of the five categories are:
Value-Added Ag and Advanced Manufacturing – StopSensor, New Salem, ND
Energy and Technology Based – Solargy Lights, Neche and Grand Forks, ND
Retail-Based – Bag’Em Outdoors, Hankinson, ND
Youth Entrepreneurship – Video Promoting ND, Argusville, ND
Women/Minorities/Rural Entrepreneurship – Collapsible Urine Hat, Bismarck, ND

“Our goal with Innovate ND is to help entrepreneurs turn business ideas into functional businesses,” Anderson said. “To date, nearly 800 people with 400 ideas have participated in the program and 125 new businesses are operational or in the development stage as a result.”

Partners from across the state provided technical assistance to 74 teams and 160 participants in the competition this year.

All finalists completed an extensive written summary and made an oral presentation in front of the panel of judges. In selecting winners, judges looked at five criteria: innovation, commercial viability, investment opportunity, entrepreneur team and quality of presentation. The People’s Choice Award was determined by online voting and the category winners were determined by the sponsor of the category.

Innovate ND was launched in November 2006 by the governor and was coordinated by the Governor’s Office, the North Dakota Department of Commerce, the UND Center for Innovation, and the NDSU Technology & Research Park. Forum Communications was the lead sponsor for Innovate ND. Participants paid $250 to enroll in the program.

The program was made possible by more than $200,000 in private-sector contributions and in-kind professional services donations as well as appropriated funds from the Department of Commerce. For more information, see www.innovatend.com.

By: Bob van der Valk
June 5, 2012
Dateline: Terry, Montana

The Irving Oil refinery in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada became the third oil refinery on the East coast to receive 72,000 barrels of Bakken crude oil in a delivery on June 2, 2012.

Irving Oil owns and operates a 300,000 barrrels per day (b/d) refinery and Bakken light, sweet crude delivery is expected to complement the refinery’s feedstocks, which could include both sweet and/or sour crude oil. Bakken crude should help boost St. John refinery’s refining profit margin known in the industry as the crack spread. Bakken crude oil is currently priced at about from $7 to $10 a barrel discount to the benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil. Railroad tank car freight charges run at about 12-$15 a barrel to the East coast.

Irving could receive about 10,000-15,000 b/d of Bakken Oil crude when the rail delivery operations stabilize in Canada.

The other two Northeast refineries receiving limited volumes of Bakken crude are Phillips 66’s 238,000-b/d Bayway refinery via Global Partners and Sunoco’s 330,000-b/d Philadelphia refinery via Sunoco Logistics.

Bayway refinery is expected to raise its Bakken crude oil intake to about 57,000
b/d in the summer. The Philadelphia refinery is receiving about 20,000-30,000 b/d of Bakken crude oil, and volume could increase in the future, depending on the fate of the
Philadelphia refinery sale to Delta Airlines.

North Dakota March crude oil production jumped by 10.14% from the previous month to 575,489 b/d, according to the latest data issued by the North Dakota State Industrial Commission. About 95% of North Dakota crude production is from the Bakken field.

The information in this article was previously published by Oil Price Information Service (OPIS).

Bob van der Valk is a petroleum industry analyst working and living in Terry, Montana. He can be contacted at (406) 853-4251 or e-mail: tridemoil@aol.com

His viewpoints about the petroleum industry are posted on his web page at: http://www.4vqp.com/pages/12/index.htm

By: Bob van der Valk
Dateline: Terry, Montana
May 17, 2012

North Dakota March crude oil production jumped by 10.14% in April 2012 from the previous month to 575,489 b/d, according to latest data issued by the North Dakota State Industrial Commission.

About 95% of North Dakota crude production is from the Bakken field. The significant production increase pushes North Dakota ahead of Alaska as the second-highest crude producing state in the US.

They expected to surpass Alaska by the end of this year, but that came a lot sooner than expected, mainly because North Dakota production is rising quickly and Alaska (output) is declining,

Oil producers were eyeing the Bakken oil field in 2006, but production only began to pick up at a serious pace in 2009. North Dakota will continue to raise its crude production volume over the next few years.

High demand for the price-advantaged high quality crude oil barrels has produced some 17 operating trans-loading facilities in the Bakken oil fields of Eastern Montana and North Dakota. That number is expected to grow significantly in the near term as more projects are underway.

The specially equipped facilities allow truck deliveries of crude to be trans-loaded into rail tanker cars or barges for long-distance shipments to coastal markets.

However, in the Bakken, the crude oil trans-loading facilities offer only truck-to-rail services provided by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad.

Players in the Bakken market include Northern Tier, Basin Transload, High Sierra, Centennial Energy, Rangeland Energy, Great Northern Midstream, North Dakota Port Services, Dakota Plains Transport, Plains, True Companies, Hawthorn Oil, Kinder Morgan/Watco, Hess, Savage and US development.

Their trans-loading facilities in the Bakken deliver the bulk of their shipments to Cushing, OK and the Gulf Coast, with limited flow to the Northeast and West Coast refineries.

Bakken oil crude production is currently right at 550,000-600,000 barrels per day (b/d) and is expected to go to more than 1 million b/d by 2015.

A video criticizing the current U.S. administration’s business and energy policies has gone viral, as American gear up for election season.

Americans For Limited Government (ALG), a non-partisan group, launched ‘If I wanted America to fail’, inspired by Paul Harvey’s essay, If I Were The Devil, slamming President Obama’s policies on a raft of issues, from housing to mining.

The video starts with the haunting words:

“If I wanted America to fail, to follow, not lead; to suffer, not prosper; to despair, not dream; I’d start with energy.
I’d cut off America’s supply of cheap abundant energy.
I couldn’t take it by force.
I’d make Americans feel guilty for using energy that heats their homes, fuels their cars, runs their businesses and powers their economy.
I’d make cheap energy expensive so that expensive energy would seem cheap.
I would empower unelected bureaucrats to outlaw America’s most abundant sources of energy.
After banning its use in America, I would make it illegal for American companies to ship it overseas….”

manufacturing; architecture and construction; health science; law, public safety, corrections, and security; and transportation, distribution, and logistics. United Tribes Technical College (UTTC) in Bismarck, N.D., has received an $18.9 million grant to lead a group of tribal colleges in building career development programs that meet local and regional employers’ needs for highly skilled workers. The grant was awarded through the inaugural round of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Program, an initiative by the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education to support career development partnerships and programs at community and technical colleges. In its initial round, the program awarded a total of nearly $500 million to 32 institutions. UTTC was the only tribal college among the grant recipients.

The grant to UTTC will fund a three-year initiative called Tribal College Consortium for Developing Montana and North Dakota Workforce, or TCC DeMaND, that is designed to build degree programs that align with the workforce needs of local and regional employers, particularly employers in the region’s booming oil industry. UTTC, in partnership with three other tribal colleges in North Dakota and Eastern Montana—Aaniih Nakoda College in Harlem, Mont.; Cankdeska Cikana Community College in Fort Totten, N.D.; and Fort Peck Community College in Poplar, Mont.—will create or enhance degree or certification programs in five targeted industries: manufacturing; architecture and construction; health science; law, public safety, corrections, and security; and transportation, distribution, and logistics. Specific new degree programs the colleges plan to create include welding, certified nurse assistant, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and hazardous materials and hazardous waste operations.

SOURCE (2012-4-12) Retrieved 2012-4-24.
SOURCE (2012-4-1) Retrieved 2012-4-24.

Bakken Oil Field, Shale Formation, Petroleum, Keystone XL PipelineTERRY, MONTANA – The word “passionate” is the one word comes to mind immediately upon first meeting documentary filmmaker Ann McElhinney. She shared her current passion explaining hydraulic fracturing or shale oil and gas by showing a sneak peak of her film “FrackNation” to a crowd of over 50 people.

The event was held Thursday night, April 12th at the MidRivers community meeting room in Glendive, MT, which was hosted by “The Eastern Montana Patriots Organization” (TEMPO) and sponsored by the “Montana Policy Institute” (MPI).

Carl Graham, who is the CEO of MPI and made the introduction of Ann McElhinney, said she was asked to speak to the mostly Eastern Montana audience in attendance to raise awareness about hydraulic fracturing and its consequences.

“Competing documentaries are made from different viewpoints,” is how Ann McElhinney describes the film she and her husband are in the middle of making. “FrackNation”will be about the oil industry’s safe practices of hydraulic fracturing known as fracking.

It will also respond to “Gasland,” a film made by Josh Fox, which raised concerns about the safety of hydraulic fracturing. It shows the purported affects in areas of our country where methane is released along with the drinking water with hydraulic fracking. This affect of nature has been occurring in the area of the Marcellus Shale formation in Pennsylvania for the last 400 years.The Glendive presentation was her only stop in Montana after she toured the area around the Bakken and Three Forks oil shale developments. She has already given presentations in Minot and Bismarck, ND before heading home for Hollywood and back with her husband Phelim Mcaleer, who is the co-producer of their latest documentary.

“Towns like Glendive, Baker, Circle and Terry are going to have their growing pains, but I don’t think anyone wants the oil production to go away”. Most of the people she met on her tour have given her great encouragement to go through with her project in order to straighten out the misinformation being published by the environmentalist groups who are against any kind of fossil fuel production.

McElhinney pointed out major discrepancies featured in “Gasland”. She told her very attentive Glendive crowd how the water in Dimock, PA has been flammable for hundreds of years. Controversy has been brewing between the eleven families suing the oil companies and the other 1500 families not willing to join the class action lawsuit and the negative publicity brought on by all the media attention from the GasLand film.

McElhinney also commented about the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruling frequently against hydraulic fracturing and just reversed its decisions in Pavillion, WY, Fort Worth, TX, and Dimock, PA. The anti-fracking ruling and threat or huge potential fines are costing the oil and gas exploration millions of dollars in legal costs.

McElhinney and her husband produced several other documentaries debunking environmentalists’ cases against different issues, such as mining in Romania.

“If not fossil fuels, then what do we use for our daily energy consumption?”

She sought out the Sierra Club, GreenPeace and the National Wildlife Association for special skepticism in their well funded attempts to halt all oil drilling anywhere to make the US no longer dependent on fossil fuels. Her question to them is: “If not fossil fuels, then what do we use for our daily energy consumption?”

The premiere of the movie “The China Syndrome” coincided with the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant disaster. It doomed nuclear energy as one of the alternative energy sources for the immediate future and not one new nuclear power plant has been built since March 1972.

“Environmentalists are terrifying average people with well made movies and making documentaries presenting untrue facts, which are easily debunked with the truth.”

Ann McElhinney saved her real harsh words about Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) current dealings with sustainability. Sustainability has emerged as a result of significant concerns about the unintended social, environmental, and economic consequences of rapid population growth, economic growth and consumption of our natural resources.

In its early years, EPA acted primarily as the nation’s environmental watchdog, striving to ensure that industries met legal requirements to control pollution. In subsequent years, EPA began to develop theory, tools, and practices that enabled it to move from controlling pollution to preventing it.

Today EPA aims to make sustainability the next level of environmental protection by drawing on advances in science and technology to protect human health and the environment, and promoting innovative green business practices.

Greg Cross, owner of Cross Petroleum in Glendive, MT, attended this sneak preview. He commented after the presentation: “The movie is not yet set for release but the promo was excellent. The lessons learned are simple; the anti-fossil fuels crowd is winning the propaganda battle as most of the pro- side is busy making a living and most important we can win IF we can maximize our involvement in social networking, i.e. Twitter and FaceBook to make our opinions known we can make a difference.”

He further said: “My thoughts are that we should have a break-out session during our convention to set up and teach us how to take advantage of this opportunity. Frack Nation tweeted and FaceBooked to raise almost $250,000 in a very short time to finance their documentary on Kickstarter.com. We first need someone to teach us in layman’s terms how to Tweet and FaceBook on a computer or smart phone.”

Matt Damon, the actor, and Gus Van Sant, a prominent director, are making an anti-fossil propaganda film this summer which will likely become another Oscar nominee like Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”. The latter created fear in people about climate change having an immediate affect on our lives if we continue to depend on fossil fuels as our mainstay. Ann McElhinney and Phelim Mcaleer may also be nominated for an Oscar and perhaps even the Nobel Peace Prize for being so passionate about such a controversial subject as the telling of the real story behind hydraulic fracking.

Donations for the making of this documentary are still being accepted but the producers want to maintain full transparency and keep their film free from special interests. Monies to fund this project are not being accepted from oil companies or any of their senior executives. FrackNation is an independent film, wants to remain independent of the oil and gas production industry.

You can follow the progress made towards funding on FrackNation.com as well as KickStarter.com.

Bob van der Valk lives in Terry, Montana and is a Petroleum Industry Analyst. He reports on fuel-related trends and events. You can reach him by e-mail or visit his blog.