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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

US Shale Producers Seeking to Boost Oil Production Through Re-Fracking

Monday, June 27, 2022

Categories: ASCF News Energy Independence

Comments: 0

Source: https://www.theepochtimes.com/us-shale-producers-seeking-to-boost-oil-production-through-re-fracking_4560849.html

A natural gas flare on an oil well pad burns as the sun sets outside Watford City, N.D., on Jan. 21, 2016. (Andrew Cullen/Reuters)

Shale producers in the United States are resorting to “re-fracking” to boost the country’s oil output as well as generate additional profits without having to make significant new investments.

Re-fracking refers to the practice of an oil company returning to old shale oil and gas wells that were fracked in the past but are no longer in production. The process allows oil producers to take advantage of the over $100 per barrel oil price while also creating a higher output with a smaller investment, rather than having to develop an entirely new well.

“You go back and find where you maybe under-completed and under-fracked in the beginning,” Catherine Oster, who manages Devon Energy’s midcontinent properties, said to Reuters.

“We’ve made the infrastructure investment. As you learn about your resource, you get those technical learnings” that help decide which wells will benefit from a second shot, she added.

Garrett Fowler, chief operating officer for ResFrac, which helps producers optimize the technique, has seen inquiries for re-fracking double in recent times compared to previous years. The process can increase oil flows from aging wells by two to three times, he said.

Experts estimate re-fracking to potentially be up to 40 percent cheaper compared to new wells.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, oil prices have remained at elevated levels due to tensions over oil supply.

Refining Capacity
Oil prices are also being affected by refining capacity. Refiners are responsible for converting crude oil to products like gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel. At present, there are fewer refineries in the country than there used to be. At the beginning of 2022, the United States had five fewer refineries compared to the beginning of 2020.

Some refineries closed shop after the COVID-19 pandemic crashed the demand for gasoline. U.S. refineries are currently operating at more than 90 percent capacity, according to the Energy Information Administration, and are expected to run at 95 percent for the rest of the summer season.

“Despite our expectation that refinery utilization will be at or near the highest levels in the past five years, operable refinery capacity is about 900,000 b/d less than at the end of 2019, and as a result, we do not expect total refinery output of products to reach its highest level in the past five years,” the EIA said in a June 7 report.

Bringing back idle refineries can take years and is costly for refiners. And given the Biden administration’s alternative energy push, many refiners do not see financial sense investing in the business.

There hasn’t been a major new refinery built in the United States since the 1970s.

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