
20B bbl of oil found in Texas' Permian Basin - selimthegrim
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/17/untapped-oil-texas-permian-basin-900-billion
======
niftich
What's the break-even price for these new finds, i.e. how much does a barrel
have to sell for for these deposits to be economical to exploit?

Luckily this find is where plenty of oil infrastructure already exists.
Prolonged opposition to pipelines originating in Alberta and North Dakota have
led to a marked increase in shipping oil by rail, taking more volatile product
into populated towns.

~~~
flukus
Price should be way below tar sands, if they were expected to break even then
this will.

~~~
Arnt
They were, but I don't know about any that has reached profitability yet. I
might've missed it though.

Btw, are tar sands still expected to be profitable?
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12554315](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12554315)
and suchlike seem to mention a new record price for solar power every month or
two, at some point that must start to scare oil investors.

~~~
niftich
Oil is used for many things [1][2][3], not just electricity generation. At
this point, the falling price of solar only really affects a small subset of
oil's potential customers.

[1]
[http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=oil_use](http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=oil_use)
[2] [https://www.statista.com/statistics/307194/top-oil-
consuming...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/307194/top-oil-consuming-
sectors-worldwide/) [3]
[http://alternativeenergy.procon.org/view.resource.php?resour...](http://alternativeenergy.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=001797)

~~~
Arnt
Absolutely.

Its price is remarkably sensitive to changes in production/demand, though.
Minor changes in production/demand have caused wild price swings in the past.
Take away 5% of the demand and the price might drop wildly.

How might that happen? According to the graphs/tables you link to, that would
require that 7-15% of road-related demand shift to electric vehicles in the
next decade or two, and the corresponding power generation to solar. How
likely is that? Doesn't seem farfetched to me.

(I'm moving some money around right now, as it happens, when it's done it'll
be invested in something effectively like "index fund minus oil and coal".)

------
fithisux
Amazin, no hope for slow down of climate change.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Forget Texas oil; its Methane Hydrates that will rule the future:

[http://geology.com/articles/methane-
hydrates/](http://geology.com/articles/methane-hydrates/)

------
nielsbot
Please, leave it in the ground.

------
JoeAltmaier
Shale oil?

