Energy Policy & Environment Report

Technology and the

Coming Big-Data Revolution
in Americas Shale Oil Fields

Mark P. Mills
Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute

Published by Manhattan Institute

No. 16 May 2015

the

SHALE 2.0

C E P E
CENTER FOR ENERGY POLICY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
AT

THE

MANHATTAN

INSTITUTE

Executive Summary
With petroleum prices down 50 percent over the past year, many analysts and pundits are predicting the end of
Americas shale oil boom. Recent headlines include: Oil Price Fall Forces North Dakota to Consider Austerity (New York
Times);1 Oil Price Drop Hurts Spending on Business Investments (Wall Street Journal);2 The American Oil Boom
Wont Last Long at $65 per Barrel (Bloomberg Business);3 and The Shale Oil Revolution Is in Danger (Fortune).4
High prices, shale skeptics argue, created a bubble of activity in unsustainably expensive shale fields. As shale-related
businesses contract, consolidate, and adjust to the new price regime, a major shale bust is inevitable, they add, with
ghost towns littering idle fields from Texas to North Dakota.
It is true that the oil-price collapse was caused by the astonishing, unexpected growth in U.S. shale output, responsible for three-fourths of new global oil supply since 2008. And as lower prices roil operators and investors, the shale
skeptics case may seem vindicated. But their history is false: the shale revolution, Shale 1.0, was sparked not by
high pricesit began when prices were at todays low levelsbut by the invention of new technologies. Now, the
skeptics forecasts are likely to be as flawed as their history. This paper explains how continued technological progress, particularly in big-data analytics, has the U.S. shale industry poised for another, longer boom, a Shale 2.0.
The End of the Beginning
John Shaw, chair of Harvards Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, recently observed: Its fair to say were not at
the end of this [shale] era, were at the very beginning.5 He is precisely correct. In recent years, the technology deployed
in Americas shale fields has advanced more rapidly than in any other segment of the energy industry. Shale 2.0 promises
to ultimately yield break-even costs of $5$20 per barrelin the same range as Saudi Arabias vaunted low-cost fields.
The shale industry is unlike any other conventional hydrocarbon or alternative energy sector, in that it shares a growth
trajectory far more similar to that of Silicon Valleys tech firms. In less than a decade, U.S. shale oil revenues have soared,
from nearly zero to more than $70 billion annually (even after accounting for the recent price plunge). Such growth is
600 percent greater than that experienced by Americas heavily subsidized solar industry over the same period.6
Shales spectacular rise is also generating massive quantities of data: the $600 billion7 in U.S. shale infrastructure
investments and the nearly 2,000 million well-feet drilled have produced hundreds of petabytes of relevant data.
This vast, diverse shale data domaincomparable in scale with the global digital health care data domainremains
largely untapped and is ripe to be mined by emerging big-data analytics.
Shale 2.0 will thus be data-driven. It will be centered in the United States. And it will be one in which entrepreneurs,
especially those skilled in analytics, will create vast wealth and further disrupt oil geopolitics. The transition to Shale
2.0 will take the following steps:
1. Oil from Shale 1.0 will be sold from the oversupply currently filling up storage tanks.
2. More oil will be unleashed from the surplus of shale wells already drilled but not in production.
3. Companies will high-grade shale assets, replacing older techniques with the newest, most productive technologies in the richest parts of the fields.
4. As the shale industry begins to embrace big-data analytics, Shale 2.0 begins.
Further, if the U.S. is to fully reap the economic and geopolitical benefits of Shale 2.0, Congress and the administration should:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Remove the old, no longer relevant, rules prohibiting American companies from selling crude oil overseas.
Remove constraints, established by the 1920 Merchant Marine Act, on transporting domestic hydrocarbons by ship.
Avoid inflicting further regulatory hurdles on an already heavily regulated industry.
Open up and accelerate access to exploration and production on federally controlled lands.

Shale 2.0

About the Author

MARK P. MILLS is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, CEO of the Digital Power Group, a tech-centric capital
advisory group, and Faculty Fellow at Northwesterns McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is
also a member of the advisory board of Notre Dames Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values. Earlier, he
cofounded and was chief tech strategist of Digital Power Capital, a boutique venture fund, and served as chairman
and CTO of ICx Technologies, helping take it public in a 2007 IPO.
Mills is a contributor to Forbes.com and is coauthor of The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste,
and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy (Basic Books, 2005), which rose to #1 on Amazons science and math
rankings. His articles have been published in various popular outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and New York
Times Magazine. Mills is also a frequent guest on CNN, FOX, NBC, and PBS, and has appeared on The Daily Show
with Jon Stewart.
Earlier, Mills was a technology adviser for Bank of America Securities, and a coauthor of a successful energy-tech
investment newsletter, the Huber-Mills Digital Power Report. He has testified before Congress and has briefed many
state public service commissions and legislators. Mills served in the White House Science Office under President Reagan,
and subsequently provided science and technology policy counsel to numerous private sector firms, the Department
of Energy, and U.S. research laboratories.
Early in his career, Mills was an experimental physicist and development engineer, working at Bell Northern Research
(Canadas Bell Labs) and the RCA David Sarnoff Research Center on microprocessors, fiber optics, missile guidance,
nuclear energy, and non-proliferation. He earned several patents for his work in these fields. Mills holds a degree in

CEPE Report No. 16

physics from Queens University, Canada.

May 2015

CONTENTS
1

Introduction

I. Technology: The Epicenter of a New Industry

II. Rig Count vs. Output

III. Technology High-Grading, Then Shale 2.0

IV. Big-Data Analytics Will Make Shale Oil Cheaper

10

V. $100 Oil Set the Stage for Shale 2.0

10

VI. Big Data Is the New Oil

12

VII. The Structure of Technological Revolutions

12

Conclusion

14

Endnotes

Shale 2.0

CEPE Report No. 16

May 2015

Shale 2.0

Technology and the

Coming Big-Data Revolution
in Americas Shale Oil Fields
Mark P. Mills

INTRODUCTION

n 2014, Americas oil production grew by 1.2 million barrels

per day (MMbd)the greatest single-year increase since the
oil age began more than a century ago.8 Over the past halfdozen years, U.S. oil output rose by a total of 4 MMbd, with
most of the growth in the past three years (Figure 1).
The invention by American entrepreneurs of a new way to manufacture oil from shale, at volumes and prices that have moved
global markets, has been the biggest disruption to the energy landscape in 30 years. If the U.S. shale industry alone were a country,
it would rank as the worlds fifth-largest hydrocarbon producer.
The last time so much oil was added in such a short period to world
markets was in 1986, when Saudi Arabiawhich then enjoyed far
greater spare capacity than it now does9made a strategic decision
to increase output by 3 MMbd. That flood of oil drove global prices down to $20 per barrel (2014 USD). This time, the plunge in
prices was caused not by a foreign oil monarchy but by thousands
of American entrepreneurs drilling on state and private lands.
The new American oil landscape is not the result of government
programs or incentives; in recent years, the federal governments
role in the oil business has been neutral, at best, and oppositional,
at worst. Americas new oil landscape is also not the result of recent discoveries: the vast hydrocarbon shale fields were discovered
and mapped a century ago. Instead, the recent disruption to the
global supply-demand balance is the result of the maturation and

Shale 2.0

Figure 1. U.S. Shale Production Changed

the Global Oil Landscape*

$65 per Barrel (Bloomberg Business);13 The Shale

Oil Revolution Is in Danger (Fortune);14 and United States Will Not Become the New Saudi Arabia of
Global Energy (Telegraph).15
What ifabsent exogenous events such as major
wars and short-term price oscillationsoil never
again sells for much more than $60 per barrel for
decades? This is a real possibility in a world consistently fully or episodically oversupplied with oil,
especially if U.S. shale output continues. But can
Americas shale industry survive?

*Includes natural gas liquids for all countries

Data Source: EIA

deployment of new technologies that enabled the

economic production of oil from shale.
Although Americas shale industry is new, its scale is
such that it is now a permanent fixture of the U.S.
techno-industrial base. The U.S. shale ecosystem has
explodedfrom essentially nonexistent, just over a
decade agoto a $300 billion component of GDP,
featuring thousands of companies. The U.S. shale
ecosystem is also a distinctly different industry, in
structure, operation, and technique, compared with
its cousin, the conventional hydrocarbon industry.

In fact, in the roughly 150-year history of oil prices, there have been just three short periods where
oil sold for more than (inflation-adjusted) $50 per
barrel (Figure 2). Yet over the same period, technological progress has enabled world oil production to
soar by 6,500 percent.
But the recent plunge in oil prices has caused a precipitous drop in the use of U.S. drilling rigs (Figure
3). With the rig count the easiest, most widely publicized, measure of activity in the oil and gas industry,
numerous media reports and pundits now argue that
this is an ominous indicator of future oil output.
But the rig count alone is not a reliable indicator
of what the future holds. The shale business is as

Figure 2. Oil Prices, 18612014

CEPE Report No. 16

But the price collapse has started to affect U.S.

shale oil production. In January 2015, output
trended down, by 0.12 MMbd, compared with
the previous month, for the first time since 2010.
Lower prices mean that certain shale companies
with weak financials will end up being acquired,
while others will go bust.10

Over the past six months, the tone of media coverage of Americas shale industry has shifted, from awe
to alarm and pessimism. Recent headlines include:
Oil Price Fall Forces North Dakota to Consider
Austerity (New York Times);11 Oil Price Drop Hurts
Spending on Business Investments (Wall Street Journal);12 The American Oil Boom Wont Last Long at

May 2015

Data Source: World Bank

Figure 3. U.S. Oil Rig Count

Data Source: Baker Hughes

While the conventional and so-called unconventional (i.e., shale) oil industries display clear similarities
in basic mechanics and operationsdrills, pipes,
and pumpsmost of the conventional equipment,
methods, and materials were not designed or optimized for the new techniques and challenges needed in shale. By innovatively applying old and new
technologies, shale operators propelled a stunningly
fast gain in the productivity of shale rigs (Figure 4),
with costs per rig stable or declining.
Shale companies now produce more oil with two
rigs than they did just a few years ago with three
rigs, sometimes even spending less overall.17 At $55
per barrel, at least one of the big players in the Texas
Eagle Ford shale reports a 70 percent financial rate
of return.18 If world prices rise slightly, to $65 per
barrel, some of the more efficient shale oil operators
today would enjoy a higher rate of return than when
oil stood at $95 per barrel in 2012.19

different from its predecessor, conventional oil and

gas, as the smartphone ecosystem is different from
telephony. And just as the smartphone ecosystem is
Extracting hydrocarbons from shale is fundamennew and rapidly evolving, so, too, is the industrial
tally different from extracting hydrocarbons from
ecosystem of shale hydrocarbons.
conventional wells. The former requires two distinct steps: (1) after drilling down vertically, 5,000
In the end, shale technology, as with any technol10,000 feet, to reach a shale formation, operators
ogy, is only useful if it can deliver the goods at evdrill long, 5,00010,000-foot horizontal wells; (2)
er-decreasing cost. Thus the central questions for
hydraulic pressure is then used to fracture the rock
analysts and investors about the future of Americas
(frack), releasing oil and gas.
young shale industry are: Where is the technology
going? Can more oil be unlocked at lower costs and
Figure 4. Average Oil Production per Shale
with fewer rigs?16

Well, Four Major Shale Fields, 200715

I. TECHNOLOGY: THE EPICENTER OF A

NEW INDUSTRY
The price and availability of oil (and natural gas) are
determined by three interlocking variables: politics,
money, and technology. Hydrocarbons have existed in enormous quantities for millennia across the
planet. Governments control land access and business freedoms. Access to capital and the nature of
fiscal policy are also critical determinants of commerce, especially for capital-intensive industries.
But were it not for technology, oil and natural gas
would not flow, and the associated growth that these
resources fuel would not materialize.

Data Source: EIA Drilling Productivity Report, February 2015

Shale 2.0

The time it takes to drill wells is a critical component

of cost. On this front, the speed of improvement
has been remarkable: with virtually no increase in
capital costs (in some cases, costs are down),20 the
three key measures of drillingtime to drill, wells
per rig, and total distance drilledhave improved
by 50150 percent in less than five years (Figure 5).

Figure 6. Technology Causes Rig Count to

Disconnect from Well-Feet Drilled

The number of feet of shale rock tapped is the firstorder determinant of how much oil and gas are
produced. Here, the net result of technology and
operational innovation is clearly visible: total footage drilled grows faster than the growth in rig count
(Figure 6). The inverse is true as well: a forecasted
40 percent drop in rig count will have a more modest (35 percent) decline in total new footage drilled.
The walking rig is one technological advance
that has contributed greatly to gains in rig productivity. Rather than drill a single well from a
well-pad, a walking rig can move around the pad,
drilling multiple wells (sometimes dozens) (Figure 7).21 Since 2006, the use of such so-called pad
drilling has grown dramatically, from a few percent
to over 50 percent of new wells, with the potential
to rise higher.22
The use of older, less efficient Generation 1 (Gen
1) and Generation 2 (Gen 2) rigs began declining

CEPE Report No. 16

Figure 5. Shale Rig Drilling Efficacy,

Typical Four-Year Changes

Data Source: Baker Hughes; and Spears & Associates

May 2015

Data Source: Drilling Contractor; and Spears & Associates,

Drilling Market Outlook

in 2011, long before the late 2014 overall rig falloff.

(As of the first quarter of 2015, the number of Gen
1 rigs was down by 60 percent from peak use.) During 2011 to late 2014, as Gen 1 and Gen 2 rig use
declined, the number of newer, faster, more powerful Generation 3 (Gen 3) rigs rose by 60 percent.
Even now, the number of Gen 3 rigs is down by
only 25 percent, compared with the deeper overall
plunge in Gen 1 and Gen 2 rigs (Figure 8).23

Figure 7. Drilling Multiple Wells

from a Walking Rig

Source: EIA

Figure 8. Rig Count by Type of Technology

motors, and better cementing and perforating of

pipe.26 Operators, for example, increasingly use
more powerful pumps to move the water-sand mixture faster and at higher pressures, greatly increasing
the amount of sand used to keep shale cracks open
(Figure 11).
Sand used per well has risen, from 5 million to 15
million pounds, on average; the additional sand adds
2 percent to completion costs but boosts output by
40 percent.27 A typical shale well, which involves a

Figure 9. Monthly vs. Cumulative Output

for Typical Shale Well
Data Source: Helmerich & Payne

Once a well is drilled and 12 miles of horizontal

pipe placed in the shale, the key factor that determines the wells value is the effectiveness of the
completion step (i.e., when hydrocarbon-bearing
rock is stimulated to produce oil and gas). Spending on completion typically accounts for 5060 percent of the total development cost of shale wells.24
Here, too, productivity gains have been remarkable,
with a 400 percent rise in output during a wells first
month of operation; even two to three years into
production, technological advances have boosted
output by 200 percent in just a few years.25
While all oil and gas wells deplete as they produce,
shale wells do so at a faster rate than conventional
wells. Half of a shale wells lifetime output typically
occurs in the first year and 75 percent during its first
three yearsinvestors thus enjoy a very fast return on
capital. But a wells cumulative production continues
to rise over time. In a typical shale field, because shale
wells are so much cheaper and quicker to drill, multiple wells are drilled, yielding steadily rising cumulative production (Figure 9 and Figure 10).
Gains in rig productivity also continue to emerge,
thanks to growing operational experience, the application of higher pressures, more effective chemicals, better spacing of multiple wells, more efficient

Data Source: The Oil Drum

Figure 10. Rig Count vs. Total Output in

Representative Shale Field

Data Source: Force Majeure

Shale 2.0

Figure 11. Sand Delivery and Logistics*

technologies, oil sold for less than $50 per barrel;

when production first took off, the price was still
below $60 per barrel.

III. TECHNOLOGY HIGH-GRADING,

THEN SHALE 2.0
Four developments will likely determine the future
supply of shale oil:

*Custom-designed truck converts into sand silo.

Source: Halliburton

bewildering array of pipes, pumps, motors, valves,

gauges, engines, tanks, trucks, and peoplemost
onsite only temporarilytruly represents a study
in mechanical excellence.28

II. RIG COUNT VS. OUTPUT

CEPE Report No. 16

With rig counts down but rig productivity soaring, what next? The consequences of a price and
rig-count collapse have played out before. The
shale revolution, in fact, began with the extraction of natural gas in the Texas Barnett shale.
In 2008, after natural gas from this abundant
new source flooded the U.S. market, gas prices
plunged threefold. The gas rig count fell; but gas
production kept rising and has been growing ever
since.29 Figure 12 illustrates the effect of radical
gains in rig productivity for shale gas.30

As for oil, the impact of rising shale-rig

productivity was visible before the current, widely
publicized drop in rig count. A sixfold rise in shale
oil rigs, beginning in 2006, yielded only modest
output growth. Then, starting in about 2012, the
growth in rigs slowed and nearly stopped, but
output soared (Figure 13). Also noteworthy is
the fact that when, in 2006, entrepreneurs first
began profitably deploying then-nascent shale

May 2015

Oil will be sold from the oversupply currently

placed in storage tanks.
Operators will more efficiently unleash oil
from wells drilled but not completed.
Operators will swiftly adopt the best new technologies and use them in the best parts of the
shale (high-grade assets).
Operators will embrace big-data analytics,
unleashing Shale 2.0greater production at
lower cost.
Peak Storage
The total quantity of American petroleum now parked
in huge steel tanks is at levels not seen for 80 years. A
decade ago, no one thought that the U.S. would experience challenges associated with peak storage, rather
than peak oil. In February 2015, one massive oil

Figure 12. Natural Gas:

Fewer Rigs, Far More Output

Data Source: EIA and Baker Hughes

Figure 13. Petroleum:

Shale Production vs. Rig Count

growth (and, accordingly, lower incomes). If oil

in storage returns to recent average storage levels
(Figure 14), nearly a million barrels of oil per day
could enter the market.
The Fracking Backlog

Data Source: EIA and Baker Hughes

storage farm, in Cushing, Oklahoma, was 75 percent

full; in February 2014, it was 48 percent full.31
The current oil storage glut is mainly a consequence of two factors: inadequate infrastructure
and misguided law. American oil transport infrastructure, both pipelines and railroads, is still
catching up to the recent, radical increase in
domestic production. But even if the necessary
infrastructure existed, half-century-old federal
rules prohibit American companies from selling crude oil internationallydespite the fact
that it is legal to sell refined oil (gasoline, diesel,
aviation fuel) overseas. This outdated statute not
only inhibits private investment in export infrastructure; it also violates the basic market principles that guide U.S. export policy for nearly all
other products.32
Still, it is unlikely that this law will soon be replaced or that new export infrastructure will be
built overnight. In the upcoming 2015 summer
driving season, however, oil currently held in
storage will likely begin to be sold, as production slows slightly and domestic demand grows
and finally surpasses pre-2008 levels.33 Far from
America entering a post-oil-economy, U.S. oil
demand, as the EIAs forecast shows, was down
in recent years largely because of slow economic

Even more oil supply is now, de facto, being stored

underground. As noted, production begins with the
distinct second stage of well construction. Once a
shale site is mapped and long horizontal wells completed, operators can delay the expensive step of
fracking. Since the latter constitutes 5060 percent
of total costs, significant spending can be deferred
with no loss of the core asset. The oil is simply left
stored, in situ, until markets and prices make retrieval more attractive. When such sites are eventually stimulated, operators will be able to harness
technological advancements that have occurred in
the interim.
The U.S. currently has roughly 3,000 drilled wells
awaiting completionlikely rising by the end of
2015, to more than 5,000.34 Given current market
realities, manyif not mostsuch wells will remain idle.35 The amount of ready-to-flow oil stored
in those 5,000 wells is at least four times greater than

Figure 14. Oil in Storage*

*Excludes the noncommercial federal Strategic Petroleum

Reserve
Data Source: EIA

Shale 2.0

all the oil stored in steel tanks around the country.

Because it takes only a few months to complete a
well, such wells, once completed, could swiftly add
23 MMbd to U.S. supply.

Figure 15. U.S. Oil Production,

Past and Forecast

Embracing Technology

CEPE Report No. 16

As operators gained experience during the first

shale boom, Shale 1.0, a popular strategy involved
duplicating every aspect of the development of a
successful well on successive wells within the same
field. This repetitive, factory drilling strategy
made sense during the industrys expansion because it eliminated the risks associated with continued experimentation. And when factory drilling
in new parts of the same field yielded poorer results, due to variations in shale geology, the (coincidental) surge in oil prices reduced the incentive
to innovate. (When oil hovered at $100/barrel, a
factory-drilled well that was 3050 percent less
productive than previous factory-drilled wells was
still a big moneymaker.)

Data Source: EIA; and Spears & Associates

IV. BIG-DATA ANALYTICS WILL MAKE

SHALE OIL CHEAPER
Incremental and dramatic improvements will continue in all aspects of the many technologies used in
shale production: logistics, planning, seismic imaging, well-spacing, fluid and sand handling, chemistry, drilling speed, pumping efficiency, instrumentation, sensors, and high-power lasers.38 Shale fields
will increasingly be developed using advanced automation, mobile computing, robotics, and industrial
drones. At present, barely 10 percent of projects use
fully automated drilling and pressure-control systems, for example.39

In the new low-price oil environment, however,

operators will increasinglyand soon, exclusivelyadopt a high-grading strategy that the industrys top performers have pursued for years. Highgrading calls for operators to use analysis not only
to modify techniques for each well but also to use
the best tools and techniques in only the best parts
of the shale. One implication of high-grading is
that conventional forecasts for future supply likely
represent underestimates because they are based
on historical averages that incorporate the previous proliferation of low-performing wells drilled Largely because of the tremendous scale of investment already in place, there is every reason to beduring the price boom.36
lieve that such improvementswhich portend
The effect of so many wells and acres subjected greater and cheaper American oil productionwill
to high-grading will be to maintain output even collectively be at least as significant in the coming
with declining rig count and to add substantial several years as have innovations in the recent past.40
uncertainty to near-term supply forecasts (Figure
15). Even in the aftermath of the recent oil-price But the single biggest disruption now coming to
collapse, as the industry cuts spending, consoli- the shale industry, one that will define the emerdates, and cools, output from U.S. shale wells will gence of Shale 2.0, comes not from individual
keep risingthough more slowly than in recent technologies or digital connectivity but from the
years. If prices edge up, they will stimulate even use of big data for radically better asset optimization and operations.
more production.37

May 2015

In every sector of the U.S. economy, the availability

and collection of data from machines, services, and
business operations are growing at an astonishing rate.
Still, a large amount of the data remains disparate and
disordered. The use of big-data analytics offers nearly
all industries the potential for unprecedented insight,
efficiency, and economic value. Americas shale industry is similar to many other large, complex businessessuch as aviation, agriculture, manufacturing,
entertainment, and health carein the scale and diversity of its operations. What distinguishes shale is
its unique combination of youth, the diversity and
scale of data associated with its operations, and the
variety of environments in which operations occur.
While such challenges could delay the industrys
embrace of big-data analytics, the opportunity
in oil and gas has not escaped the attention of IT
firms such as IBM, Microsoft, Accenture, Cisco,
and SAP, as well as various hydrocarbon-service
companies. Conferences and books dedicated to
the new specialty are rapidly appearing, including
a new professional society focused on data-driven
petroleum analytics.41 The CEO of EOG, a shale
firm founded in 1999 and now with $18 billion in
revenue, promotes his companys aggressive, proprietary use of big data.42 ConocoPhillips, founded in
the nineteenth century and now with revenues of
$55 billion, was ranked Number Two on InformationWeeks 2013 list of the 500 top IT-using firms.43
Big-data analytics can already optimize the subsurface mapping of the best drilling locations; indicate
how and where to steer the drill bit; determine, section by section, the best way to stimulate the shale;
and ensure precise truck and rail operations. Mobile
computing, using app-centric analytics, can increase
uptime, reduce maintenance, improve workforce
productivity, reduce errors and rework, and enable
low-cost compliance.
Though many companies are keeping their big-data
projects proprietary, some information is publicly
available. Halliburton reports that its analytic tools
achieved a 40 percent reduction in the cost of delivering a barrel of oil.44 Baker Hughes says that analytics have helped it double output in older wells.45

Schlumberger announced a 50 percent gain in production, thanks to its use of analytics.46 ConocoPhillips combined the latest sensors (which extract data
by the minute rather than daily), wireless networks
(often requiring building dedicated remote cell and
Wi-Fi towers), and big-data analytics to boost output by 30 percent in existing wells.47
Given such results and current low oil prices, it is
little wonder that Baker Hughes, for instance, received more inquiries about its big-data analytics in
the first quarter of 2015 than in the previous two
years combined.48 This confluence of technological
maturity and market opportunity is ideally aligned
for the upcoming pivot to data-centric Shale 2.0.
Big-data analytics has also arrived at a time when
demand and supply are well aligned: global demand
for oil continues to rise, while Americas shale fields
are generating vast new supply.
Perhaps the most portentous indicator of the nearterm opportunity for big-data analytics to yield
more oil at lower cost is the surprisingly ineffective
current mechanisms for stimulating shale to yield oil
or gas (Figure 16). At present, each long horizontal
well is typically stimulated in 2436 stages, with, on
average, only one-fourth to one-third of those stages
productive.49 At present, in other words, about 20
percent of stages generate 80 percent of output.

Figure 16. Effectiveness of Frack Stages in

Horizontal Wells

Data Source: Schlumberger and Bernstein Research

Shale 2.0

The current state of stimulation technology means

that, on average, at least 300400 percent more oil
is not extracted. Bringing analytics to bear on the
complexities of shale geology, geophysics, stimulation, and operations to optimize the production
process would potentially double the number of
effective stagesthereby doubling output per well
and cutting the cost of oil in half.
At present, break-even costs across U.S. shale fields
range from $10 per barrel$55 per barrel.50 Delivering North Dakota oil to Gulf Coast refineries and
ports by rail can add another $15 per barrel. Using
analytics to double output, thus cutting oil costs in
half, means that shale break-even costs would drop
to $5 per barrel$25 per barrel. Americas shale fields
would then be competitive in volume and in price
with Saudi Arabias vaunted ultralow-cost oil fields.

V. $100 OIL SET THE STAGE

FOR SHALE 2.0
That world oil prices reached $100 per barrel in tandem with the expansion of the shale revolution accelerated the appetite of financial markets to invest in
shale wells. The result: extraordinarily rapid expansion of the industrys physical and knowledge assets.

CEPE Report No. 16

One indicator of just how much shale-related data

have been generated is found in the hundreds of
billions of dollars invested in data-generating hardware, infrastructure, and equipment. Another indicator of the scale of this new data set is the total distance of horizontal well-feet drilled. Ten years ago,
only a handful of horizontal wells in shale formations existed. Two billion feetenough to circle the
earth more than 25 timeshave since been drilled
horizontally (Figure 17), in hundreds of thousands
of wells in U.S. shale fields.51

10

The quantity of shale-related data generated can reach

1 megabyte per foot drilled;52 the total quantity of data
generated per well can vary, from 1 to 15 terabytes.53
With the proliferation of ever-better sensors and the
continued decline in the cost of accessing, transmitting, and storing bytes, such data flows will certainly
expand. Data are now collected for all aboveground

May 2015

equipment, too. For example, a total of about 15 million horsepower in powerful diesel-driven pressure
pumps are used to stimulate shale.54 Few industries
deploy so much engine powerit is more horsepower
than used by FedExs global fleet of trucks and rivals
that used by Deltas entire aircraft fleet.55
In general, data are associated with and often collected for every foot of well drilled and operated,
including: for the seismic subsurface maps; for the
sensors used to analyze the earth during drilling; for
the trains and trucks carrying sand and equipment to
the site; for the pumps and flow meters pushing sand
and water underground; for the hardware and software moving the product to market; and for safety
and environmental compliancerelated equipment.
Spread across disconnected operational silos and different companies, there is likely (no one yet tracks
it) on the order of 600 petabytes of datathere are,
for comparison, about 500 petabytes of global digital
health care data56associated with finding, stimulating, extracting, and moving shale hydrocarbons.57

VI. BIG DATA IS THE NEW OIL

Data is the new oil! became a popular metaphor
in the big-data analytics community.58 Big-data
analytics, it turns out, can also unlock oil itself.

Figure 17. Cumulative Distance Drilled in

Horizontal Shale Wells*

*Excludes vertical distances drilled for all classes of wells

Data Source: Spears & Associates

In 2011, Bill Gates predicted as much: The one

thing that is different today [in energy] is software, which changes the game.59 Continuous innovation in materials sciences, basic engineering,
and analytics is having a greater impact on oil and
gas cost-effectiveness than on solar, wind, and
battery technology (Figure 18), despite the fact
that the latter are popularly viewed as epicenters
of energy innovation.
In terms of energy output, per unit of capital cost,
for energy-producing hardware, shale technology
has improved by some 500 percent during the
past five years;60 wind turbines, solar cells, and
lithium batteries have improved as well, but far
less spectacularly.61 Further, efficiency gains in alternative-energy technologies are slowing,62 while
shale technology shows few signs of a slowdown.
Such trends refute the belief that tech progress is
bypassing hydrocarbons.
The potential of big data is making analytics among
the fastest-growing job categories in all industries,
including hydrocarbons.63 This will make it difficult for oil and gas firms to recruit such talent,64
forcing shale firms to increasingly purchase services
and tools directly from analytic-centric tech firms
(such as Teradata, Splunk, Qlik, Palantir, and TIB-

Figure 18. Efficiency Gains:

Shale Tech vs. Alternative Energy

Data Source: DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory, EIA,

and Nature

CO Spotfire) and from hydrocarbon-centric tech

companies (including FracKnowledge, NEOS GeoSolutions, Blade Energy Partners, and Austin-based
Ayata). All will seek to mine the rich, often untapped data available in the thousands of connected
sectors that constitute Americas shale industry.
Physical scale and enormous capital resources
are critical for firms engaged in conventional hydrocarbons. Shale fields, on the other hand, are
friendlier to start-ups and other small companies
because of sharply lower capital costs and scale;
ease of access to domestic (often private) land; and
domestic infrastructure. Such advantages are now
magnified by better sensors, communications,
and inexpensive cloud-based supercomputing
a boon for the thousands of small and midsize
American oil and gas companies that pioneered
the Shale 1.0 revolution.
With data-driven productivity and automation
leading Shale 2.0, we will see more jobs, not fewer. During Shale 1.0, as productivity soared, the
number of workers per rig remained roughly constant, but the total number of people employed,
directly and indirectly, in the shale ecosystem
expanded. Indeed, in the six years following the
Great Recession, Americas shale sector led the
country in job creation.65
As the industry adjusts to lower prices, slowing
investment, and rising consolidation, however,
layoffs are inevitable before the next expansion
can begin. U.S. shale oil and gas is now, after
software, the largest target for private-equity buyouts.66 Much of this activity is below the public
radar, though private-equity titans Blackstone and
Carlyle have made headlines by launching multibillion-dollar funds dedicated to the sector.67 The
components are thus in place for a quick return
likely within a year or twoto the production
growth rate of 2014. Should such a development
materialize, the U.S. will roil global energy geopolitics yet again; but this time, there will be little
competition from other countries, which have
largely abandoned their own shale projects for
lack of expertise and infrastructure.68

Shale 2.0

11

VII. THE STRUCTURE OF

TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTIONS
Americas young shale industry is following a
well-established historical pattern for technological revolutions. When innovation spawns entirely
new industries, from the car to the cell phone,
the scale and impact of the technology, as well as
the associated businesses deploying and using it,
expand in two broad phases. The first involves an
initial boom, when new products and production
ramp up and experience is gained by trial and error. The second, significantly larger, boom arrives
latersometimes proceeded by a bustspurred
by experience and continued innovation.

CEPE Report No. 16

The automobile era progressed from phase one

in 1914, year of the first mass-produced cars, to
phase two in the early 1950s, with the dominance
of low-cost auto-making and associated infrastructure (national highways). The computer industry went from phase one in 1955, year of the
first commercially deployed mainframes, to phase
two in 1984, year of the first mass-produced
personal computers. The cell phone advanced
from phase one in 1990, with the first affordable
phones, to phase two in 2007, with the introduction of smartphones and associated high-speed
infrastructure.

12

The history of conventional oil started in 1858,

with Edwin Drakes 69-foot well in Titusville,
Pennsylvania. Drake used a steam engine and
salt-well drill, but his breakthrough involved
placing iron pipes into the ground to keep the
well bore open and drilling inside the pipes. The
innovation was quickly copied, and an industry
was born. Yet early drills could only make several feet of progress per day; so wells were shallow, and oil remained expensive. Phase two for
conventional oil began in 1909 in Goose Creek,
Texas, when Howard Hughes, Sr. demonstrated
his revolutionary drill bit that could drill faster
and deeper. The new technology launched the
era of wildcatters, oil riches, and copiously cheap
fueland with it, the start of a global transportation revolution.

May 2015

Unconventional oil is set to follow a similar

trajectory. Phase one started in 1991 in Texass
Barnett shale, when George Mitchell combined
a subsurface seismic map, horizontal drilling,
and hydraulic fracturing to stimulate rock to
release hydrocarbons. In the process, Mitchell
Energy (now part of Devon Energy) unleashed
a shale boom similar in scale and character to
the first oil era, and similar to previous industrial cycles. Twenty-five years later, history now
awaits the name of the person or company that
will be identified with launching Shale 2.0. In
the meantime, shales position as an enduring
and soon-to-be $100 billion/year U.S. industry
is secure (Figure 19).

CONCLUSION
In recent decades, developed nations have spent
hundreds of billions of government dollars trying,
and failing, to invent a cost-effective replacement for
petroleum. Yet without taxpayer largesse, American
entrepreneurs invented a new method to extract astounding quantities of oil from rock, upending the
global hydrocarbon trade in the process. In a world
where oil still powers 95 percent of air and ground
miles and will remain dominant for decades, this
represents a very positive development.69

Figure 19. U.S. Crude Oil Production,

PostWorld War II

Data Source: EIA

Compared with 1986the last time the world was

oversupplied with oilthere are now 2 billion more
people living on earth, the world economy is $30
trillion bigger, and 30 million more barrels of oil are
consumed daily.70 The current 33 billion-barrel annual global appetite for crude will undoubtedly rise
in coming decades. Considering that fluctuations in
supply of 12 MMbd can swing global oil prices,71
the infusion of 4 MMbd from U.S. shale did to petroleum prices precisely what would be expected in
cyclical markets with huge underlying productive
capacity.
While sellers naturally prefer higher prices, the dramatic recent oil-price slump has set the stage for
Americas upcoming Shale 2.0 revolution. Given
petroleums continued economic and geopolitical
importance, what policies should the U.S. pursue to
maximize the benefits that it secures from Shale 2.0?
Legislators have yet to recognize and incorporate
into law the far-reaching implications of how the
energy landscape has fundamentally changed. U.S.
energy law remains anchored in the decades-old
paradigm of insatiable U.S. demand and resource
shortages. The modern reality has instead utterly reversed, with de minimis growth in U.S. oil demand,
exploding global demand, and an ascendant second
era of American petroleum production. Congress
should thus undertake a comprehensive review and
rewrite of the 1974 Energy Policy & Conservation
Act, which enshrined the now-antiquated paradigm. In the meantime, Congress can:

1. Remove counterproductive rules prohibiting

U.S. companies from selling crude oil overseas,
as well as rules inhibiting similar shale gas sales.
2. Remove the 1920 Merchant Marine Acts constraints on transporting domestic hydrocarbons by ship. This will require finding a more
cost-effective solution to the national security
interests associated with subsidizing a domestic
shipbuilding industry.
3. Avoid inflicting further regulatory burdens on
the already heavily regulated shale industry.
Ominously, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has announced plans for new standards
that will affect about one-fifth of shale-based
hydrocarbon production.72
4. Open up and accelerate access to exploration
and production on federally controlled lands.
This would boost domestic economic opportunities and send a powerful message about
Americas oil export ambitionsrivaling, in
inverse, the announcement of the 1973 Arab
oil embargo.
Further, while Congress works to unshackle a shale
industry adjusting to lower prices, hydrocarbon
firms might consider launching a Shale Ready Vets
programa private alternative to President Obamas
new Solar Ready Vets73offering instruction in vital,
high-paying shale-related jobs, from machinery and
supply-chain logistics to big-data analytics. At a time
of growing scarcity for skilled labor in such fields,
such a program would help prepare the U.S. workforce for the emergence of Shale 2.0.

Shale 2.0

13

CEPE Report No. 16

Endnotes

14

1. Oil Price Fall Forces North Dakota to Consider Austerity, New York Times, AP, March 24, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/03/24/us/ap-us-xgr-slipping-oil-rigs.html.
2. Nick Timiraos, Oil Price Drop Hurts Spending on Business Investments, Wall Street Journal, March 22, 2015, http://
www.wsj.com/articles/oil-price-drop-hurts-spending-on-business-investments-1427058389.
3. Matthew Philips, The American Oil Boom Wont Last Long at $65 per Barrel, Bloomberg, December 1, 2014,
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-12-01/can-the-us-fracking-boom-survive-with-oil-65-per-barrel.
4. Shawn Tully, The Shale Oil Revolution Is in Danger, January 9, 2015, http://fortune.com/2015/01/09/oil-pricesshale-fracking.
5. Quoted in Alvin Powell, Staying Power for Shale Gas: Geologist Sees a Path to Easing Fracking Concerns, Harvard Gazette, March 12, 2015, http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/03/staying-power-for-shale-gas/?utm_
source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=03.13.2015%20(1.
6. Solar Energy Industries Association, Solar Market Insight Report 2014, http://www.seia.org/research-resources/
solar-market-insight-report-2014-q4; 2014 6 GW sales, of which 4 GW is utility scale @ $2/W for primary energyproducing hardware.
7. See http://www.api.org/~/media/Files/Policy/SOAE-2014/API-Infrastructure-Investment-Study.pdf.
8. EIA, US Oil Production Growth in 2014 Was Largest in More than 100 Years, March 30, 2015, http://www.eia.gov/
todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=20572.
9. EIA, What Drives Crude Oil Prices?, http://www.eia.gov/finance/markets/supply-opec.cfm.
10. Tyler Durden, The First Shale Casualty: WBH Energy Files for Bankruptcy; Many More Coming, Zero Hedge, January
8, 2015, http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-07/first-shale-casualty-wbh-energy-files-bankruptcy-many-morecoming.
11. Oil Price Fall Forces North Dakota to Consider Austerity, New York Times.
12. Timiraos, Oil Price Drop Hurts Spending on Business Investments.
13. Philips, The American Oil Boom Wont Last Long at $65 per Barrel.
14. Tully, The Shale Oil Revolution Is in Danger.
15. Mehreen Khan, United States Will Not Become the New Saudi Arabia of Global Energy, The Telegraph, February
26, 2015, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/11436337/United-States-will-notbecome-the-new-Saudi-Arabia-of-global-energy.html.
16. This analysis focuses on oil primarily because of its dominance in the global energy trade and in geopolitics. Trends
covered here also apply to domestic production of natural gas from shale.
17. Michael Fitzsimmons, Statoil: U.S. Shale Overview and Company Update, Seeking Alpha, December 22, 2014,
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2771615-statoil-u-s-shale-overview-and-company-update.
18. Jennifer Warren, US Shale Trends Indicated by Production Prowess of Pioneer and RSP Permian, Concept Elemental, April 2, 2015, http://seekingalpha.com/article/3033816-u-s-shale-trends-indicated-by-production-prowess-ofpioneer-and-rsp-permian?ifp=0.
19. Henry Stokman, Why EOG Is Primed for High Future Returns, Seeking Alpha, March 3, 2015, http://seekingalpha.
com/article/2970386-why-eog-is-primed-for-high-future-returns.
20. Ibid.
21. Multi-Well-Pad Drilling: Octopus, Shale Stuff, July 28, 2013, http://shalestuff.com/controversy-2/multi-well-paddrilling-octpus/article08580.
22. Kevin Thuot, On the Launch Pad: The Rise of Pad Drilling, February 4, 2014, http://info.drillinginfo.com/launchpad-rise-pad-drilling.
23. Sheetal Nasta, Every Rig You Take: Crude Oil Production and EIAs Latest Drilling Productivity Report, April 1, 2015,
https://rbnenergy.com/every-rig-you-take-interpreting-eias-latest-drilling-productivity-report.
24. Eldon Ball, Making the Bakken and Niobrara Economic, Hart Energy Market Intelligence, March 2015.

May 2015

25. EIA: Yearly production rates in Eagle Ford shale formation showing rapidly increased initial rates of production,
200914.
26. Whiting Petroleum: What the Future Holds, March 9, 2015, http://seekingalpha.com/article/2984106-whitingpetroleum-what-the-future-holds?ifp=0.
27. Sandy Fielden, When the Sand Goes Down: Prospects for Fracking Proppants After the Price Crash, March 22,
2015, RBN Energy, https://rbnenergy.com/when-the-sand-goes-down-prospects-for-fracking-proppants-after-theprice-crash.
28. Brian Robson, The Engineering Genius of Fracking: A Study in Mechanical Excellence, March 4, 2015, http://
breakingenergy.com/2015/03/04/the-engineering-genius-of-fracking-a-study-in-mechanical-excellence/?utm_
source=Breaking+Energy&utm_campaign=b588bb86ac-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_
f852427a4b-b588bb86ac-407307749.
29. EIA, U.S. Natural Gas Marketed Production, http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n9050us1m.htm.
30. Some of the continued output is associated with gas produced unintentionally from wells drilling for oil, and from
previously drilled wells that, in order to maintain lease requirements, are forced into production.
31. See http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=20212.
32. Mark P. Mills, Prime the Pump: The Case for Repealing Americas Oil Export Ban, July 2014, Manhattan Institute for
Policy Research.
33. EIA, 2015 Summer Fuels Outlook, April 7, 2015, http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/special/summer/2015_summer_fuels.pdf.
34. Spears & Associates, Drilling Market Outlook, March 2015, USAEE Houston, http://www.usaee.org/chapters/documents/Houston_USAEE_March%2012%202015.pdf; and http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-06/
introducing-fracklog-the-new-fangled-oil-storage-system-energy.
35. Under some land-lease contracts, however, operators face finite timelines for starting production in order to retain
their leasing rights. Such contracts force certain operators to continue productionat a loss or diminished profitin
the expectation of reaping the benefits of higher future oil prices.
36. Nasta, Every Rig You Take.
37. Spears & Associates, Drilling Market Outlook, March 2015; and Lower 48 Oil Economics Still Robust, Wood
Mackenzie Says, World Oil, March 25, 2015, http://www.worldoil.com/news/2015/3/25/lower-48-oil-economicsstill-robust-wood-mackenzie-says.
38. Foro Energy, http://www.foroenergy.com.
39. Bob Pilko, Blade Energy Partners, private communication.
40. Ball, Making the Bakken and Niobrara Economic.
41. Keith Holdaway, Harness Oil and Gas Big Data with Analytics, https://books.google.com/books?id=hwaIAwAAQB
AJ&pg=PT23&lpg=PT23&dq=Moray+Laing+oil+data&source=bl&ots=EXGltUji9X&sig=WFBeczx6O7C8UFysvkkTVG
felU4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sAgXVa23LMWuggT0uIKYAQ&ved=0CEYQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Moray%20Laing%20
oil%20data&f=false.
42. Dallas Salazar, EOG Resources Trust Me Story Might Just Be Trustworthy, Seeking Alpha, February 27, 2015,
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2958456-eog-resources-trust-me-story-might-just-be-trustworthy.
43. Doug Henschen, ConocoPhillips Taps Big Data for Gas Well Gains, InformationWeek, September 5, 2013, http://
www.informationweek.com/big-data/big-data-analytics/conocophillips-taps-big-data-for-gas-well-gains/d/did/1111434.
44. See http://www.halliburton.com/en-US/ps/solutions/unconventional-resources/CYPHERservice.page.
45. Ernest Scheyder, Hi Tech and Big Data Offer Hope to Battered U.S. Oil Industry, Reuters, March 27, 2015, http://
www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/27/us-energy-technology-idUSKBN0MN1VG20150327.
46. Jeff Meisenhelder, Shale 2.0: From Efficient to Effective Shale Development, JPT, July 2013, http://www.slb.com/~/
media/Files/industry_challenges/unconventional_gas/industry_articles/201307_jpt_shale_development_jmeisenhelder.
pdf.

Shale 2.0

15

CEPE Report No. 16

16

47. Henschen, ConocoPhillips Taps Big Data for Gas Well Gains.
48. Karen Boman, Marriage of Analytics, Engineering First Principles Needed in Oil and Gas, Rigzone, October 31, 2014,
http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/135690/Marriage_of_Analytics_Engineering_First_Principles_Needed_in_Oil_
and_Gas/?all=HG2.
49. For some operators, a significant share of wells drilled miss the sweet spots and are entirely unproductive.
50. Robert Stowe England, Will Oil Price Collapse Hit Bakken Output?, Institutional Investor, February 9, 2015, http://
www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/3425863/asset-management-macro/will-oil-price-collapse-hit-bakken-outputdont-count-on-it.html#.VRgCh0t5DRp; and Lower 48 Oil Economics Still Robust, Wood Mackenzie Says, World Oil.
51. Spears & Associates, Drilling Market Outlook, March 2015; pre-2009 data from http://investors.timkensteel.com/files/
TimkenSteel%20Investor%20Day%20Presentation_June%2019,%202014_v001_v00gh2.pdf.
52. Jeffrey Yaris, Halliburton, personal communication; 50 to 500 kB/s data rate logging while drilling. Baker Hughes maximum drill rate, 5 ft./min. = 0.1 ft./sec. => ~ 1MB/ft.
53. David Wethe, Better Fracking Through Sound-Sensing Fiber Optics, Bloomberg, July 11, 2013, http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-07-11/better-fracking-through-sound-sensing-fiber-optics.
54. Halliburton CEO Sees Recovery in Hydraulic Fracturing Market, World Oil, April 21, 2014, http://www.worldoil.com/
news/2014/4/21/halliburton-ceo-sees-recovery-in-hydraulic-fracturing-market.
55. 785 aircraft for Delta, if average 36,000 hp for Boeing 737.
56. See http://www.zdnet.com/article/healthcare-turns-to-big-data-analytics-for-improved-patient-outcomes.
57. a) Assume for 300,000 wells and average of 2 TB/well g 600 PB, http://www.matimop.org.il/uploads/general_files/
eldad_weiss_-_og_technology_conference_v1.2_-pdf.pdf; b) Ayata, private communication: 1.5 to 15 TB data per well;
c) Wethe, Better Fracking Through Sound-Sensing Fiber Opticsfiber sensor well, 15 TB/week. Eldad Weiss, Collecting and Analyzing Big Data for O&G Exploration and Production Applications, October 15, 2013, Paradigm, G&G
Technology Seminar.
58. Perry Rotella, Is Data the New Oil?, Forbes, April 2, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/sites/perryrotella/2012/04/02/isdata-the-new-oil.
59. See http://www.valuewalk.com/2011/11/bill-gates-energy-innovation.
60. EIA, Drilling Productivity Report, April 2015, http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/drilling.
61. Christoph Kost et al., Levelized Cost of Electricity: Renewable Energy Technologies, Fraunhofer Institute, November
2013, http://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en/publications/veroeffentlichungen-pdf-dateien-en/studien-und-konzeptpapiere/
study-levelized-cost-of-electricity-renewable-energies.pdf; http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy13osti/60207.pdf; Wind Plant
Cost of Energy: Past and Future, NREL, 2013, http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy13osti/57841.pdf; and Bjrn Nykvist and
Mns Nilsson, Rapidly Falling Costs of Battery Packs for Electric Vehicles, Nature, March 23, 2015, http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v5/n4/full/nclimate2564.html.
62. David Feldman et al., Photovoltaic System Pricing Trends, U.S. Department of Energy, September 22, 2014, http://
www.nrel.gov/docs/fy14osti/62558.pdf.
63. Louis Columbus, Where Big Data Jobs Will Be in2015, Forbes, December 29, 2014, http://www.forbes.com/sites/
louiscolumbus/2014/12/29/where-big-data-jobs-will-be-in-2015.
64. Karen Boman, Data Scientists in Demand in Oil, Gas to Address Big Data Challenge, Rigzone, May 5, 2014,
http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/132874/Data_Scientists_in_Demand_in_Oil_Gas_to_Address_Big_Data_
Challenge/?all=HG2.
65. Mark P. Mills, Where the Jobs Are, February 2014, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.
66. Freya Berry and Arno Schuetze, New Oil Rush? Private Equity Starts to Buy into Energy Assets, Rigzone, Reuters, February 24, 2015, http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/137369/New_Oil_Rush_Private_Equity_Starts_To_Buy_Into_Energy_Assets/?all=HG2#sthash.PLUWMEHE.dpuf.
67. Ibid.
68. Justin Scheck and Selina Williams, Non-U.S. Shales Prove Difficult to Crack: Exxon, Shell and Others Are Pulling Back
from Once-Promising Shale Finds in Europe, Asia, Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2015, http://www.wsj.com/articles/

May 2015

oil-giants-break-their-picks-trying-to-crack-non-u-s-shales-1426735258.
69. Transport and Its Infrastructure, IPCC, 2014, chap. 5, http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg3/ar4-wg3chapter5.pdf.
70. EIA International Energy Statistics, http://www.eia.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject/iedindex3.cfm?tid=5&pid=5&aid=2&cid=w
w,&syid=1986&eyid=2013&unit=TBPD.
71. EIA, OPEC marginal supply report.
72. Michelle Ye Hee Lee, You Cant Trust the Numbers on the New Fracking Regs, Washington Post, March 30, 2015,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2015/03/30/you-cant-trust-the-numbers-on-the-new-fracking-regs.
73. Edward Dodge, On Obamas Solar Ready Vets Program, April 11, 2015, Energy Collective, http://theenergycollective.com/ed-dodge/2214946/energy-quote-day-obama-s-solar-ready-vets-program?utm_source=feedburner&utm_
medium=email&utm_campaign=The+Energy+Collective+%28all+posts%29.

Shale 2.0

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Vice President,
Policy Research
Howard Husock

Fellows
Robert Bryce
Oren Cass
Peter W. Huber
James Manzi
Mark P. Mills
The Manhattan Institutes Center for Energy Policy and the Environment (CEPE) advances ideas
about the practical application of free-market economic principles to todays energy issues. CEPE
challenges conventional wisdom about energy supplies, production, and consumption, and
examines the intersection of energy, the environment, and economic and national security.
www.manhattan-institute.org/cepe
The Manhattan Institute is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions are tax-deductible to
the fullest extent of the law. EIN #13-2912529