Summary and Final Tasks

Summary

The upstream side of energy production has many moving parts and receives a lot of attention between leasing, drilling, fracturing, production, and associated economic impacts. There are many technical considerations to determine the best location to drill, how to drill the wells, and the best hydraulic fracturing techniques in order to maximize the production of oil and gas. The better the product, the more profits a company makes, the more royalties a landowner gets, and the bigger the economic impact in a region. Shale energy development requires significant investment to acquire land and drill and develop wells for production and can have big payoffs for the stakeholders. The technologies used are really pretty amazing and have changed the game for the United States' energy picture for the next several decades. Now that we have a good handle on the technical side of developing shale energy we are going to look at the mid-stream side of how to move the gas from the wells to the marketplace and then consider some of the environmental aspects to make sure we understand the potential impact on our other natural resources.

Reminder - Complete all of the Lesson 6 tasks!

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