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  3. It is a blazing morning in the Permian basin, in west Texas, America’s most

It is a blazing morning in the Permian basin, in west Texas, America’s most

游客2023-12-30  8
问题     It is a blazing morning in the Permian basin, in west Texas, America’s most productive oilfield. On the high plains a rig gnaws at rock more than 3, 000 feet (0.9km) underground. When the drill bit reaches about a mile and a half in depth, nearly six times the height of the Empire State Building, it will munch its way sideways for another two miles. Then comes the interesting part. After completing one horizontal well, the towering rig will rise virtually intact, shuffle forward for about an hour, then prepare to drill again.
    Such walking rigs are one way that Concho Resources, the company which owns the well, seeks to extract more oil, more efficiently. Concho is not alone. The shale industry has made America the world’s top producer of crude oil. But as the world becomes more dependent on American oil, American oil is becoming more dependent on the Permian Basin, which spans about 75, 000 square miles across west Texas and southeastern New Mexico. On the surface, the natural landscape is all but barren. But underground lies layer upon layer of shale rich with oil and gas. A geological millefeuille. The region accounted for 30% of America’s oil production in July, up from 23% two years earlier.
    The Permian and other American shale basins had already been drilled for decades using conventional wells. Then after the financial crisis of 2007-08 low interest rates helped companies deploy new techniques on well after well: they drilled horizontally, then pummeled shale with sand and water, a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or tracking, until the rock relinquished its oil and gas.
    Because about 80% of a shale well’s production occurs within two years of tracking, firms kept buying oil rights and drilling. In 2014 the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), fed up with giddy American production, declined to curb its own output. Having soared to $115 in June 2014, the price of Brent crude oil plunged to $29 a barrel in January 2016. Since 2015 Texas alone has seen 71 bankruptcies of exploration-and-production firms, says Haynes and Boone, a law firm.
    As a result, investors’ appetite for growth for growth’s sake has waned. Shale companies now claim to have changed how they operate. Take Pioneer Natural Resources. In 2015 David Einhorn, a prominent short-seller, unkindly labelled Pioneer a "mother-fracker" for its profligate ways. Today Timothy Dove, the firm’s chief executive, tempers his bullishness about the Permian with more attention to costs. Pioneer is selling assets so it can center its business entirely in the Permian, where Mr. Dove says he can drill most economically. Executives are being paid for returns as well as rising output.
    Companies such as Pioneer and Concho are also revising techniques in the field.
    Fracking recovers only about 8-10% of oil in shale. "If you can actually go from 10% to 12%, that’s a 20% increase in the amount of oil you’re recovering, " says Mr. Dove. So firms are drilling several wells on a single site, to reduce drilling time and costs, and then blasting wells with more water and sand, to extract more oil. Concho is continuously testing optimal ways to frack, for instance by targeting one section of a well, then a section of another nearby, then returning to the first well for more fracking.
    However, investment discipline remains patchy. According to analysis by Sanford@C@Bernstein, a research firm, which examined the most recent quarterly results of American exploration and production companies, nine of the biggest dozen firms, including Concho and Pioneer, had cashflow from operations that exceeded capital spending (and Pioneer, just barely). Among the dozen smallest companies reviewed, only three earned more than they spent.
    Even with high oil prices, now at around $80, the industry faces new pressures. Pipelines from the Permian are jammed with crude. New ones will open late next year, yet other problems will persist. Oil service firms slashed their rates after the most recent crash, but those prices are creeping up. Mr. Trump’s tariffs on imported steel will make equipment more expensive. The cost of hiring and housing workers is soaring.  [br] Which of the following can be inferred from Paragraph 1 and 2?
选项 A、West Texas is the most productive oilfield of America.
B、The drill bit will first reach about a mile and a half in depth, and then drill for another two miles in depth.
C、America is the world’s top producer of crude oil because of its walking rigs.
D、On the surface, the Permian Basin is barren, but underneath it is rich in oil and gas.
答案 D
解析 本题定位至第1、2段。第1段第一句的大意为：这是位于得克萨斯州西部帕米亚盆地的一个炎热的早晨，这里是美国产量最高的油田。由此可知，位于得克萨斯州西部的帕米亚盆地为产量最高的油田，而不是得克萨斯西部，因此A项错误。第1段第三句话的意思是：当钻头的深度达到约1．5英里(约为帝国大厦高度的六倍)时，它将再向侧边钻两英里。由此可知，B项“钻头先钻大约一英里半深，然后再钻两英里的深度”表述错误。第2段第三句话的大意为：页岩工业使美国成为世界上最大的原油生产国。由此可知，C项“移动油井使美国成为世界上最大的原油生产国”错误。第2段第五、六句话的意思是：表面看来，自然景观几近贫瘠，但是地下却有一层又一层富含石油和天然气的页岩。其表述与D项一致，答案为D。
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