The future of clean energy is explored in the 2012 documentary film, SWITCH, which was recently shown at a screening presented by the Dallas Electric Club at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The film explores many energy hubs around the world to help viewers understand how energy is produced, how much each source is producing, the economics of energy production, and public opinion. From coal to solar and everything in between, the film puts all energy resources and production under a microscope. Director Harry Lynch told the audience that he and the film crew wanted to show a nonpartisan story on energy.

Scott Tinker, an expert on global energy reserves, policy, and geoscience, serves as the film’s narrator. As Tinker prepares to visit various energy sources around the world, he explains that the average person uses 200,000 watt hours every year. Tinker uses the number of watt hours used by one person every year to measure the output and production of every energy source he visits. For example, Tinker visits Perdido in the Gulf of Mexico, the world’s deepest offshore oil drilling and production platform that produces enough energy from natural resources to meet the power needs of one million people per year while a wind farm with 4,000 windmills in Denmark can power 340,000 people per year.

The film helps viewers understand that energy extraction from every source doesn’t come without its challenges and tradeoffs. There are costs to every energy source and the challenge is creating clean energy at a cost that is acceptable to the public. The film asserts that the goal for our species moving forward is to produce clean energy at a reasonable cost.

Astonishing technological advances have been made over the years, moving us closer to our clean energy goal. But the current technology and methods of capturing, storing, and using this clean energy are often too expensive to be embraced globally. For instance, we have the knowledge and capabilities to capture and store carbon dioxide emitted by coal-fired power plants to produce “clean coal,” but doing so on a large scale requires more funding money and the resources to capture the carbon dioxide.

Energy transportation is viewed as another major issue contributing to the high cost of clean energy. How do we transport the energy from its source, and at what cost? And it isn’t just financial questions that are raised. Are we willing to erect potentially unsightly windmills in major metropolitan areas to power every home, or can power lines be used on 100-year old family farm to transfer energy across cities?

The film reaches a close as Tinker begins to subtract from his 200,000 watt hours of energy use per year by installing energy efficient lights and insulation in his home. Not surprisingly, we rely extensively on “dirty energy” such as coal and fossil fuels; the cheapest energy is the dirtiest energy. The transition to clean energy can be made, but the film tells us it will likely require the use of natural gas and nuclear energy in combination with renewable energy, a crossover of foundational energy and the energy of the future.

But before we can begin to make the transition, the film urges society to start changing its energy behavior and the way energy is viewed.  Changing society’s energy behavior is the most important part of the future of energy. Not everyone needs to install solar panels on their homes to provide them with electricity, but seeing homes with solar panels will get people to consider conservation in a different light.  Focusing on energy efficiency is the first step toward meeting our energy goals.

The oil and gas industry is the leading industry for job creation in the United States. Recent studies have shown that the oil and gas industry job growth is not only the fastest growing industry in the U.S. but also has added the most number of jobs since 2007 with no signs of slowing down.

Unemployment concerns have badgered Americans for several years. In August 2013, overall unemployment and job growth in the U.S. dropped to its lowest point since December 2008. Despite the drop, employment in the oil and gas industry has seen huge gains. As new drilling technology continues to be developed and new shale plays are discovered, the results are large employment increases in the oil and gas industry.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration has reported jobs in the oil and gas industry increased 40 percent while total U.S private sector employment increased by only one percent from the beginning of 2007 through 2012.  By the end of 2012, jobs related to drilling wells accounted for more than 90,000 jobs, oil and gas extraction and exploration accounted for 193,000 jobs, and oil and gas support made up more than 286,000 jobs in the United States, a very impressive overall effect on the economy.

For a 10-year period, service operators and petroleum engineers were among the ten fastest growing jobs in the U.S. Service unit operators working in natural gas extraction represented the  fastest growing job in the country from 2002 to 2012.  Service operator job growth has increased by 335 percent since 2002. Service operators make a median annual pay of $41,000 a year. The second fastest growing occupation in the U.S. is petroleum engineering, which has grown 227 percent from 2002 through 2012.

Aside from employing hundreds of thousands of workers, the oil and gas industry has also added close to $75 billion in state and federal revenues and contributed $283 billion to the U.S. GDP in 2012. It’s safe to say that the oil and gas industry is creating jobs and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. In fact, by 2020, oil and gas industry employment in the U.S. is expected to grow from 2.1 million to an estimated 3.3 million.

There Will Be Blood is a 2007 American drama written and directed by Paul Thomas. The film stars Daniel Day Lewis, who won the Oscar for the Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of Daniel Plainview. The film itself won the Oscar for Best Achievement in Cinematography and was nominated for six more Oscars, including Best Motion Picture of the Year, making it one of the most successful oil industry films in history.

There Will Be Blood covers the tale of oil discovery and drilling in the United States. The film takes place during the late 1800s into the early 1900s and tells the story of oilman Daniel Plainview, who travels to Little Boston, California to purchase land to drill for oil and grow his oil empire. He meets with townspeople and landowners to discuss purchasing their land and what he and his workers aim to do on their property in terms of oil discovery. Plainview’s hard work and relentless land and oil rights acquisitions lead him to success and wealth.

The movie highlights the dangers of oil drilling during a time when drilling equipment and techniques were not as advanced as they are today, both in technology and safety. In the film’s opening scene, Plainview is seen lowering himself down into a well he is digging by hand. Plainview, alone, falls to the bottom of the well where he becomes injured and unable to stand, but finds rock containing precious minerals. As the well begins to produce oil, we witness the pulley system, consisting of a large log with ropes and wheels covering the opening of the well, collapse and fall to the bottom of the well, crushing and killing the workers inside.

One of the workers who dies in the well left behind a son, who Plainview then adopts as his own. Later in the movie, when Plainview’s son is an adult, we learn that Plainview only took the boy in so that he would seem like a “family man” and landowners would be more likely to sell them their drilling rights.

One of the most fascinating aspects of this film is how it shows the evolution of the oil industry and oil drilling technology in the United States. As the movie progresses, we see how oil production evolves from extracting oil and digging wells by hand to the use of more modern technology such as the  steam-powered well.

The title of the movie becomes more and more fitting as the story progresses. Plainview also kills or betrays characters throughout the movie to acquire their land while many characters meet grim outcomes in the drilling process. Unfortunately, both are reflections of the time. Anyone involved in the oil industry in some form would do well to watch There Will Be Blood, and understand how far the industry has come.

When you mention oil production in the United States, most people think of Texas, Oklahoma, Alaska and perhaps North Dakota due to the recent, massive Bakken Shale development there.  These states currently rank 1^st, 5^th, 3^rd and 2^nd respectively in producing barrels of oil per day.  Rarely will California be mentioned.  However, the most populous state in the country, the leading user of solar energy and leading producer of fruits, nuts, vegetables and wine, produces over 525,000 barrels of oil per day — ranking it 4^th in oil production.

Those in the know and those that live in California would be quick to tell you that Kern County, California has been and still is producing large volumes of oil and gas. Located at the southern end of the California Central Valley, oil development began in southwestern Kern County with the 1894 discovery of the Midway-Sunset field, now the 3^rd largest oil field in the United States.  Yet it was an 1899 discovery along the Kern River, today part of the giant Kern River Oil Field, that was the breakthrough in Kern County’s oil production.  The Kern River Field has produced more than 2 billion barrels of oil to date, also making it one of the top oil fields in the country.   In fact, the U.S. Energy Information Administration ranks four Kern County fields in the top 15 U.S. oil fields in proved reserves:  Midway-Sunset, Kern River, South Belridge and Elk Hills.  Kern County also produces a significant amount of natural gas and leads California in both oil and natural gas production with 75 percent and 58 percent of statewide production respectively.

The oil fields in Kern County are situated mainly in the western portion of the county, allowing forestry, residential and commercial aspects of the county to thrive without the oil fields interfering, and vice versa. Kern County has 37 high-efficiency cogeneration facilities, which play a vital role in the area’s oil-producing operations. Producing two sources of energy in the form of steam and electricity, these facilities allow heavy oil to flow and be produced efficiently, economically and with reduced air emissions.

If you have royalty interests in Kern County, we’d love to talk to you about your options. Oil prices are peaking and natural gas prices have remained steadily higher than a few years ago, which means it’s a great time to sell your interests and maximize your gain. Waiting too long may limit the amount you can receive for your interests.  Please contact us if you have any questions about selling your oil and gas royalties.