Peak Oil is dead — or at least the website dedicated to educating the world on the theory is, as the popular Oil Drum website will cease publishing new content at end of the month. The theory just doesn’t seem to have much relevance these days, when North America is in the midst of a massive energy production boom. While we are a long way from celebrating Energy Independence Day, we’ve at least pushed back the date when Peak Oil will again become a major topic of conversation. With that as context, let’s look at five of the companies that have made Peak Oil no longer relevant.
Oil production hasn’t dried up as fast as once thought. Photo credit: Flickr
The nation’s No. 2 natural gas producer is really the main company to point the finger at when it comes to bringing down Peak Oil. In discovering many of the top unconventional natural gas plays, the company’s prolific use of fracking technology helped spark the move into oil and liquids production from shale. Today, Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) is focused on balancing its production by increasing the amount of unconventional oil it produces. That focus led to 22% year-over-year increase in oil production for the company, as it has developed its acreage in the Eagle Ford, Granite Wash, and Mississippi Lime. Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) has a massive inventory of future wells, which should keep it very busy over the next decade.
Speaking of the Mississippian, SandRidge Energy Inc. (NYSE:SD)
is one of the biggest advocates of that emerging oil play. The company expects the play to deliver 64% year-over-year oil production growth, which will enable its total oil production to grow by 19% this year. SandRidge Energy Inc. (NYSE:SD) has leased about 1.85 million net acres in the Mississippian, which gives it more than a decade of oil production growth opportunities.
Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD)
Not only have we seen many new oil fields such as the Bakken and Eagle Ford emerge, but older oil fields such as the Permian Basin continue to be the gift that keeps on giving. They’ve helped companies such as Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) enjoy double-digit production growth over the past few years. New technologies have helped it unlock additional areas of this prolific basin to the point where the company sees the potential for 40,000 future drilling locations and the potential to recover 7 billion barrels of oil equivalent. In fact, it’s believed the Sparberry/Wolfcamp field could be the second largest oil field in the world, with nearly 50 billion barrels of oil equivalent reserves.
In addition to all the great U.S. oil plays, we simply can’t forget about the massive oil finds by our neighbors to the North. Among the many examples, the Canadian oil sands helped Devon Energy Corp (NYSE:DVN) deliver 14% oil production growth last quarter. Looking ahead, the company sees its oil production from the oil sands growing by up to 19% annually through 2020. When combined with its strong position in the Permian, as well as an emerging position in the Mississippian, Devon Energy Corp (NYSE:DVN) has strong, highly visible future oil production growth potential.
Final Foolish thoughts
Oil production growth in North America has been truly amazing. Further, as seen from this handful of examples, these companies have very visible oil production growth opportunities to keep them busy for at least the next decade. It’s that growth potential that really is what has put Peak Oil out to pasture.
The article 5 Companies That Brought Down Peak Oil originally appeared on Fool.com is written by Matt DiLallo.
Fool contributor Matt DiLallo owns shares of SandRidge Energy and also has short September 2013 $5 puts on SandRidge Energy. The Motley Fool owns shares of Devon Energy and has options on Chesapeake Energy.
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