Tad Patzek is Professor of Petroleum and Chemical Engineering at the Earth Sciences Division and Director of the Ali I. Al-Naimi Petroleum Engineering Center in KAUST, Saudi Arabia. Between 2008 and 2014, he was the Lois K. and Richard D. Folger Leadership Professor and Chairman of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at The University of Texas at Austin. He also held the Cockrell Regents Chair #11. Between 1990 and 2008, he was a Professor of Geoengineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining Berkeley, he was a researcher at Shell Development, a research company managed for 20 years by M. King Hubbert of the Hubbert peaks. Patzek’s current research involves mathematical and numerical modeling of earth systems with emphasis on fluid flow in soils and rocks that can be hydrofractured. He is working on the thermodynamics and ecology of human survival, and food and energy supply for humanity. His current emphasis is the use of unconventional natural gas as a fuel bridge to the possible new energy supply schemes for the world. Patzek is a coauthor of over 200 papers and reports, and a book.
The New Green Revolution, a.k.a. The Grand Transition to… ?? – Part I
How naive it is to think than the “New Green Deal” will allow us to continue our current lifestyles, just by other greener means. This, my friends in the developed, power and resource hogging countries is impossible.
August 6, 2019
Peak of Gas Production in the Barnett Shale
An ocean of ink has already been spilled on pros and cons of using Hubbert curves to model production from a large collection of wells in one or many reservoirs.
August 18, 2015
The Earth’s plants produce exactly what others eat
The enormity of the biofuel lie is such that I constantly rub my eyes and pinch myself to check if this is merely a bad dream or modern fascism has arrived.
July 3, 2013
Disruptive Technologies? Really?!
Too many experts from McKinsey and elsewhere seem to think that life is like an iPhone screen. But here is the bad news: Life does not care about iPhones, iPads, and similar.
May 30, 2013
What if there is Peak Oil?
So here is the dirty little secret of our civilization: It runs…energy per unit time…In other words, having one billion dollars in your checking account does not help you with purchasing a Rolls Royce with cash if your daily withdrawal limit is 100 dollars.
May 16, 2013
Oil in the Arctic
Picture a vast gray ocean that dissolves into gray sky pregnant with heavy dark clouds, and a gray flat sandy shore that slowly oozes up from the Chukchi Sea. On August 30, 2012, we flew close to the Burger Prospect at 500 ft above the sea level. This is the area where one day Shell will drill their first wells. The sea was dotted with ice floes, some very large. Similar floes stopped all arctic drilling by Shell in late October 2012.
January 4, 2013