The flowcharts listed below were developed as part of the Geothermal Regulatory Roadmap project.

The flowcharts cover the major requirements for developing geothermal energy, including, land access, exploration and drilling, plant construction and operation, transmission siting, water resource acquisition, and relevant environmental considerations.

See: http://en.openei.org/wiki/Texas/Geothermal#Regulatory_Roadmap

Houston-based Falcon Group , in partnership with Houston-based Grand Beach Development, is planning a luxury gated community on the eastern end of Galveston.

The development, named the Estates of Grand Beach, features 10 beachfront lots, ranging in size from about two to four acres each. In addition, each lot boasts a minimum of 190 feet of beachfront.

The price point for these luxury homes starts at $1.5 million per lot and offers full-time security and direct beach access and is expected to include usage of a private helipad.

The lead architect for the project is Houston-based Kirksey Architects, and a general contractor has not yet been announced.

See rendering: http://bizj.us/sk481/i/2

Even with oil prices high, drillers are struggling to make real profits off the U.S. shale boom.

You’d think that with drillers getting better, honing techniques and driving down costs, that a 20% increase in investment would bring about a more than commensurate increase in oil and gas production volumes, right? And yet according to Ernst & Young, total U.S. oil and gas production was up “just” 13% on the year.

Oil and gas companies have spent hundreds of billions acquiring acreage, drilling wells, booking reserves, boosting supplies, but in 2012 they proved too good at their job, found too much gas and cratered the gas price.

That basically means that natural gas reserves that were worth $26 billion the previous year became worthless because it cost too much to drill them. This led to a 58% decline in after-tax profits in 2012 over 2011. And you’d better believe the same thing could happen to oil reserves.

There are plenty of reasons why oil prices should be heading up, not down. But it’s worth thinking about what could happen to the American Oil Boom if oil prices slipped just 10-15% from where they are now.

Oil drilling is generating hundreds of billions of dollars of value to the United States right now, in terms of jobs and equipment, and especially the benefit to the national balance of payments of not having to spend $200 billion a year buying foreign oil. But it must be said that when you take into account all the costs incurred in acquiring and developing unconventional oil fields today, many plays are already balanced on the knife-edge of profitability, and any down draft in oil pricing could dry up activity real quick.

The cartel announced that it would “study” the shale oil issue. “If OPEC hopes to maintain any semblance of its cartel pricing power now would be the time for its members to boost their oil output, drive prices down, bankrupt marginal American producers and regain market share for the long-term,” says Ed Hirs, a lecturer in energy economics at the University of Houston, and a member of the Yale Graduates In Energy study group.

If U.S. oil supply growth keeps up at the pace of the last two years, we could add 1 million bpd before the end of 2014. “In short, if OPEC simply declines to reduce its own production quotas in the face of growing U.S. oil volumes, the American producers could grow themselves right out of the

money,” says Hirs.

What’s more, the researchers found an “ unprecedented” jump in the marginal costs of U.S. fields, from $89 a barrel in 2011 to $114 a barrel in 2012. This implies that some U.S. producers were losing money on oil they brought to market — and doing so knowingly, says Bernstein.

Howard Newman, legendary private equity maven behind Pinebrook Road Partners said in a recent talk at Yale that most shale oil fields in the U.S. can still generate a return at $80 a barrel, but that if prices slipped below that producers would cut capital investment in marginal plays to preserve balance sheet strength.

The flowcharts listed below were developed as part of the Geothermal Regulatory Roadmap project.

The flowcharts cover the major requirements for developing geothermal energy, including, land access, exploration and drilling, plant construction and operation, transmission siting, water resource acquisition, and relevant environmental considerations.

See: http://en.openei.org/wiki/Texas/Geothermal#Regulatory_Roadmap

Houston-based Falcon Group , in partnership with Houston-based Grand Beach Development, is planning a luxury gated community on the eastern end of Galveston.

The development, named the Estates of Grand Beach, features 10 beachfront lots, ranging in size from about two to four acres each. In addition, each lot boasts a minimum of 190 feet of beachfront.

The price point for these luxury homes starts at $1.5 million per lot and offers full-time security and direct beach access and is expected to include usage of a private helipad.

The lead architect for the project is Houston-based Kirksey Architects, and a general contractor has not yet been announced.

See rendering: http://bizj.us/sk481/i/2

Even with oil prices high, drillers are struggling to make real profits off the U.S. shale boom.

You’d think that with drillers getting better, honing techniques and driving down costs, that a 20% increase in investment would bring about a more than commensurate increase in oil and gas production volumes, right? And yet according to Ernst & Young, total U.S. oil and gas production was up “just” 13% on the year.

Oil and gas companies have spent hundreds of billions acquiring acreage, drilling wells, booking reserves, boosting supplies, but in 2012 they proved too good at their job, found too much gas and cratered the gas price.

That basically means that natural gas reserves that were worth $26 billion the previous year became worthless because it cost too much to drill them. This led to a 58% decline in after-tax profits in 2012 over 2011. And you’d better believe the same thing could happen to oil reserves.

There are plenty of reasons why oil prices should be heading up, not down. But it’s worth thinking about what could happen to the American Oil Boom if oil prices slipped just 10-15% from where they are now.

Oil drilling is generating hundreds of billions of dollars of value to the United States right now, in terms of jobs and equipment, and especially the benefit to the national balance of payments of not having to spend $200 billion a year buying foreign oil. But it must be said that when you take into account all the costs incurred in acquiring and developing unconventional oil fields today, many plays are already balanced on the knife-edge of profitability, and any down draft in oil pricing could dry up activity real quick.

The cartel announced that it would “study” the shale oil issue. “If OPEC hopes to maintain any semblance of its cartel pricing power now would be the time for its members to boost their oil output, drive prices down, bankrupt marginal American producers and regain market share for the long-term,” says Ed Hirs, a lecturer in energy economics at the University of Houston, and a member of the Yale Graduates In Energy study group.

If U.S. oil supply growth keeps up at the pace of the last two years, we could add 1 million bpd before the end of 2014. “In short, if OPEC simply declines to reduce its own production quotas in the face of growing U.S. oil volumes, the American producers could grow themselves right out of the

money,” says Hirs.

What’s more, the researchers found an “ unprecedented” jump in the marginal costs of U.S. fields, from $89 a barrel in 2011 to $114 a barrel in 2012. This implies that some U.S. producers were losing money on oil they brought to market — and doing so knowingly, says Bernstein.

Howard Newman, legendary private equity maven behind Pinebrook Road Partners said in a recent talk at Yale that most shale oil fields in the U.S. can still generate a return at $80 a barrel, but that if prices slipped below that producers would cut capital investment in marginal plays to preserve balance sheet strength.