Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

An American Oil Find That Holds More Than All of OPEC (Several Times of All Oil Ever Used)
ABC News ^ | November 13, 2012 | Alan Farnham

Posted on 11/13/2012 2:12:11 PM PST by lbryce

Drillers in Utah and Colorado are poking into a massive shale deposit trying to find a way to unlock oil reserves that are so vast they would swamp OPEC.

A recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office estimated that if half of the oil bound up in the rock of the Green River Formation could be recovered it would be "equal to the entire world's proven oil reserves."

Both the GAO and private industry estimate the amount of oil recoverable to be 3 trillion barrels.

"In the past 100 years — in all of human history -- we have consumed 1 trillion barrels of oil. There are several times that much here," said Roger Day, vice president for operations for American Shale Oil (AMSO).

The Green River drilling is beginning as shale mining is booming in the U.S. and a report by the International Energy Agency predicts that the U.S. will become the world's largest oil producer by 2020. That flood of oil can have major implications for the U.S. economy as well as the country's foreign policy which has been based on a growing scarcity of oil.

The IEA report does not detail where the American oil will be coming from, but the largest deposit is the Green River formation which has yet to tapped in any significant way.

This tantalizing bonanza, however, remains just out of reach, at least for now. The cost of extracting the Green River oil at the moment would be higher than what it could be sold for. And there are significant environmental obstacles.

The operation might require so much water it would compete with Denver and agriculture for vital supplies, the GAO report warned, could pollute underground streams,

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: colorado; energy; greenriverformation; oil; oilfind; opec; shale; utah
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-90 next last
To: ilovesarah2012
I thought all the oil to be found had already been found and we were rapidly running out.

The evil greenies will always believe that. I would guess in 10 years, trillions more barrels of oil will be discovered around the world.

The world would have very cheap energy if governments would get the H*ll out of the way.

21 posted on 11/13/2012 2:39:39 PM PST by sand88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra

“New National Wilderness Park.”

“They” will find an endangered three-toed grub whose “range” happens to completely cover the area...


22 posted on 11/13/2012 2:43:33 PM PST by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Drill Thrawl

Exactly. Before we can drill, the EPA will have to do a 25 year study to see how this will affect the polar bears in Utah and Colorado /s


23 posted on 11/13/2012 2:43:33 PM PST by lowbridge (Joe Biden: "Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: thackney

Ping.


24 posted on 11/13/2012 2:43:58 PM PST by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: autumnraine

Well, it will be tree waiting for us to come to our senses. Maybe when gas hits 10 dollars a gallon.


25 posted on 11/13/2012 2:47:16 PM PST by Kozak (The Republic is dead. I do not owe what we have any loyalty, wealth or sympathy.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: lbryce

I saw the movie. He set it on fire and moved to Galts Gulch!


26 posted on 11/13/2012 2:49:51 PM PST by C. Edmund Wright ("WTF?: How Karl Rove and the Establishment Lost....Again")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PMAS

It ain’t new. Shale oil is there for the taking by anyone who can take it economically enough to make it worthwhile, and who can weather the brickbats of greenies who don’t want people to go into the shale fields, process the shale, and leave behind de-oiled shale residue.


27 posted on 11/13/2012 2:52:29 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (How long before all this "fairness" kills everybody, even the poor it was supposed to help???)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Sequoyah101
It is immature kerogen.

You are correct, but think of the marketing potential:

"It's not regular, dirty petroleum, it's GREEN petroleum!"

28 posted on 11/13/2012 2:57:39 PM PST by sima_yi ( Reporting live from the far North)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Sequoyah101

Yeah, and bait for more Solyndrazation.


29 posted on 11/13/2012 2:57:44 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (How long before all this "fairness" kills everybody, even the poor it was supposed to help???)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Sequoyah101

And from what I remember, there ain’t enough water in the West to mine the stuff and crack it.


30 posted on 11/13/2012 3:00:13 PM PST by crusty old prospector
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: lbryce

The rare gay Kenyan grasshopper rat has been discovered and the land has to be locked up


31 posted on 11/13/2012 3:00:15 PM PST by 2nd Amendment (Who is John Galt?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kozak

It will be there...


32 posted on 11/13/2012 3:00:45 PM PST by Kozak (The Republic is dead. I do not owe what we have any loyalty, wealth or sympathy.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: sima_yi

Well, the BP people already have green decoration on their gas stations.

Truly, they are welcome to try to see what they can make of the shale kerogen. But I smell more oil price manipulation (upward) in the wind.


33 posted on 11/13/2012 3:00:45 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (How long before all this "fairness" kills everybody, even the poor it was supposed to help???)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: ilovesarah2012

All the EASY oil has been found. This is the hard stuff.........


34 posted on 11/13/2012 3:01:35 PM PST by Red Badger (Lincoln freed the slaves. Obama just got them ALL back......................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: crusty old prospector

I’d ask why it has to be water at all. Why not more oil of the same kind that is being extracted. Pump in hot oil, pump out more hot oil than you had.


35 posted on 11/13/2012 3:02:38 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (How long before all this "fairness" kills everybody, even the poor it was supposed to help???)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Isn’t this rock-absorbed oil almost a sort of coal? Maybe it’s being treated all wrong.


36 posted on 11/13/2012 3:04:03 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (How long before all this "fairness" kills everybody, even the poor it was supposed to help???)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: PMAS

I think this is the $64,000 question. The obvious answer is the crap media and the election.

However, I have been thinking the last few days that this might be part of the plan. The economy is the Amateur’s Achilles heel. An economy roaring back under the auspices or supervision of our traitor occupant in the WH (can’t say it) might just cripple the GOP for all time...literally render them irrelevant. If the oil is “discovered” and “managed” by this fraud and his immoral party and they usher in a quasi-boom in the economy....how do you get them out then? Our stupid fellow citizens cannot even figure out who to vote for as their house is being foreclosed on...what do you think they’ll do when the US gov’t has trillions more to redistribute?

Did they delay announcing this so they could be the heroes who find it, develop it, and create a well funded socialist utopia?


37 posted on 11/13/2012 3:04:26 PM PST by my small voice (A biased media and an uneducated populace is the biggest threat to our nation.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: rockvillem
There’s a REASON the Obamatrons are determined to cripple “fracking” technology. God forbid we unlock huge amounts of shale gas and oil. Abundant energy would prevent us from being brought to our knees. The EPA is going to attack this imminently as a result.

Your right, not on our knees to a Saudi Puke, But to them they will not let you be free with out own resources.. They don't want you driving an SUV that can tow a boat to a lake that gets you away from their socialist conclaves they call cities, how dare you escape! How dare you drink slurpie larger than 16oz! How dare you eat french fries rather than Mooochelle apple slices.

I am in a cranky @$$ mood and I am so ticked off at these statist I need some Beck duct-tape to keep my head from exploding...

38 posted on 11/13/2012 3:04:50 PM PST by taildragger (( Tighten the 5 point harness and brace for Impact Freepers, ya know it's coming..... ))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: lbryce
I guess peak oil got pushed out a few years....

Try a few centuries. They mentioned underground streams. Just tap the streams and take the oil they leach out, except there are no underground streams.

This oil has been known for over 50 years so it is not like it is something new. Salazar killed shale oil when he was in Colorado. Simple horizontal drilling and heat can release the oil. The remaining oil could be turned into methane with bacteria.

39 posted on 11/13/2012 3:06:26 PM PST by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sequoyah101

See post 14, what do you know about using microwaves and what the Israeli’s have done?


40 posted on 11/13/2012 3:07:16 PM PST by taildragger (( Tighten the 5 point harness and brace for Impact Freepers, ya know it's coming..... ))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-90 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson