Posted on 01/24/2013 5:16:02 AM PST by DeaconBenjamin
Brisbane company Linc Energy says independent studies have confirmed a major shale oil source in South Australia's far north, which officials have estimated could be worth $20 trillion.
The company says US-consultants have carried out drilling and geological and seismic surveys around Coober Pedy.
Linc Energy holds rights over more than 65,000 square kilometres of land in the Arckaringa Basin and started explorations in 2008.
In a statement to the Stock Exchange, the company said reports from US-based consultants indicate underlying rock formations "are rich in oil and gas-prone kerogen".
The company says up to 233 billion barrels of oil are estimated to be trapped in the shale.
Chief executive Peter Bond says even if the amount of retrievable oil is well below that, the discovery is still "bigger than the Cooper Basin and Bass Strait combined".
"If you stress test it right down and you only took the very sweetest spots in the absolute known areas and you do nothing else, it's about 3.5 billion [barrels] and that's sort of worse-case scenario," he said.
"So if you took the 233 billion, well, you're talking Saudi Arabia numbers. It's massive, it's just huge.
"We've also spent a lot of time with our own geologists and external geologists trying to unlock what's the best option there.
"What it could do is really turn this thing into the next boom, so where you saw coal-bed methane transform Queensland and the gas industry, shale could and I think will transform South Australia and a potential oil boom."
But Mr Bond says it could cost up to $300 million to prepare the site for production.
"We've got something in excess of a billion-dollar market cap... but the issue here isn't just capital. It's the expertise to unlock the acreage as well," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at au.news.yahoo.com ...
Just when we get the f’n arab boot off our necks, we get the rat boot stomping down! Not fair!
I think water for fracking could be an issue.
Wonder what bed wetter liberals and their PhonyCon RINO buddies are saying now about Dr Jerome Corsi and WorldNetDaily WND....who wrote about the bogus “peak oil” myth?
Looks like Oz has a planet-load of petroleum in the Outback....lets hope their liberals do not sandbag its development
The Chinese are very interested in this bit of news I bet.
Ahhhh more work for Ken Salazar and Richard Windsor/aka Lisa Jackson
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