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 ...
The amount of oil reportedly discovered is mind-boggling, a most auspicious, fortuitous development for America. This isn't happening tomorrow but the implications of which are huge, changes everything. Imagining the huge problems we face, particularly the budget deficit that Obama has been using as his #1 tool in destroying America the shale oil boom has the capacity to certainly ameliorate, if not eventually resolve the financial catastrophe we've been facing. I don't know how the scenario will play itself out but this discovery seems to be a godsend for us all.
Obama will make sure we can’t access it!
Countdown till it’s shut down by Obama.
10,9,8...
Oh, if it’s allowed to be drilled, once it’s in operation, countdown till China ‘collects’ it debt.
10,9,8...
Why all of a sudden are wee seeing all of these stories about abundant oil in the US and the US has more that Saudi Arabia ?
New National Wilderness Park.
Abortion!
0bama commands it in this case.
I guess peak oil got pushed out a few years....
Gotta harvest, transport, and refine it.
The EPA will say Nay, Nay, and Nay to all three.
It’s fun to dream, though. We’re rich, Granny.
I thought all the oil to be found had already been found and we were rapidly running out.
Doesn’t matter. EPA (Obama) won’t allow it.
But, but, but, what about the polar bears?
No point in drilling, we wouldn’t see the oil for ten years...
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.
The trick will be that ALL future oil/gas wells will be on government property and 99% of the royalties will go to the Feds and 1% to the state AND THEN BOTH THE STATE AND THE FEDS WILL TAX the consumers.
If not, get the Israeli's on it, I heard the Golan heights are loaded with it, and they figured out a way to extract it for $19 / barrel equivalent....
Obama will make sure we can’t access it!
well if no one tells Obama ,he’ll never know
Peak oil my a$$.
I hate to burst y’alls bubble but this is the same old oil shale that has been referred to for a long long time. It is immature kerogen. It is not mobile and has to be heated for extraction. This is the same oil shale Exxon and others tried to exploit in the Book Cliffs near Parachute, Colorado.
Been there and done that 30 years ago.
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_20543843/boom-and-bust-and-boom
The operative clause in the article is “trying to unlock”.
It is still there, the potential resource is immense. This is also the same resource that obastard just sequestered 1.6 million acres of I believe.
This is just feel good hype brought to you by your “friends” from obastardland. More feel good hopium for the proletariat. Do you want to join them in believing this crap?
Yeah, something doesn’t seem right here. The election was only one week ago and now this is news!? Did someone, within the last week, go out into a field, start drilling, and just happen upon the mother of all oil reserves? It’s pure BS. Some agenda - not sure what - is being played out here, that’s for sure, with the usual lsm bucket boys carrying for Zero.
Exactly. Before we can drill, the EPA will gave to do a 25 year study to see how this will affect the polar bears in Utah and Colorado /s
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