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 ...
Maybe because now 0zero clearly owns this economy and they have got no other plan.
Maybe because now 0zero clearly owns this economy and they have got no other plan.
“I guess peak oil got pushed out a few years....”
Not only that, but peak oil is a myth. It is entirely likely that NEW oil continues to be made every day from molten lava, not dinosaur poop.
Too Bad!
Once modern US technology begins to focus on the promising oil finds in the low cost countries, this find may be small in relation to the unfound oil fields in third world areas.
Yet, a barrel in the ground, over human posterity, will be worth more than an oil tanker in the near future bush!
That's what they've been saying for at least 30 years.
So, is THIS the “peak oil” they’ve been talking about for all this time ?
Where the frack did all those dinosaurs come from?
Sweet, sweet dino-sex....all to the tunes of Barry White.
Technology always improves. So long as “men of the mind” can think and dream then nothing is impossible.
Unfortunately, Obama places a dunce camp.
Good. Let's not give that SOB credit for a healthy economy.
Been there near about fifty years ago. Did my undergrad work in Colorado. A professor took us there and the rocks in the
fire ring burned. Ah we couldn’t even take a beer along on the outing.
OBTW the smell of the burning rocks was rather overpowering.
Caddis
http://m.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2005/RAND_MG414.sum.pdf
I hereby dub this oil find the Colorado-Utah Reserve for Animal Preservation, CRAP for short. This “pristine” wilderness is a vital source of natural heritage that should remain unspoiled by rapacious BIG OIL fiends who just want to poison all the kittens and puppies.
-Pres. Obama Signing Statement, Executive Order Entitled “The Presidential Destroy America Initiative” of 2012.
And it loses all the water.
OK I looked. No diagram of a retorting process unfortunately.
A casual reference to minerals in spent shale appears to look ominous. While the oil is in the shale it keeps the minerals from getting washed out. But afterward the degreased shale can leach biologically toxic minerals. Greenies are going to have a cow over this, unless the Won Twice tells them to close their yappers whereupon they WILL obey.
N.V. is poking fun at them.
If this thing gets underway then it will show once more that given the political will, little else stands in the way. A big IF, of course. I’d not be surprised however if there is a concerted attempt to use solar before its prime, and once more we get taxpayer fattened bust after bust after bust.
I understand N&V’s sarcasm.
You are correct.
The Green River oil shales are mainly near the surface or in outcrop, and need to be cooked to extract the oil. Whether in situ or mined and heated in a kiln, the process is expensive and not likely to get anything other than research approval in the near future. Large scale surface mining is highly unlikely with current environmental laws.
Unocal had a mining/extraction project at Parachute, CO in the 80s, which shut down when oil prices collapsed in '86.
Water Consumption. About three barrels of water are needed per barrel of shale oil produced. Water availability analyses for oil shale development were conducted in the early 1980s. These analyses indicated that the earliest constraining factors would be limitations in local water supply systems, such as reservoirs, pipelines, and groundwater development. A bigger issue is the impact of a strategic-scale oil shale industry on the greater Colorado River Basin. Demands for water are expected to continue to grow for the foreseeable future, making the earlier analyses regarding oil shale development outdated.
I guess you know what clinker is then?
prediction...the endangered albino ear mite, that only lives in the ear of the homo sexual, half-black african rat, will be found to be more important than recovering that oil...
same goes for any other energy sources in our future, unless its subsidized/grafted wind and solar...
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