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

[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,

[Sequoyah101]

Power?

[taildragger]

S101, Your post makes me think you are in the industry. Have you heard about sending microwave exciters down into the shale to excite the oil out? My guess is the power source would be via generator and a cable down to it...

[Red Badger]

From what I’ve seen, you can take a piece of the shale with the oil embedded in it and set it on fire just like coal. But the smell and smoke is still petroleum..........

[Sequoyah101]

Yes but it takes loads of power and some are twitchy about pollution since this stuff is shallow. Someone will crack the insitu goal maybe someday.

Like natural gas hydrates, it’s there but how to get it is the problem

[mdmathis6]

The use of Thorium reactor “ovens” could provide the long lasting, cleaner radiation, energy sorces necessary for the “heated extraction processes necessary. Water used could be recycled. It would just take national will to accomplish this!

[mdmathis6]

Future wars won’t actually be over true scarcity but CONTRIVED scarcities, fearsome rumours, specious world views, and rigid ideologies. God has given man everything we would need on this Earth (and perhaps in Space as well) including the offer of His presence in our lives but man rejects that presence. Thus our vision is clouded and short sided with men trying to be “GOD’s” over other men!

[Sequoyah101]

I would agree but there Is no will

[painter]

You can't imagine how close you are with your statement. There is “story” going around about something like this and obama is a going to use this to run for a third term,or have a proxy run for him.

[PMAS]

*

[Praxeologue]

This article concerns Green River OIL SHALE, which is currently not economically feasible, in fact far from it. Some claim extraction costs are as low as $80 per barrel, but the truth is well over $100.

SHALE OIL, on the other hand, is economically feasible. These are the deposits we hear about in the Eagle Ford, the Avalon, Bone Springs and Cline (within the Permian Basin), the Bakken and the Monterey/Santos formations.

As for why ABC News would tout oil shale, use the MSM rule that everything is political. The negatives are stuffed at the end of the article. My guess is that they are trying to portray everything as coming up roses under Obama.