Trillions of dollars worth of oil found in Australian outback

Telegraph (UK) ^ | 24 Jan 2013 | Jonathan Pearlman

[Lorianne]

Up to 233 billion barrels of oil has been discovered in the Australian outback that could be worth trillions of dollars, in a find that could turn the region into a new Saudi Arabia. _____ The discovery in central Australia was reported by Linc Energy to the stock exchange and was based on two consultants reports, though it is not yet known how commercially viable it will be to access the oil.

The reports estimated the company’s 16 million acres of land in the Arckaringa Basin in South Australia contain between 133 billion and 233 billion barrels of shale oil trapped in the region’s rocks.

It is likely however that just 3.5 billion barrels, worth almost $359 billion (£227 billion) at today’s oil price, will be able to be recovered.

The find was likened to the Bakken and Eagle Ford shale oil projects in the US, which have resulted in massive outflows and have led to predictions that the US could overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer as soon as this year.

[Smokin' Joe]

Actually, there are companies which frac using compressed natural gas, too. It could be do-able, even without millions of gallons of water.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Lorianne.

...the company’s 16 million acres of land... contain between 133 billion and 233 billion barrels of shale oil... just 3.5 billion barrels, worth almost $359 billion... at today's oil price, will be able to be recovered.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

They have an ocean a few miles away.

[JD_UTDallas]

“Actually, there are companies which frac using compressed natural gas, too. It could be do-able, even without millions of gallons of water.”

Actually those companies are using LPG gas not Methane propane and butane are the “gases” used at the pressures of fracturing they are liquids which is necessary to carry the propants which are mostly specific grain sized sands.

Hydrofracing can use salt water if the gelling agents and additives are formulated to take into account the salts in the water its hell on the pumps and pipes though so naturally one would want fresh water or brackish at best.