In the American west: An ocean of oil

[Lovebears65]

In the American west: An ocean of oil « Hot Air

 

[Douger]

And most of the land own by your masters who will lease to their bosses and sell to the highest bidder. How might you benefit ? Gitcha wunna them thar jobza drin a trook ! Hoo Dawgy !
Ecuador. Per gallon. in USD. Don't EVER expect that in duh land of the Fee and the home of duh Slave.

 

[bucs90]

But but but how can Al Gore and the greenies get rich off green energy if we keep finding more oil?

 

[uscitizen]

You mean the shale oil? The stuff that is not feasable to get/process unless gas is around $4/gal or higher?

 

[Douger]

You mean the shale oil? The stuff that is not feasable to get/process unless gas is around $4/gal or higher?

That's the stuff ! The Chinese will buy the shit out of it. Hell, maybe they should just take the land as partial payment on a never ending loan and process it themselves.

 

[BlindBoo]

The Difference Between Oil Shale and Oil from Shale Formations

There has been some confusion lately about the overall extent of U.S. oil reserves. Some claim that the U.S. has hundreds of billions or even trillions of barrels of oil waiting to be produced if the Obama Administration will simply stop blocking development. So, I thought it might be a good idea to elaborate somewhat on the issue.

...........

To summarize, let’s review the definitions for the important terms discussed here:

Oil resource — the total amount of oil in place, most of which can’t be recovered

Oil reserve — the amount of oil that can be recovered economically with existing technology

Oil shale — sedimentary rock that contains solid hydrocarbons called kerogen (e.g., Green River Formation)

Shale oil — the oil that can be obtained by cooking kerogen

Tight oil — liquid hydrocarbons that are obtained by hydraulic fracturing of shale formations (e.g., Bakken Formation and Eagle Ford Formation)

Conclusion: Resources are not Reserves, and Tight Oil isn’t Shale Oil
It is pretty clear that at current oil prices, developments in the tight oil formations will continue. It is not at all clear that even at $100 oil the shale in the Green River formation will be commercialized to produce oil. In order to commercially convert the oil shale into oil, a much less energy intensive method of producing it must be found (or, one would have to have extremely cheap energy and abundant water supplies to drive the process). My prediction is that despite having an oil shale resource that may contain the energy equivalent of 2 trillion barrels of oil, the reserve will continue to be zero for quite some time because there are too many technical hurdles to overcome to realize a commercially viable process.

Setting the Record Straight on U.S. Oil Reserves

 

[Staidhup]

Agreed, the technology has yet to be perfected to reduce the cost of refining, however, those on the green side of the equation will never let this see the light of day regardless if the technology is developed to make it a viable economic player on the world stage because it's all about green energy and the left can't stand being proven they are wrong once again. Expect a major cat fight over this one. The key question is will it become viable, and the answer is yes, furthermore, it will not need government funding to become a reality.

What should be apparent is that when the world recovers from the current recession demand for energy from developing countries will force prices higher where by existing R&D investment in technology will be a beneficiary.

Once the technology and world demand is realized the royalties alone received by states and the federal government would be astronomical.