Posted on 03/02/2008 8:08:29 AM PST by Entrepreneur
“Since the early 1980s, oil shale was not on the U.S. energy policy agenda, and very little attention was directed at technology or energy market developments that might change the commercial prospects for oil shale.”
That is a near quote from the RAND corporation in a 2005 report entitled: “Infrastructure, Safety, and Environment.” An additional quote states: “The largest known oil shale deposits in the world are in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Estimates of oil resources now in place within the Green River Formation range from 1.5 to 1.8 trillion barrels. Not all such resources are necessarily recoverable. For potentially recoverable oil shale resources, Rand derived an upper bound of 1.1 trillion barrels of oil and a lower bound of about 500 billion barrels. It is enough to know that any amount in this range is very high. For example, the midpoint of the estimate range, 800 billion barrels, is more than triple the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Present U.S. demand for petroleum products is about 20 million barrels per day. If oil shale could be used to meet a quarter of that demand, 800 billion barrels of recoverable resources would last for more than 400 years.”
Why are we trying to relieve energy shortages with dead end programs like making ethanol from corn? We already know that the ethanol program barely scratches the surface and provides few if any advantages to the consumers or our economy. In fact, it has already driven up the cost of food.
(Excerpt) Read more at wickedlocal.com ...
Energy is not in short supply
The will to drill is in short supply
Rationality is in short supply
Freedom is increasingly in short supply
Dont get me started.
Didnt they tell us shale oil was viable at $45 a barrel?
Where is oil now? $102? Grrrrr
On the upside..
Archer Daniels Midland is making a packet!
There is another revolution that needs to be considered if we are to remain a relatively free society in charge of our own destiny.
We need to drill the livin’ crap outta that.
if you want to get really PO’d see this link:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1958548/posts
We need to drill the livin’ crap outta that.
The world is awash in oil, and at the right price there is all we need.
We should drill the livin’ crap outta that.
Good Morning Allegra
when are we going to start cooking that stuff?
I don't think it has enough oil.
You can say that again.
yep. wonder if there's anyone left to fight for it in the marketplace...
yep. wonder if there's anyone left to fight for it in the marketplace...
i guess most Americans just dont want to make all the money that oil shale can provide.. lots of money, lots, and lots of it.. and nobody wants it.. TALK ABOUT LAZY.. Who EEE..
How's thangs?
Let's see if this posts two or three times.
It's all the oil's fault.
Dont know about shale oil. Gov regulation has kept that shut down.
On the matter of Alberta oil sands SUNCOR is the company you want.
Paging Thackney
Dont know about shale oil. Gov regulation has kept that shut down.
On the matter of Alberta oil sands SUNCOR is the company you want.
Paging Thackney
The oil shale has been known since 1920. Many have been eyeing it with covetous looks ever since. Many false starts have been made.
John Robinson is using “low flow servers”
Interesting post. The jury is very much out on shale oil’s feasibility as a replacement for the petroleum we’re extracting today. The product that is found in so-called oil shale is not really oil, but it is a hydrocarbon that can be converted to a useful liquid fuel. To get it out, however, requires a lot of heat — which takes a lot of energy — and a lot of water. It’s inherently a less efficient energy source than the petroleum we’re pumping today. However the oil shale works out, the age of cheap oil is most certainly drawing to a close.
Unfortunately it has only been in the last 4 to 5 years - i.e. once global oil prices came out of a 20 year “slump” that any serious / large-scale investments have been made in 21st century technology needed to produce large volumes of shale oil.
In fact there are three large-scale demonstration projects now on progress - that if successful in proving a reasonable recovery you will see shale oil being used 10 years or so down the road. That is “after” energy firms pony up many billions in new investment and the US Congress presumably resolves a means to overcome the numerous enviromental wacko lawsuits. Older shale-oil recovery methods back in the 1980s (when first attempted) required far more water than was available to support large-scale production
Unfortunately it has only been in the last 4 to 5 years - i.e. once global oil prices came out of a 20 year “slump” that any serious / large-scale investments have been made in 21st century technology needed to produce large volumes of shale oil.
In fact there are three large-scale demonstration projects now on progress - that if successful in proving a reasonable recovery you will see shale oil being used 10 years or so down the road. That is “after” energy firms pony up many billions in new investment and the US Congress presumably resolves a means to overcome the numerous enviromental wacko lawsuits. Older shale-oil recovery methods back in the 1980s (when first attempted) required far more water than was available to support large-scale production
Where is oil now? $102? Grrrrr
If investors knew the price would stay high, we'd be building shale oil extraction plants right now.
As long as investors know Saudi has the ability to sell oil at under $10/bbl, (using Western technology, it costs <$1 to pump a barrel out of the Saudi sand) they will be reluctant to invest huge amounts of money in infrastructure.
The envronazi aren't helping either.
Where is oil now? $102? Grrrrr
If investors knew the price would stay high, we'd be building shale oil extraction plants right now.
As long as investors know Saudi has the ability to sell oil at under $10/bbl, (using Western technology, it costs <$1 to pump a barrel out of the Saudi sand) they will be reluctant to invest huge amounts of money in infrastructure.
The envronazi aren't helping either.
The President and McCnutts should be beating the hell out of the RATS with this everyday considering gas prices and what is happening to economy overall.
President Bush does not have temperment to do it and McCnutts is signed on to the Global warming lie. So we will keep sending billions to our enemies.
Good going guys. You are in a box. And we are screwed by a lack of leadership.
Regards
We need to drill the livin’ crap outta that.
Do you drill for shale oil?..... or is it recovered by other methods?
Doing our part to conserve bandwidth...
I feel like there are a lot of shenanigans going on right now. and the consumer is paying for it
Shale oil is viable at oil of $x barrel, but it would be real dollars, ie price adjusted and the price of oil would probably need to stay there for a while before the invetments would be made.
One has to suspect the Saudi’s know this too and if someone made a move to build a plant to process shale oil, they might increae production and drive back down the price of oil.
see post #33
and the US Congress presumably resolves a means to overcome the numerous enviromental wacko lawsuits.
Wasn’t the feds and enviromental issues one of the major reasons that the Shell, Gulf Oil or whichever companies they were shut down all the efforts in CO back in the 70’s or so?
And the Dems say we dont care about the earth ;)
It’s interesting to note that it takes one “H” of a lot of energy to extract the oil from the shale per my understanding of the process albeit from the 1980’s when my father was involved. He explained the process to me then. He was involved with the mining of Diatomaceous Earth at the time, which they processed for Filter Aid, and Cat Litter by burning off the oil content of the mined Earth.
I’m wondering if anyone here can explain any new processes that have been developed since that time that make it more economically viable.
Also the wars with the Greenie’s have deterred attempts to extract that oil in quantity as well.
Perhaps the most effective means to reenergize America is to turn the Greenie’s Red, White, and Blue. I cannot post the means with which to do this as I might lose my posting priviliges.
Not to worry, I saw the Hildabeast giving a fine talk in Ohio, and crying real crocodile tears about how she saw gasoline prices as high as $336/gal in the poorest parts of Ohio.
She blamed the republicans...
Not to worry, I saw the Hildabeast giving a fine talk in Ohio, and crying real crocodile tears about how she saw gasoline prices as high as $336/gal in the poorest parts of Ohio.
She blamed the republicans...
The global warming fanatics are trying to block any new source of energy that produces Co2. I sense this will be the barrier to getting Shale Oil to the market.
Yes. In 1980, they said that shale oil might be viable when oil reached $45 a barrel.
Where is oil now? $102?
Yes ..... In current Year 2008 dollars.
In 2007, it took 126.96 Year 2007 dollars to equal 45 Year 1980 dollars.
So, shale oil has not reached the viability point predicted in 1980 yet.
In-Situ Retorting. In-situ retorting entails heating oil shale in place, extracting the liquid from the ground, and transporting it to an upgrading or refining facility. Because in-situ retorting does not involve mining or aboveground spent shale disposal, it offers an alternative that does not permanently modify land surface topography and that may be significantly less damaging to the environment.
Shell Oil Company has successfully conducted small-scale field tests of an insitu process based on slow underground heating via thermal conduction. Larger-scale operations are required to establish technical viability, especially with regard to avoiding adverse impacts on groundwater quality. Shell anticipates that, in contrast to the cost estimates for mining and surface retorting, the petroleum products produced by their thermally conductive in-situ method will be competitive at crude oil prices in the mid-$20s per barrel. The company is still developing the process, however, and cost estimates could easily increase as more information is obtained and more detailed designs become available.
Extraction hasn't been feasible in the past, but new technologies make it likely in just a few years... provided we have the will.
In-Situ Retorting. In-situ retorting entails heating oil shale in place, extracting the liquid from the ground, and transporting it to an upgrading or refining facility. Because in-situ retorting does not involve mining or aboveground spent shale disposal, it offers an alternative that does not permanently modify land surface topography and that may be significantly less damaging to the environment.
Shell Oil Company has successfully conducted small-scale field tests of an insitu process based on slow underground heating via thermal conduction. Larger-scale operations are required to establish technical viability, especially with regard to avoiding adverse impacts on groundwater quality. Shell anticipates that, in contrast to the cost estimates for mining and surface retorting, the petroleum products produced by their thermally conductive in-situ method will be competitive at crude oil prices in the mid-$20s per barrel. The company is still developing the process, however, and cost estimates could easily increase as more information is obtained and more detailed designs become available.
Extraction hasn't been feasible in the past, but new technologies make it likely in just a few years... provided we have the will.
There you go ruining my fun
I don't really know much about shale oil. I really only know about the kind you get from under the ground.
And I'm in a very silly mood...not being serious about much of anything at all.
Had a bumpy morning...we're busy laughing it off. Sorry if I misled. ;-)
Did a Google on tar sand. This undated article http://ostseis.anl.gov/guide/tarsands/index.cfm says they produce a million barrels of oil per day from tar sand in Canada. I believe present technology mostly relies on reserves that can be pit mined, apparently what they are doing in Canada.
This 2004 article http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.07/oil.html says the oil from tar sand costs about $10 per barrel.
See my post #38 please. It was the last two years of the mining operation I describe that Gulf Oil had purchased the company to experiment with the extraction of oil from the Diatomaceous Earth. Yes in-other-words to your query.
I don't think it has enough oil.
Probably some older routers that your ISP is using that don't have sealed bearings.
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