US Oil Shale Reserves

[Codiac]

Not sure if this has been discussed in other threads but I didn't see it anywhere. The US has a huge reserve of oil in the form of Oil Shale in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. The known recoverable reserves are in the the trillions of barrels and really conservative estimates show it at over 500 billion barrels which is 3 times large than the reserves in Saudi Arabia. It's harder to get at and produce than conventional drilling but it is supposed to be profitable at around the $30 to $40 per/barrel mark. Man it sure would be nice if the US would bring this area on line so we could be producing 3 million barrels per/day of domestic oil production in the next 15 to 20 years. That might change the face of the world oil economy and be a viable source of oil for 100's of years. Here's a few links to articles written on this subject.

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2005/RAND_MG414.pdf

Oil from a stone - Oct. 31, 2007

Read and discuss!

[ramoine]

I read where Canada is starting to develope the same thing .
Good reading , thanks for the links .

[turnandburn]

Interesting read. For an operation like that, the biggest problem that i see would be, to produce 1 bbl of oil you need 3bbls of water they would use up 9million bbls of water for every 3 million bbls of oil every day. I wonder where the water is going to come from. The Colorado river?. Thats a lot of water. The second problem people will have is the devastation to the land scape, its not going to be pretty. On the plus side it will be a major boost to the US economy, and lots of enployment opportunities, which is always a good thing. It will be interesting if they proceed with this development.

[turnandburn]

Originally Posted by ramoine

I read where Canada is starting to develope the same thing .
Good reading , thanks for the links .

In northern Alberta they are producing Oil sands, I don't know if thats the same as oil shale, but either way they use the same process to produce. We have being producing this oil sands for years now, im not sure how long but i would say at least 15 years or more.

[Toxarch]

Congress had a study done to determine what gasoline prices SHOULD be. They determined it should be just over $2 right now. Speculation pricing and commodities trading by people outside the industry are the ones driving up the price. They are talking about ending speculation pricing and requiring people who trade in oil to have a place to put the oil if they buy it. That will lower the price of oil back down to what it should be.

There is no shortage of oil being shipped out of the middle-east. Iran had so much oil stored up waiting for buyers, they ran out of room on land storage tanks and had to store it on tankers in the gulf. Saudi Arabia was doing the same thing. They have the oil available, they are just waiting for buyers. Oil should not be as high as it is.

[Codiac]

Originally Posted by turnandburn

In northern Alberta they are producing Oil sands, I don't know if thats the same as oil shale, but either way they use the same process to produce. We have being producing this oil sands for years now, im not sure how long but i would say at least 15 years or more.

Many of the articles written on the US Oil Shale is compared to the Oil Sands in Alberta. A very similar process but there are a bunch of newer technologies being developed to reduce the amount of damage to the surrounding landscape. Shell is testing a new process that heats the rock and forces the Kerogen out of the ground. To contain any damage to the water they are using a Freeze wall as a containment barrier. They also are saying that they have a new way to reduce the amount of water needed for each barrel of oil produced. Currently Canada is ranked #2 in the world for proven oil reserves behind Saudi Arabia and their Oil Sands are part of this equation from what I can tell. Canada did the right thing by persuing their Oil Sands even when oil prices bottomed out. Most things I have read show Canada has been producing and developing Oil Sands for around 30 years now. They have greatly improved the process since the begining and I think the US should follow their model to start producing our own Oil Shale.

Imagine.....The Unites States and Canada holding and producing the largest oil reserves on the planet....That sure would change things wouldn't it.

[turnandburn]

Originally Posted by Toxarch

Congress had a study done to determine what gasoline prices SHOULD be. They determined it should be just over $2 right now. Speculation pricing and commodities trading by people outside the industry are the ones driving up the price. They are talking about ending speculation pricing and requiring people who trade in oil to have a place to put the oil if they buy it. That will lower the price of oil back down to what it should be.

There is no shortage of oil being shipped out of the middle-east. Iran had so much oil stored up waiting for buyers, they ran out of room on land storage tanks and had to store it on tankers in the gulf. Saudi Arabia was doing the same thing. They have the oil available, they are just waiting for buyers. Oil should not be as high as it is.

x2 on that. There's no reason the price of oil should be as high as it is.

[Codiac]

Originally Posted by Toxarch

Congress had a study done to determine what gasoline prices SHOULD be. They determined it should be just over $2 right now. Speculation pricing and commodities trading by people outside the industry are the ones driving up the price. They are talking about ending speculation pricing and requiring people who trade in oil to have a place to put the oil if they buy it. That will lower the price of oil back down to what it should be.

There is no shortage of oil being shipped out of the middle-east. Iran had so much oil stored up waiting for buyers, they ran out of room on land storage tanks and had to store it on tankers in the gulf. Saudi Arabia was doing the same thing. They have the oil available, they are just waiting for buyers. Oil should not be as high as it is.

You hit the nail on the head!! I still think the US should be looking into this Oil Shale. We need a backup plan and we obviously have a HUGE amount of oil to tap into if needed. If we quietly start building the infrastructure now we will be prepared and producing when oil from the GULF does start to slow down. I also think that finding other energy sources and producing more efficient modes of transport are part of the equation BUT oil is here to stay for some time and we need to have a more reliable source.

I think the oil bubble is going to burst pretty soon though!

[turnandburn]

Some pics of the oil sands here in Alberta. I hope that if the US goes through with this, they can find ways to reduce the impact.

Codiac, Im sure that your government will produce this oil, but your right, if they don't produce it right away, its nice to know that the reserves are there.

The bubble will burst, but not for a very long time i hope.(the Oilfield pays my bills) Oil is what makes the world go round right now. And that will not change until the last drop is produced.

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[Codiac]

The Oil Shale process that Shell is developing won't be open pit mining like the Oil Sands. They are going to basically speed up the process that mother nature uses to produce oil....HEAT and pressure to force the product out. I don't think the bubble burst is going to hurt you. I think prices will fall but not enough to put you out of work. Here is a scary article on Saudi Arabia's Ghawar oil field. It may not be the giant any longer but who knows for sure..they won't let anyone verify their claims but their production is falling.

Ghawar

[Codiac]

Another thought....Venezuala's oil reserves also include heavy oils much like the oil sands of Canada. This "Heavy Oil" is the future of oil production for the world...IMHO

[turnandburn]

Originally Posted by Codiac

The Oil Shale process that Shell is developing won't be open pit mining like the Oil Sands. They are going to basically speed up the process that mother nature uses to produce oil....HEAT and pressure to force the product out. I don't think the bubble burst is going to hurt you. I think prices will fall but not enough to put you out of work. Here is a scary article on Saudi Arabia's Ghawar oil field. It may not be the giant any longer but who knows for sure..they won't let anyone verify their claims but their production is falling.

Ghawar

I don't have a ton of experience, but from what i've seen and heard, is that when you introduce a water flood (injecting water into a formation to wash the oil off the rock), its on its way out. You can still produce for a long period of time, but production falls quick. There's no doubt that the Ghawar field will peter out, there's only so much down there.

[Smed]

This weekend I watched a show that had some democratic congressman as a guest. He said taht the oil companies are not even exploring the areas in and around the US that they are legally allowed to. That essentially they are just using the current crisis get lawes changed so that they can drill in protected areas in the future.

In other words - the oil companies do not really want to increase supply now. They want the artificially inflated prices to continue, but they do want the l;aws changed so that they can make even more profits when oil really is scarce.

Anyone else hear this? Do you believe it?

[turnandburn]

Originally Posted by Smed

This weekend I watched a show that had some democratic congressman as a guest. He said taht the oil companies are not even exploring the areas in and around the US that they are legally allowed to. That essentially they are just using the current crisis get lawes changed so that they can drill in protected areas in the future.

In other words - the oil companies do not really want to increase supply now. They want the artificially inflated prices to continue, but they do want the l;aws changed so that they can make even more profits when oil really is scarce.

Anyone else hear this? Do you believe it?

Yes and no. Big oil companies will do that from time to time, but with oil prices right now, they are f-ing nuts not to drill. Nothing but money to be made. Last year in Alberta the big oil companies refused to drill even though oil prices where good, the reason was the the service industry was greatly over charging the oil companies, so they basicly shut down the exploation part of their buissenss(drilling rigs, service rigs, oil hauling buissnesses etc). That hurt alot of people up here. I belive they had doubled tripled their prices compared to the year before. Lots of people made money that year, but last year was a different story, everyone was trying to sell their trucks, cars, and toys just to keep there huge house they had just bought. But for me im good because i contract operate for 3 different oil companies, i look after, maintian and keep the oil and gas wells producing, i also take care of gas compressor staitions. You always need someone to keep the oil and gas flowing.

[AXLES ETC]

Alright, Dont anyone get mad at me with this comment. Hate to bring up politics. But Go John McCain !!! I support the off shore driliing, And I support drilling in Alaska. It's about time America uses it own resources for a change instead of relying on foregin countries. All we do is help out these arab countries and we get no discount on oil. While were out there we should just take the oil like we own it !! lol Like I stated earlier, No arguments on this poilitical preference of mine please . It's just my opinion.