Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
As my vacation winds down this summer, I have been spending some time on the computer, googling odd subjects. One that has fascinated me for some time, is the prospect of "big oil" here in the US. Knowing as I do that the US dollar's status as the world's reserve currency and it's status as the "petro dollar" has enabled Americans to enjoy a higher standard of living than in other countries, I wondered just how that affected our so-called "dependence on foreign oil", and why US oil supplies mysteriously began to dry up not long after the US dollar became the world-wide currency for OPEC and other producers of oil. I began to smell a rat.
Well, it looks like my sense of smell is still pretty good. First I discovered the Bakken Formation of North Dakota, Montana, and Saskatchewan. That one is being drilled, and a report in April of 2008 by the North Dakota Dept of Mineral Resources estimates that ND's portion contains 167 billion barrels of light sweet crude. Not well publicized, but small stuff for US uses.
Then I came upon "Rocky Mountain Oil" or the Green River Formation. This is in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, and contains an estimated 800 billion barrels of recoverable crude from oil shale. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch called the amounts "staggering", amounting to 3 times Saudi Arabian reserves, or what the US would use in 110 years! Shell Oil and the US Gov't are looking into this, but nobody seems to be in any hurry.
If you heat with oil-natgas-propane, or drive with gasoiline or deisel, you might think about pressuring Washington to get it in gear, as our standards of living are going down pretty quickly just about now, and it may just get worse over this winter! Seems nobody wants to drill here in the US - despite proven reserves - until the prices of oil are high enough to make it profitable.
I know some of you on the Maine forum have reservations about global warming. Now you can add Peak Oil to your list. It hasn't peaked at all, and won't for a long time. It's all a way of controlling supply and demand. But don't take my word for it, google it yourself. And take a gander at this while you're at it:
Well it's all about what it'll cost to get it out. Oil that costs $300 to get out the ground is not going to make anyone money - so we won't be pulling it out. It also won't be solving problems this winter. Time to move to an alternative form of heat as soon as you can.
[quote=y200;4526536] Oil that costs $300 to get out the ground is not going to make anyone money - so we won't be pulling it out. It also won't be solving problems this winter. quote]
Agreed. However, this oil shale (not 'tar sands' - that's a different ball game) requires nothing but heat to liquify into light sweet. They already know how to do that economically. Also agreed that it won't help this winter, but if the earth keeps revolving in its orbit, there will be many more winters to come. The longer we procrastinate, the higher the cost of cordwood or whatever goes. And the less driving we can do.
What incenses me is the hype surrounding "Peak Oil", as it's false and just being used to artificially raise oil prices, thereby hurting middle-class and lower-income folks. This isn't about iPods or cell phones or big-screen TVs - this is about something that we all use and need. And its just such a shame that the whole thing has been allowed to go this far, when there is so much of this stuff still in the ground, and it's affecting everyone's lives as well as the cost of food now (ethanol).
I cannot understand anyone here not being angered by this. Makes you wonder what else the powers are hiding!
I agree. Peak oil is just a scam used by the Algores and their army of earth firsters to undermine this country's economy and everything we stand for in the world.
They have wanted this for decades. Nothing will satisfy them until we are all broke.
Then I came upon "Rocky Mountain Oil" or the Green River Formation. This is in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, and contains an estimated 800 billion barrels of recoverable crude from oil shale. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch called the amounts "staggering", amounting to 3 times Saudi Arabian reserves, or what the US would use in 110 years! Shell Oil and the US Gov't are looking into this, but nobody seems to be in any hurry.
In 1981, I worked on the first shale extrication mine in Colorado and the following year, helped build a shale refinery in North Salt Lake. Both these proposals closed before they got started and two years later we tore down the refinery due to the astronomical costs to refine oil from shale.
Granted, this was based on gas prices for the early eighties and presently the recovery of oil from shale may be economical, but the time and cost of building these facilities may still be prohibitive.
Sadly, even "patriotic" outfits such as the John Birch Society are running cover for the Rockefellers and their "peak Oil" nonsense.
Here is the article:
Gas Prices: Why So High? | The New American (broken link)
Here is my response to the editor:
I was saddened by your recent cover story titled "Why so High?" How a
patriotic magazine like yours can publish such an article without even mentioning the
Rockefellers, Standard Oil and their illegitimate oil monopoly, the Seven Sisters, the
re-merger of Exxon and Mobil, the generations of squelched alternative (non carbon-based)
energy technologies, and instead focus only on the Rockefeller's creature--the
"Federal" "Reserve" System, and their non-competitive alliance (OPEC)
in a discussion of how we've gotten to where we are today with regard to oil prices is
beyond me.
I see that the author of this article, one Stephen Yates, is not even listed as "a
contributor" to The New American, and that is comforting. This could have been
written by the Rockefeller's first "white washer," some time Baptist minister,
Frederick T. Gates.
Would you ask Mr. Yates to provide even the barest modicum of evidence for the following
statement: "America's oil companies aren't owned by the small group of insiders that
control political parties."
That is a totally incorrect statement, and because patriots like those who read TNA
believe such nonsense is why conservative movements in this nation always fail. It is as
though editorial policy allows us to look at all the symptoms, but to never discuss the
disease.
For the Republic,
S
Last edited by 7th generation; 07-20-2008 at 07:39 AM..
Reason: Cleaned up web mail junk.
In 1981, I worked on the first shale extrication mine in Colorado and the following year, helped build a shale refinery in North Salt Lake. Both these proposals closed before they got started and two years later we tore down the refinery due to the astronomical costs to refine oil from shale.
Granted, this was based on gas prices for the early eighties and presently the recovery of oil from shale may be economical, but the time and cost of building these facilities may still be prohibitive.
Agreed that the cost of extracting anything these days - from anywhere - can be prohibitive. If Mexico found another Cantarell, it would take years and a lotta bucks to get to it.
But figure what algore and his followers would like - sustainable green energy. How much is THAT going to cost to develop? At least with a large deposit of fossil fuel, we know what to do with it when it's extracted, we already have the infrastructure to use it (vehicles, oil burners, etc), and we can figure a way more quickly and more easily to get at it, than to start all over with something "new".
I am very excited about this discovery, and more convinced than ever before that there's more, possible a lot more, right here in the US. We needn't be beholden to the Middle East for anything. How much money are we wasting on these wars, supposedly for oil? Would that money help us extract what we have here???
Well, it looks like my sense of smell is still pretty good. First I discovered the Bakken Formation of North Dakota, Montana, and Saskatchewan. That one is being drilled, and a report in April of 2008 by the North Dakota Dept of Mineral Resources estimates that ND's portion contains 167 billion barrels of light sweet crude. Not well publicized, but small stuff for US uses.
The Bakken play has been known for decades, and the reason it hasn't been developed more than current levels is quite simple: It's a geological nightmare. The oil is tightly held in shale formations that require expensive and highly intensive drilling and fracturing techniques to exploit. If the Bakken was as easy to exploit as the pollyannas claim, it would have been drilled decades ago, when US oil production was peaking in the early 1970s before going into irreversible decline (in case you're looking for a close-to-home model for Peak Oil). As already noted, it's hard to justify spending $300 a barrel to extract $130 a barrel oil.
Then I came upon "Rocky Mountain Oil" or the Green River Formation. This is in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, and contains an estimated 800 billion barrels of recoverable crude from oil shale. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch called the amounts "staggering", amounting to 3 times Saudi Arabian reserves, or what the US would use in 110 years! Shell Oil and the US Gov't are looking into this, but nobody seems to be in any hurry.
Quote:
Agreed. However, this oil shale (not 'tar sands' - that's a different ball game) requires nothing but heat to liquify into light sweet. They already know how to do that economically.
Y'know, I remember back in 1976 oil shale was going to save us, as soon as oil reached $10 a barrel -- or $20 -- or $25... The problem isn't money, it's energy. As you correctly note, developing shale oil takes "nothing but heat." A lot of heat. A whole boatload of heat. So much heat that the energy required to extract the kerogen from the rock is two to ten times the energy the kerogen gives up when used, and that's before it goes through an expensive and energy intensive chemical process to turn it into oil. (No, it's not "light sweet crude," shale oil is a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds. Oil shale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia It'll take another hundred million years or so before it's oil.)
Now think about this, and think about it very carefully: The very fact that we are looking at oil shale and the Bakken as saviors in this situation sends a powerful message. All the cheap, easy, high-return oil has been exploited. We're reduced to scraping the bottom of the oil barrel, trying to find hope in oil plays that just ten years ago were considered jokes in the oil industry. Then look at global oil production over the past 10 or 20 years -- BP puts out highly respected oil industry reports that can be found at Oil production | Statistical Review 2008 | BP (http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9023770&conten tId=7044467 - broken link) . Global oil production has remained virtually flat for the last four years or more despite soaring demand and prices to match.
Then, in case you want an even more compelling oil issue to worry about, check out the Export Land Model -- The Oil Drum | Export Land Model -- developed by petroleum geologist Jeffrey J. Brown. Short version: Oil exporting countries are using their petroleum-dollar windfalls to rapidly develop their own economies, increasing their domestic oil consumption even as demand grows elsewhere. The result is less oil available for export, even if production remains stable, which it isn't. Mexico, where its supergiant Cantarell field is now declining by an amazing 15 percent a year, will likely become a net oil importer within six years. Two years ago it was the second-largest source of imported oil for the United States.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
