US Has The Most Oil Shale Reserves On Earth

[Kathianne]

Yet, we're not developing them:




http://www.powerlineblog.com/archive.../08/021214.php

August 10, 2008
Shale Oil To Be Developed, But Not Here

We've written about the fact that the United States has by far the largest known oil shale deposits in the world. In fact our Rocky Mountain oil shale is believed to amount to as much as two trillion barrels, far more than the entire world has consumed since oil was discovered in Pennsylvania in the 19th century. This chart, from the Institute for Energy Research, shows how our oil shale reserves dwarf the petroleum controlled by other countries:

ShaleOilChart32.jpg

Unfortunately, the Democrats have been able to place these vast reserves off-limits. Now, one country has announced plans to develop its shale oil resources, but it isn't the United States, it's Jordan:

Energy-poor Jordan said on Sunday it was in talks with Anglo-Dutch group Royal Dutch Shell on an agreement to extract oil from the desert kingdom's 40-billion-tonne oil shale reserves.

"Negotiations with Shell to sign a deal to process oil shale in Jordan are nearing an end," said Maher Hjazin, head of the state-run Natural Resources Authority. "If our plans succeed, it would be one of the country's largest projects to help the Jordan become energy self-sufficient, with a possibility to export oil in the future." ...

JEA president Wael Saqqa said exploiting the 40-billion-tonne oil shale reserves in 26 areas of Jordan "would provide the kingdom with oil for the coming 700 years."

Under the leadership of the Democratic Party, the United States continues to be the only country in the world that is deliberately devastating its own economy by refusing to develop its energy resources.

[Noir]

May I just ask; what is oil shale, and how does it differ to 'normal' oil?

[Yurt]

May I just ask; what is oil shale, and how does it differ to 'normal' oil?

in short, it is harder to produce than light/sweet crude and of course more expensive. the end result is the same, the method of course is not.

[Noir]

in short, it is harder to produce than light/sweet crude and of course more expensive. the end result is the same, the method of course is not.

Cheers,

[Yurt]

Cheers,

righto

[Hobbit]

May I just ask; what is oil shale, and how does it differ to 'normal' oil?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_shale

It's kind of like solid oil. It's a rock instead of a liquid.

[eighballsidepocket]

in short, it is harder to produce than light/sweet crude and of course more expensive. the end result is the same, the method of course is not.

I recently read that with current oil extraction technology for oil shale, the oil comes out to roughly a break-even price of $80.00/barrel. Now that's current technology that probably hasn't had near the funding in the area of improving the extraction method monetarily as of yet.

[Yurt]

I recently read that with current oil extraction technology for oil shale, the oil comes out to roughly a break-even price of $80.00/barrel. Now that's current technology that probably hasn't had near the funding in the area of improving the extraction method monetarily as of yet.

cool. i am all for improving the tech to get the oil out of the shale.

[Little-Acorn]

This has been well known for at least 70 years. I have read about it in books written in the 1930s. They all point out that there are huge deposits of shale oil in the midwest and such areas, and that it takes a lot more energy and resources to get it out than "regular" deposits of oil.

It has never been economical to get it. Now that oil prices are above $100/bbl, it might be... but as soon as we start producing from this vast reservoir, will oil prices stay that high? Note that prices have already fallen from near $150 to $120 just because we TALKED about expanding our drilling, and not even in the shale oil deposits.

Oil companies are understandably reluctant to build up the huge plants and infrastructure needed to recover and process shale oil, only to see prices fall to the point where the oil is once again not economically recoverable.

[April15]

I recently read that with current oil extraction technology for oil shale, the oil comes out to roughly a break-even price of $80.00/barrel. Now that's current technology that probably hasn't had near the funding in the area of improving the extraction method monetarily as of yet.

Don't forget coal oil and the oil in the montana, dakota area.

[eighballsidepocket]

Don't forget coal oil and the oil in the montana, dakota area.

Yep, and ANWAR too!