U.S. one step closer to developing 61 billion barrels of oil

[HoosierRon]

Draft Environmental Study Addresses Oil Shale Resources on Public Lands

In response to congressional direction in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Bureau of Land Management today announced publication of the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) to guide future management of public lands containing oil shale and tar sands resources. Under the proposal in the Draft PEIS, the BLM would amend land use plans to allocate approximately 1.9 million acres of public lands in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming for potential commercial oil shale development.
...
“The potential of America’s oil shale resources to meet future U.S. demand for fuel is significant,” said BLM Director Jim Caswell. “Oil shale deposits on public lands hold the equivalent of 1.23 trillion barrels of oil. The lands we are proposing to make available are estimated to hold, at a minimum, the equivalent of 61 billion barrels. At the low end of the range, that would yield enough gasoline to keep American tanks filled for 18 years.”

Most U.S. oil shale resources are found in the Green River Formation of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. The federally owned portion of this resource is more than 50 times the country’s proven conventional oil reserves and nearly five times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia.
...
Caswell noted that the PEIS will not authorize any commercial development projects, provide for any leases to be issued, or commit the BLM to any particular course of action in the future. “The action proposed in the Draft responds to concerns expressed by the States and local communities serving as cooperating agencies,” he said. “With their help, we’ve developed a proposal that will allow development of this vital asset while protecting other resources found on these lands and minimizing the impacts on local communities.”

Between 305,000 and 1.5 million acres of BLM-managed lands would be excluded from oil shale leasing under the alternatives presented in the Draft PEIS. No leasing would be allowed in Wilderness areas, wilderness study areas, other units of the BLM’s National Landscape Conservation System, or Areas of Critical Environmental Concern that are closed to mineral development, among other areas. The PEIS anticipates that oil shale resources on identified lands would be leased as a solid mineral, and additional site-specific NEPA analysis would be completed on each application before any lease could be issued.

[PhishPhood]

The problem apparently is cost. Shell walked away from their leases. Too costly to develop. I guess we'll see if anyone else wants to try.

[GTOobsession]

Originally Posted by PhishPhood

The problem apparently is cost. Shell walked away from their leases. Too costly to develop. I guess we'll see if anyone else wants to try.

With crude at around $100 a barrel, I doubt that cost will be an issue for long. Its more likely that the amount of potential fuel that will come from these shale deposits would be enough to crash the price of oil. You also have to consider the amount of energy thats going to be needed to process this stuff. If you use 3/4 of a barrel of oil worth of gasoline to power the equipment that yeilds 1 barrel of oil, you dont have much of a gain at all, let alone a profitable one.

[Stewie007]

Originally Posted by PhishPhood

The problem apparently is cost. Shell walked away from their leases. Too costly to develop. I guess we'll see if anyone else wants to try.

In other words, it would have meant that their profits would have decreased from 70 billion to 40 billion.....

Clearly, 40 billion is not enough!

[PA Dweller]

That is too bad, if they could develop this resource it might solve our addiction to oil long enough for a proper replacement to be developed.

[gopedxr7]

how about this leave the land alone and produce alternative energy above it

Alan

[Snafu_SS]

Originally Posted by gopedxr7

how about this leave the land alone and produce alternative energy above it

Alan

Good idea...no need to stop the progress were making on alternative fuels...Stop destroying our beautiful country to fuel a habit we need to kick!!

[ColinOpseth]

I've wondered for a long time if the US was importing oil from elsewhere and protecting it's massive reserves at home. Between Canada and the US we have enough oil for well over a hundred more years.

Then again, I've believed that oil will soon be like coal. Useless in the common market except as a junk fuel for power production. I guess we'll find out, eh?

I'd still buy a Volt, though. As long as it looks good and will potentially pay for itself through cost savings.

[racy]

Originally Posted by PhishPhood

The problem apparently is cost. Shell walked away from their leases. Too costly to develop. I guess we'll see if anyone else wants to try.

This is correct and I posted the Shell announcement a few months ago. I dont' think they relinquished all of their leases, if memory serves. They held on to a few parcels. They did however, stop development on leased ground and redirected all focus to their privately owned land, which has been in development for about a decade now.

Shell is still working on their in situ plan as is Chevron and two other companies. Shell, who is considered to be the farthest along in their research, doesn't see any substantial output from their results before 2020.

I have become far less optomistic in the shale business, simply because of the environmental and energy hurdles that must be overcome. Technologically, it is generally accepted that oil can be exctracted from shale *far* below todays oil proces. However, water contamination, land contamination and mining waste make shale oil development a HUGE target for environmentalists. The shale oil industry has a near impenetrable lobby to get through and I just don't see it happening.

For those interested in the Shale Oil news, keep an eye on Oil Tech Inc. They were part of the original bidders of the BLM land, but didn't get approval. However, they do seem to have the best retort design out there, and claim to be able to produce a barrel of oil from shale dirt cheap. From there site here: http://oiltechinc.com/profile.html

Originally Posted by OilShaleInc

Oil-Tech has been successful in perfecting its breakthrough processes such that a barrel of oil is estimated to cost between $5-8/bbl depending upon rate of oil (kerogen) production from our retort clusters and $23-28/ton (barrel) for mined shale depending upon mining methodology as well other process economics. It is important to note that these are conservative estimates and we fully expect to lower our costs by cogeneration of electricity via the heated spent shale as well as achieve lower mining costs by increasing the scale of production of mined shale.

[vcs2600]

Why does this site run so many news stories about speculative energy sources?

The connection to General Motors in the here and now is very tenuous.

[FStephenMasek]

Originally Posted by gopedxr7

how about this leave the land alone and produce alternative energy above it Alan

Alan, why waste the resource and feed money to the Middle Easterns? If you think longer term, the resource can be utilized and the land restored. Yes, it will surely take more than one generation for the land to be restored, and we humans often have a difficult time thinking beyond our own lifetimes, but in a few generations, the land could be as good, or better, than when the mining started. This is especially so given the extensive plans for mining and then restoration which would have to be part of any use of this resource.

Please do not think that I am advocating waste, as waste is certainly not a virtue. We need leadership and a personal commitment by everyone to use our resources wisely by not manufacturing shoddy goods which don't last, not driving excessively large vehicles, not building buildings which don't last, upgrading buildings to use less energy, recycling, and so forth.

[amsnare]

Originally Posted by FStephenMasek

Alan, why waste the resource and feed money to the Middle Easterns? If you think longer term, the resource can be utilized and the land restored. Yes, it will surely take more than one generation for the land to be restored, and we humans often have a difficult time thinking beyond our own lifetimes, but in a few generations, the land could be as good, or better, than when the mining started. This is especially so given the extensive plans for mining and then restoration which would have to be part of any use of this resource.

Please do not think that I am advocating waste, as waste is certainly not a virtue. We need leadership and a personal commitment by everyone to use our resources wisely by not manufacturing shoddy goods which don't last, not driving excessively large vehicles, not building buildings which don't last, upgrading buildings to use less energy, recycling, and so forth.

I agree 100% with this gentleman.
I also feel the the environmentalists must become more patriotic and less anti-American..Most of what they do is good, but I believe that they have gone too far... much as man has a tendacy to do..

[ChevroletRevived]

Wow, 61 billion barrels! That's amazing! We really need to tap into that, we could be energy independent for many years. Because we could still buy foreign oil from select countries and not be dependent on it. More ideally though, we should set goals to be powered by other sources and work very hard to produce vehicles that use less fuel. If we can do that, while tapping into this, this oil can be used strategically and for other uses then automotive.

[logansowner]

Why not tap into this and severly cut back from terrorist oil? If we get our butts in gear, 18 years should be plenty of time to figure out fuel cells or solar/wind/tidal/nuke power.

I don't have a problem with Exxon making 40 billion a year, it's a business, they are jsut damn good at it. My problem is about how much of that 40 billion goes to countries where it's being spent tryigg to kill us. Sure I'd like to see 40/bl again, but if not, I'd rather see my 100/bl go to the US and Canada than to some towel head that wants to kill me.

[windvale]

What about the Spotted Owls that live there ?