Nightshade

Little known is the VAST amount of oil that is on the North American
continent in the form of Tar Sands in Canada and Oil Shale in Colorado.

America is now the main customer for Canada's tar sand oil. The U.S.
Gov't is holding Colorado's shale oil in reserve for now. However, the
U.S. shale oil amount is more than the middle east ever had numbering
in the TRILLION'S of barrels of oil to reclaim.

Where this will all wind up is anybodies guess due to the vast sums of
money involved. You can bet the Joe & Jane Averge's of the world will
come out on the fuzzy end.

God alone knows how the consumption of this new source of fossil fuels will
affect Global Warming.

The story......
Monday, May 1st, 2006
The US Government’s Secret Colorado Oil Discovery

Rense

Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world - more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. Three companies have been chosen to lead the way. Test drilling has already begun

Dear Reader,

Five months ago, the U.S. Energy Department announced the results of a land survey

It was conducted to determine the official amount of oil a thousand feet deep in the Rocky Mountains

They reported this stunning news:

We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth.

Here are the official estimates:

* 8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
* 18-times as much oil as Iraq
* 21-times as much oil as Kuwait
* 22-times as much oil as Iran
* 500-times as much oil as Yemen

And it’s all right here in the Western United States.

James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says, “We’ve got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East.”

More than 2 TRILLION barrels. Untapped.

“That’s more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today,” reports The Denver Post.

When asked about America’s least-publicized oil supply, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch said:

“The amounts of oil are staggering. Who would have guessed that in just Colorado and Utah, there is more recoverable oil than in the Middle East?”

Here’s the kicker

The U.S. government already owns the land. It’s been right there under our noses the whole time.

In fact, the government’s appointed a small group of companies to begin the drilling.

Test drilling has already begun.

And the profit forecasts are ridiculous. According to the RAND Corporation (a public-policy think tank for the government), this small region can produce:

Three million barrels of oil per day That translates into more than $20 BILLION a year.

These are the conservative estimates. The U.S. Energy Dept. estimates an eventual output of 10 million barrels of oil per day. At that rate, the money flow would be even greater.

I’ve written this letter to tell you everything I’ve learned about this rarely publicized oil reserve who’s drilling it and how to get a piece of the world’s biggest, untapped oil supply - before it’s too late.

Here’s the full story

The Next American Oil Boom

There’s a new source of oil in the American West.

Today, it sits idle - untapped - inside more than 16,000 square miles of rock and sand.

Geologists call what lies in this region, oil shale.

What is oil shale?

At first glance, oil shale looks like an ordinary black rock.

It feels grainy to the touch and greasy. You see, what’s inside oil shale has huge governments, Big Oil, venture capitalists, and even everyday investors scrambling to stake a claim.

Oil shale - when heated - oozes bubbling crude.

This precious resource is rare - found only in a few select countries. Places like China, Brazil, Estonia, Morocco, and Australia.

But the real story is how much untapped oil shale lies beneath U.S. soil. As the chart to the right indicates, there’s 4-times more oil shale in the U.S. than in all other countries combined.

Over the past 125 years, oil shale has been the secret oil source for a handful of nations. Specifically, those fortunate enough to have it

* China’s been using oil shale since 1929. Today, China is the largest producer of oil from oil shale. It plans to double the daily rate of production soon.

* Estonia is an oil shale dependent economy. Over 90% of the country’s electricity is fueled by shale oil. In fact, electricity run on oil shale is a chief export.

* In 1991, Brazil built the world’s largest oil shale facility. They’ve already produced more than 1.5 MILLION tons of oil to make high quality transportation fuels.

* Jordan, Morocco, and Australia have recently announced plans to utilize their oil shale resources. All 3 governments are currently working to build oil shale facilities.

But all these countries’ oil shale resources pale in comparison to the U.S. supply. As you can see from the table to the right, the United States dominates the oil shale market - with over 72% of the world’s oil shale resources.

Our gargantuan supply of oil lies beneath an area called the Green River Formation - a barren stretch of land covering portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.

World-renowned geologist Walter Youngquist calls the oil beneath the Green River Formation, “a national treasure.”

Congress calls this area simply, “the next Saudi Arabia.”

It’s easy to see why

This region holds the largest known oil reserve on the planet

Colorado’s Oil Lands - Restricted for 76 Years, Now Open for Drilling

There are over 16,000 square miles of oil shale in the Green River formation…

Each acre holds 2 million barrels of oil - it’s the most concentrated energy source on earth, according to the Energy Department.

The federal government owns 80% of this oil-rich land.

In fact, the government placed protective legislation on this land in 1930, forbidding anyone to touch it.

You see, the government always knew this land was saturated with oil - but getting it out has always been expensive.

Buying oil from foreign countries was always the cheaper bet. It has been for the past 80 years.

Wisely, the government kept the land around for a “rainy day”, protecting it with 1930s legislation.

I’m sure you’re aware of today’s situation at the gas pump. Buying oil from foreign countries has gotten out of hand. The price of oil is sky-high. It’s way too expensive to keep buying foreign oil. In other words, the “rainy day” has finally arrived.

The timing couldn’t be more perfect. Oil shale technologies have begun to advance Âcensored drastically.

Companies are coming up with ways to extract oil from the Green River Formation very cheaply.

For example, one Utah-based company says it can extract the oil for as little as $10 a barrel. In fact dozens of companies have stepped forward with similar claims. With oil prices approaching $70 a barrel  these are pretty significant breakthroughs.

That’s all the government needed to hear.

On August 8, 2005, President Bush signed into law, a mandate lifting the protective legislation on the Green River Formation.

This mandate is called The Energy Policy Act of 2005. It calls for the opening phases of oil extraction in the Green River Formation  the world’s most concentrated energy source.

We’re finally ready to tap the largest oil reserve on the planet

https://www.stansberryonline.com/OIL/...lias=200604OIL

Map of where the U.S. shale oil is known to be today..........

https://geology.com/news/2006/12/colo...een-river.html

Roody

Very bad news, indeed.

bac

Great post! I saw a show (PBS?) about the Canadian Tar Sands. Pretty amazing stuff. I've also read about America's Oil Shale. It's all very disturbing on an environmental level.

... Brad

mstrpete

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/bu...ewanted=1&_r=1

linux_author

Hess is the only gas retailer using only domestic oil resources... locally, it has just started using up to 10 percent ethanol resources, while staying competitive on retail gas prices...

(i drive my bike, and only use my truck to haul ton-plus amounts of horse droppings)

:-)

kf5nd

So what good is oil shale if you use as much energy squeezing a little bit of oil out of it as the oil that gets squeezed out contains? That's like squeezing water out of 1,000,000 bicycle chamois shorts and hoping to bathe in the water.

I have consulted recently at one of the top oil companies in the world (sorry, I can't say which), they are active in Colorado, and they couldn't give a **** about oil shale.

Now GAS SHALE... that's another matter. Google on Barnett Shale Unconventional Gas and see what I mean.

I think Colorado Oil Shale is a scam meant to fleece Mom & Pop investors, IMHO.


Peter Wang
Texas Registered Professional Geoscientist (Geophysics speciality)
In the oil industry since 1986

madnomad

www.aspencore.org/images/pdf/OilShale.pdf

Yea it seems like a pipe dream to me, if they could get so much oil from it they would already have done so.

maddyfish

^^^^They can get the oil, it is just not profitable at $90/barrel, when and if oil stays over $120/barrel it will be profitable to use it.
Oil at nearly its current cost will be available to us for the next 200-300 years at least.
Get over your wet dreams about oil running out. Not going to happen in our, or our children's lieftime.

Abneycat

And if a time comes where the traditional oil reserves run down, I don't personally think the economic *or* environmental outlook for drawing this stuff is going to look nearly as appealing. Oil may or may not run out in the future, its irrelevant to the point at hand though, that being that shale production is inefficient from an energy perspective, and with the current technology absolutely incapable of competing with current pricing. You'll be looking at a much more expensive fill-up, both from an environmental and economic perspective.

Newspaperguy

When oil rises past $120 a barrel and when conventional supplies become scarce, it starts to make sense to go to shale oil and other unconventional sources. So in that sense you're correct. We won't run out of oil if we can extract shale oil and oil from the Alberta oil sands. However, shale oil is more difficult to extract and therefore more expensive than conventional oil. Even with a huge oil source, it might not be practical for oil companies to tap into it.

Oil companies will not sell oil unless they can make a profit on it and consumers will still have to pay. Eventually, there will come a price point where it is simply not practical to use oil for transportation.

At present, it costs me $50 to $60 Canadian every time I fill the tank. I don't like that price but I can afford it. However, assuming my wage remains the same, if the same fill-up would cost me $100, I'd rethink my driving patterrns. At $200 a tank, driving would not even make sense for occasional trips and at $300 a tank, we could expect to see few if any gasoline-powered vehicles on the roads. (If wages rise as the price of oil rises, then the scenario would be much different.)

Dahon.Steve

With all this new found oil, our "Oil Wars" will no longer be necessary. Well, I guess our dream of a car free planet will be on hold for another century. ;-(

Artkansas 

Oil Shale is not the same as an oil deposit. Its much more expensive in terms of energy and money to dig it out. It's like getting high by scraping the tar from a pipe instead of putting in some fresh buds.

A car-free planet? Wow, that's so utopian. But it's a good dream. I'd be ecstatic with 50% of the people keeping their cars in the driveway when they go to the post office.

You want a good global warming horror story. Ask yourself how much oil is under Antarctica and how much easier it will be to get when the ice melts.

Mago

I see two problems - only a few countries are able to extract on a high level teh amount of oil needed. I mean, this isn't like slapping a slice of bacon on a pan and getting the fat out of it - you gotta do it on an industrial level, and then teh secondary effects of heating hydrocarbon (pollution and the leftover slag) becomes apparent (the second problem)- none of the pieces we need to deliver, refine, and dispose of the waste is in place in North American infrastructure. We can barely keep trains on time and our nuclear reactors don't run at full capacity yet, after thirty years of advances. How, realistically, will we be able to retool an industry and dispose of all the new side junk without serious diversion of resources that no one is willing to do?

Personally, I think that no matter what we do, we won't be able to fully develop any kind of technology in enough time to make a diffence in our pocket book. By the time this kicks in, gas will like be $7 a gallon.

Abneycat

Perhaps when the $7 gallon rolls in, people will start to consciously think about what they should and shouldn't use their car for, and start to conform their usage around necessity or practicality instead of simply using the car as a cure-all for all transportation needs. Well, i'm expecting people to start thinking about that well before $7 actually.

The only difference isn't going to be in the pocketbook. This stuff requires a considerable energy investment in order to extract in the first place. Will there come a method that will allow companies to extract the oil without consuming vast amounts of resources, or will shale continue to be comparatively *that much worse* than standard oil sources?

Mago

A small anecdote. I owned an 01 Cherokee, good vehicle for two kids and me and two big dogs. When I bought it, gas was about $1.50 to $1.75 a gallon. When it hit $2 a gallon, I told my GF (now DW) that I would get rid of it because it cost too much. $2 came and went, and I didn't get rid of it until gas hit $3 about the start of the current unpleasantness in Iraq (that was meant with sarcasm, don't flame me to death on it) and my uncle decided to trade me his POS minivan for my Jeep, for the better gas mileage. The minivan died a painful death this last summer. The point is that people WON'T give up their behemoths because they already have them. Good salespeople get you to buy stuff because once its yours (in your hand) you are more likely to buy it/keep it then set it back. We as a nation HATE to have to give something back once its 'ours'.

I suspect that once the oil markets crash and western society realigns itself in a post-industrial world, that we will get to the oil shale and tar sands. Probably for industrial stuff, but I doubt people will be driving cars. I suspect the world will change drastically in 20-30 years. But it will be a nasty, ugly, bumpy ride. The dollar will likely bottom out, and rebuild slowly. We will probably have a nasty recession, if not outright depression as other countries quit bolstering our currency with their own and uncouple their currency from the dollar.

wahoonc

I think it will take a lot more than $7 a gallon. Maybe $17 or even $27 might get their attention, I have a feeling that some people will go broke trying to fill their gas tanks rather than changing their ways. In my case I have already cut back on my personal driving and am making plans to cut back even more in the future. Currently my company pays me to drive my heavy truck, as long as the continue to and it covers the operating costs I will drive it. My current hard costs (not including depreciation) is right around $.30 a mile. They do pay on a sliding scale that allows for fuel price increases.

Aaron

acroy

With oil at $90+ per barrle, a lot of alternative ways to getting it out of the ground open up.

Oil companies are still budgeting for no more than about $25/bbl right now tho. They have a very long-term outlook and have been through spikes before. Remeber the late 70's??

One thing that's kinda cheery news is that the previous "oil shocks" were supply crunches, and arguably caused/contributed to recession.

The current hi price is Demand crunch - hi price due to strong global growth. And of course some "risk premium", and speculators piling on trying to make a quick buck.

cooker

Nobody expects oil to run out. Just to get extremely expensive

late

The oil in shale is crap. It will take special and expensive refineries to turn it into
low grade diesel. I think we export low grade diesel. When you factor in the environmental damage and crappy net energy gain; it is questionable whether it will EVER make sense to extract it.

cooker

The Alberta tar sands are of dubious long term viablity. Local natural gas is used to heat local river water to steam the oil out of the tar sands. The natural gas will run out long before the oil, so another, likely much more expensive energy source will be needed, so the energy return may be too small to be viable. The water supply may soon be severely strained as well, especially if the glacial sources recede too much.

Roody

Another recipe for disaster, and nobody seems to give a damn. I'm seriously thinking of moving to Mars.

Roody

Yeah, if you make up figures and confidently state them as fact, a lot of gullible people will believe you. But for those of us who are not so gullible, what do you base this statement on?

ericy

I remember hearing a story about someone out west who built a house with a nice stone fireplace. Only problem is that they used local rocks which turned out to be oil shale. The first time they lit a fire in the fireplace, they ended up burning down the house .

As to the original point, I believe that this is correct. I don't believe any statements where they say that "when the price of oil reaches $XX, it will be cost competitive". Oftentimes the problem is that they make cost assumptions about other inputs. Steel, concrete, both of which require large amounts of energy to make, or energy in other forms (i.e. diesel for trucks and mining equipment). As other energy prices go up, then the breakeven point slips higher and higher. It becomes especially true when you start to consider EROEI. If you need to use 1 BTU to get 0.9 BTU out of one of these things, then it will simply never make sense to develop these resources.

Regarding tar sands, it isn't just the natural gas. They take water out of a river, and they use huge amounts of it. At some point they will be extracting all that the river is capable of providing - I have heard some suggest that they are already reaching this point.

And this ignores the environmental disaster that would come out of oil shale or tar sands....

bmclaughlin807

Not true... the attraction of oil is that it's a fairly concentrated storage medium for energy... Nobody cares if you have to put more energy in than you get out... it's how cheaply you can do it.

ANY system where you convert energy from one form to another requires more energy put in than you get out... it's just a fact you have to work around... whether you're talking about converting solar to electricity, nuclear energy to electricity to hydrogen to mechanical power... whatever.

One of the experiments I've seen was to use solar power for the heat input to liquefy the oil from the shale, to then pump it out... so it doesn't really matter how much power goes in... just the cost to build the equipment.

seafoamer

Technically, it would be a "dry dream".