Showing posts with label coal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coal. Show all posts

Thursday, September 14, 2017

What will an energy independent world look like?




The governments of Greece, Cyprus and Israel recently signed an energy accord that further strengthens their ties in respect to joint plans to exploit the natural gas resources of the region, while Turkey strives to become the ultimate destination for the onshore transfer of the commodity. 

Greek Energy Minister Yannis Maniatis, his Cypriot counterpart Giorgos Lakkotrypis and Israeli Silvan Shalom signed a memorandum that stipulates the three states' joint cooperation in energy infrastructure and transportation, with a special focus on offshore gas projects, such as the Aphrodite in Cyprus and the Leviathan and Tamar in Israel. In the meantime, negotiations are under way to resolve the frozen Cyprus issue between the Greek and Turkish sides, and reports suggest that all interested sides have put natural gas on the table.

 Hydraulic fracturing has become a contentious environmental and health issue with Tunisia and France banning the practice and a moratorium in place in Quebec (Canada), and some of the states of the US.

Australia

Up until the mid-2000s, hydraulic fracturing was generally limited to conventional oil and gas wells in the Cooper Basin. This was limited to one, two or sometimes zero ongoing fracturing operations.[citation needed] The vast majority of coal seam gas wells have not been hydraulically fractured as the wells presently being drilled are in coal seams that have good natural permeability.[citation needed] The NSW Government has banned BTEX chemicals as additives.[1]

China

China completed its first horizontal shale gas well in 2011. A global shale gas study by the US Energy Information Administration said China's technically recoverable shale gas reserves were almost 50% higher than those of the number two nation, the United States.[7]

The Pandora's box of energy independence has been opened. To a growth and energy starving world it will not be closed. You see what is still on going in the Gulf of Mexico, you saw Chernobyl, you know a small part of the horrible damage Fukishima is doing around the world, These are a tiny part of the damage we are doing with our technology.


China is already one of the most polluted countries in the world. China is home to our medical and computer waste dump.The areas housing them are dead zones and entrance not allowed. In addition China at last check was building one coal fired power plant per month. This is all undder so called control. You see what we have done to the earth while under control, imagine the caustic conditions when everyone does what they want. Hell it can be argued that, that is what underhandedly goes on now.



*US to be top oil producer by 2017, report says, America will be self-sufficient by 2030, study finds: The consequences are ‘‘potentially far reaching’’ for global energy markets and trade, the report said. Birol noted, for example, that Middle Eastern oil once bound for the United States would probably be rerouted to China. US-mined coal, facing declining demand in its home market, is already heading to Europe and China instead.





I do not like Fracking or horizontal drilling but imagine the United States as the worlds leading gas And oil exporter? A headline on an old newspaper reads: Oil Shale Development Imminent,". That edition of the defunct Grand Junction News, was published at the dawn of the 20th century.

More than a hundred years later, instability is roiling world oil markets, and Americans are paying $3.50 a gallon for gas. And oil shale fever is again rising in the geologic region known as the Piceance Basin, part of the Green River Formation that stretches across the rugged plains of northwestern Colorado and parts of Wyoming and Utah.


There is no dispute that a thousand feet below the isolated ranch country here on Colorado's western slope lie almost unimaginable oil riches. It's locked in sedimentary rock -- essentially immature oil that given a few million years under heat and pressure would produce pools of oil easy to extract.

The Energy Department and private industry estimate that a trillion barrels are here in Colorado -- about the same amount as the entire world's known reserves of conventional oil. The entire Green River Formation might hold as much as 2 trillion barrels.


As it has before, shale oil holds out the hope of a USA no longer dependent on foreign oil. Shell Oil is engaged in a multi year test of a new technology for extracting the oil. Previous efforts that were uneconomical and environmentally destructive entailed mining the rock, crushing it and heating it above ground to release the oil.


From what I have seen already we are destroying peoples food and water sources making them dependent on who? and grossly destabilizing the ground. Everywhere fracking goes on earthquakes are showing up regardless of the fact that there was no earthquakes in the past and it is no ones fault of course, it is natural my rear.

To me for the people to think there is any plus at all at our becoming energy independent they would want to see the price at the pump go down. 
That you know will never happen because it is not in the interest of oil companies. As they do now, whenever something good or bad happens that may or may not even affect the industry they raise prices. The world as a whole have become mice living and running on a clogged and polluted wheel never to get off till we die.

James Joiner
Gardner Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com

Monday, February 03, 2014

World lines up to buy natural gas from number one producer United States

 Exclusive: World buyers line up to buy U.S. natural gas:  Up to a dozen long-term deals, each worth billions of dollars, have been penned behind closed doors with companies in China, Japan, Taiwan, Spain, France and Chile as global demand spikes, according to company, industry and trade sources.

Through the agreements, China in particular has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of cheap American natural gas that in the coming years will be piped to Gulf Coast plants and liquefied for shipment abroad in tankers.  The unannounced deals, which amount to about 2 percent of daily U.S. supply, are not the first of their kind, and they depend on U.S. government approval to construct two new liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants.
The United States like it or not is on top for now:

The governments of Greece, Cyprus and Israel recently signed an energy accord that further strengthens their ties in respect to joint plans to exploit the natural gas resources of the region, while Turkey strives to become the ultimate destination for the onshore transfer of the commodity. 

Greek Energy Minister Yannis Maniatis, his Cypriot counterpart Giorgos Lakkotrypis and Israeli Silvan Shalom signed a memorandum that stipulates the three states' joint cooperation in energy infrastructure and transportation, with a special focus on offshore gas projects, such as the Aphrodite in Cyprus and the Leviathan and Tamar in Israel. In the meantime, negotiations are under way to resolve the frozen Cyprus issue between the Greek and Turkish sides, and reports suggest that all interested sides have put natural gas on the table.

 Hydraulic fracturing has become a contentious environmental and health issue with Tunisia and France banning the practice and a moratorium in place in Quebec (Canada), and some of the states of the US.

World lines up to buy natural gas from number one producer United States
http://www.worldpress.org/link.cfm?http://worldpress.org/link.cfm?http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/businessNews/~3/Ir_NIRZXQfg/story01.htm  Exclusive: World buyers line up to buy U.S. natural gas:  Up to a dozen long-term deals, each worth billions of dollars, have been penned behind closed doors with companies in China, Japan, Taiwan, Spain, France and Chile as global demand spikes, according to company, industry and trade sources.

Through the agreements, China in particular has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of cheap American natural gas that in the coming years will be piped to Gulf Coast plants and liquefied for shipment abroad in tankers.
The unannounced deals, which amount to about 2 percent of daily U.S. supply, are not the first of their kind, and they depend on U.S. government approval to construct two new liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants.

Australia

Up until the mid-2000s, hydraulic fracturing was generally limited to conventional oil and gas wells in the Cooper Basin. This was limited to one, two or sometimes zero ongoing fracturing operations.[citation needed] The vast majority of coal seam gas wells have not been hydraulically fractured as the wells presently being drilled are in coal seams that have good natural permeability.[citation needed] The NSW Government has banned BTEX chemicals as additives.[1]  China China completed its first horizontal shale gas well in 2011. A global shale gas study by the US Energy Information Administration said China's technically recoverable shale gas reserves were almost 50% higher than those of the number two nation, the United States.[7]

The Pandora's box of energy independence has been opened. To a growth and energy starving world it will not be closed. You see what is still on going in the Gulf of Mexico, you saw Chernobyl, you know a small part of the horrible damage Fukishima is doing around the world, These are a tiny part of the damage we are doing with our technology.


China is already one of the most polluted countries in the world. China is home to our medical and computer waste dump.The areas housing them are dead zones and entrance not allowed. In addition China at last check was building one coal fired power plant per month. This is all undder so called control. You see what we have done to the earth while under control, imagine the caustic conditions when everyone does what they want. Hell it can be argued that, that is what underhandedly goes on now.


*US to be top oil producer by 2017, report says, America will be self-sufficient by 2030, study finds: The consequences are ‘‘potentially far reaching’’ for global energy markets and trade, the report said. Birol noted, for example, that Middle Eastern oil once bound for the United States would probably be rerouted to China. US-mined coal, facing declining demand in its home market, is already heading to Europe and China instead.





I do not like Fracking or horizontal drilling but imagine the United States as the worlds leading gas And oil exporter? Instability is roiling world oil markets, and Americans are paying $3.50 a gallon for gas. And oil shale fever is again rising in the geologic region known as the Piceance Basin, part of the Green River Formation that stretches across the rugged plains of northwestern Colorado and parts of Wyoming and Utah.

There is no dispute that a thousand feet below the isolated ranch country here on Colorado's western slope lie almost unimaginable oil riches. It's locked in sedimentary rock -- essentially immature oil that given a few million years under heat and pressure would produce pools of oil easy to extract.

The Energy Department and private industry estimate that a trillion barrels are here in Colorado -- about the same amount as the entire world's known reserves of conventional oil. The entire Green River Formation might hold as much as 2 trillion barrels.

As it has before, shale oil holds out the hope of a USA no longer dependent on foreign oil. Shell Oil is engaged in a multi year test of a new technology for extracting the oil. Previous efforts that were uneconomical and environmentally destructive entailed mining the rock, crushing it and heating it above ground to release the oil.



From what I have seen already we are destroying peoples food and water sources making them dependent on who? and grossly destabilizing the ground. Everywhere fracking goes on earthquakes are showing up regardless of the fact that there was no earthquakes in the past and it is no ones fault of course, it is natural my rear.


To me for the people to think there is any plus at all at our becoming energy independent they would want to see the price at the pump go down. 
 
That you know will never happen because it is not in the interest of oil companies. As they do now, whenever something good or bad happens that may or may not even affect the industry they raise prices. The world as a whole have become mice living and running on a clogged and polluted wheel never to get off till we die.

James Joiner
Gardner Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com



Saturday, October 19, 2013

Fracking up the world

Going after the hard to get and produce shale oil proves that we are at or have passed peak oil. This will only drastically increase the pollution of and destruction of our planet.

The governments of Greece, Cyprus and Israel recently signed an energy accord that further strengthens their ties in respect to joint plans to exploit the natural gas resources of the region, while Turkey strives to become the ultimate destination for the onshore transfer of the commodity. 

Greek Energy Minister Yannis Maniatis, his Cypriot counterpart Giorgos Lakkotrypis and Israeli Silvan Shalom signed a memorandum that stipulates the three states' joint cooperation in energy infrastructure and transportation, with a special focus on offshore gas projects, such as the Aphrodite in Cyprus and the Leviathan and Tamar in Israel. In the meantime, negotiations are under way to resolve the frozen Cyprus issue between the Greek and Turkish sides, and reports suggest that all interested sides have put natural gas on the table.

 Hydraulic fracturing has become a contentious environmental and health issue with Tunisia and France banning the practice and a moratorium in place in Quebec (Canada), and some of the states of the US.

Australia

Up until the mid-2000s, hydraulic fracturing was generally limited to conventional oil and gas wells in the Cooper Basin. This was limited to one, two or sometimes zero ongoing fracturing operations.[citation needed] The vast majority of coal seam gas wells have not been hydraulically fractured as the wells presently being drilled are in coal seams that have good natural permeability.[citation needed] The NSW Government has banned BTEX chemicals as additives.[1]

China

China completed its first horizontal shale gas well in 2011. A global shale gas study by the US Energy Information Administration said China's technically recoverable shale gas reserves were almost 50% higher than those of the number two nation, the United States.[7]

The Pandora's box of energy independence has been opened. To a growth and energy starving world it will not be closed. You see what is still on going in the Gulf of Mexico, you saw Chernobyl, you know a small part of the horrible damage Fukishima is doing around the world, These are a tiny part of the damage we are doing with our technology.


China is already one of the most polluted countries in the world. China is home to our medical and computer waste dump.The areas housing them are dead zones and entrance not allowed. In addition China at last check was building one coal fired power plant per month. This is all undder so called control. You see what we have done to the earth while under control, imagine the caustic conditions when everyone does what they want. Hell it can be argued that, that is what underhandedly goes on now.


*US to be top oil producer by 2017, report says, America will be self-sufficient by 2030, study finds: The consequences are ‘‘potentially far reaching’’ for global energy markets and trade, the report said. Birol noted, for example, that Middle Eastern oil once bound for the United States would probably be rerouted to China. US-mined coal, facing declining demand in its home market, is already heading to Europe and China instead.





I do not like Fracking or horizontal drilling but imagine the United States as the worlds leading gas And oil exporter? Instability is roiling world oil markets, and Americans are paying $3.50 a gallon for gas. And oil shale fever is again rising in the geologic region known as the Piceance Basin, part of the Green River Formation that stretches across the rugged plains of northwestern Colorado and parts of Wyoming and Utah.

There is no dispute that a thousand feet below the isolated ranch country here on Colorado's western slope lie almost unimaginable oil riches. It's locked in sedimentary rock -- essentially immature oil that given a few million years under heat and pressure would produce pools of oil easy to extract.

The Energy Department and private industry estimate that a trillion barrels are here in Colorado -- about the same amount as the entire world's known reserves of conventional oil. The entire Green River Formation might hold as much as 2 trillion barrels.

As it has before, shale oil holds out the hope of a USA no longer dependent on foreign oil. Shell Oil is engaged in a multi year test of a new technology for extracting the oil. Previous efforts that were uneconomical and environmentally destructive entailed mining the rock, crushing it and heating it above ground to release the oil.



From what I have seen already we are destroying peoples food and water sources making them dependent on who? and grossly destabilizing the ground. Everywhere fracking goes on earthquakes are showing up regardless of the fact that there was no earthquakes in the past and it is no ones fault of course, it is natural my rear.


To me for the people to think there is any plus at all at our becoming energy independent they would want to see the price at the pump go down. 
That you know will never happen because it is not in the interest of oil companies. As they do now, whenever something good or bad happens that may or may not even affect the industry they raise prices. The world as a whole have become mice living and running on a clogged and polluted wheel never to get off till we die.

James Joiner
Gardner Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com


Sunday, August 18, 2013

Do downsides of U.S. energy independence outweigh upsides?






The more I think about the US being energy independent and the world's top oil and natural gas producer the more destabilizing I believe it will be to world balance if there in fact is such a thing.

Let's start at home. I do not like fracking one bit. There is nothing good about it except for the energy companies and their interests and Politicians and their interests. Once again despite the lies as to how good this is for you and the country there is nothing in this for the people.

From what I have seen already we are destroying peoples food and water sources making them dependent on who? and grossly destabilizing the ground. Everywhere fracking goes on earthquakes are showing up regardless of the fact that there was no earthquakes in the past and it is no ones fault of course, it is natural my rear.
To me for the people to think there is any plus at all at our becoming energy independent they would want to see the price at the pump go down. That you know will never happen because it is not in the interest of oil companies. As they do now, whenever something good or bad happens that may or may not even affect the industry they raise prices.
So self sufficiency is not to our benefit it is to the benefit of the energy industry alone in the long run.Politicians of course will take credit and for what is anyone's guess. Just imagine the change to the world's current energy leaders.
In a nutshell, the US will no longer need Africa's or the middle east oil.


*US to be top oil producer by 2017, report says, America will be self-sufficient by 2030, study finds: The consequences are ‘‘potentially far reaching’’ for global energy markets and trade, the report said. Birol noted, for example, that Middle Eastern oil once bound for the United States would probably be rerouted to China. US-mined coal, facing declining demand in its home market, is already heading to Europe and China instead.




I do not like Fracking or horizontal drilling but imagine the United States as the worlds leading gas And oil exporter? A headline on an old newspaper reads: Oil Shale Development Imminent,". That edition of the defunct Grand Junction News, was published at the dawn of the 20th century.



More than a hundred years later, instability is roiling world oil markets, and Americans are paying $3.50 a gallon for gas. And oil shale fever is again rising in the geologic region known as the Piceance Basin, part of the Green River Formation that stretches across the rugged plains of northwestern Colorado and parts of Wyoming and Utah.


There is no dispute that a thousand feet below the isolated ranch country here on Colorado's western slope lie almost unimaginable oil riches. It's locked in sedimentary rock -- essentially immature oil that given a few million years under heat and pressure would produce pools of oil easy to extract.


The Energy Department and private industry estimate that a trillion barrels are here in Colorado -- about the same amount as the entire world's known reserves of conventional oil. The entire Green River Formation might hold as much as 2 trillion barrels.


Supposedly secretly Pushed by the Bush administration and legislation from Congress , and spurred by oil prices above $70 a barrel, the energy industry is mobilized to unlock the secret of oil shale. Now Obama has made retrieving shale oil a priority. 


As it has before, shale oil holds out the hope of a USA no longer dependent on foreign oil. Shell Oil is engaged in a multi year test of a new technology for extracting the oil. Previous efforts that were uneconomical and environmentally destructive entailed mining the rock, crushing it and heating it above ground to release the oil.

Shell's new process involves sinking heaters deep underground, cooking the rock at 700 degrees and recovering the oil and natural gas with conventional drilling.

For a decade, Shell has been ramping up its research on private property here. It is also one of a handful of companies vying for research and development leases on larger tracts of federal land nearby. That could lead to full-scale development across 1,200 square miles of western Colorado.

Early results are promising, says Terry O'Connor, a vice president in the oil giant's unconventional resource division. But, he admits, "no one has been able to develop oil shale on a commercially sustainable basis.

That is $3.50 to $4 fuel that is here now. My question is have the oil companies purposely been driving up the prices in order to justify retrieving this huge reserves at our expense? Also at the expense of the environment and alternative fuel sources! What about world balance? I would prefer we stay status quo and keep our own ability to be independent active but as a big stick. What say you?

James Joiner
Gardner Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com


Friday, May 17, 2013

Do downsides of U.S. energy independence outweigh upsides? I think so




The more I think about the US being energy independent and the world's top oil and natural gas producer the more destabilizing I believe it will be to world balance if there in fact is such a thing.
Let's start at home. I do not like fracking one bit. There is nothing good about it except for the energy companies and their interests and Politicians and their interests. Once again despite the lies as to how good this is for you and the country there is nothing in this for the people.
From what I have seen already we are destroying peoples food and water sources making them dependent on who? and grossly destabilizing the ground. Everywhere fracking goes on earthquakes are showing up regardless of the fact that there was no earthquakes in the past and it is no ones fault of course, it is natural my rear.
To me for the people to think there is any plus at all at our becoming energy independent they would want to see the price at the pump go down. That you know will never happen because it is not in the interest of oil companies. As they do now, whenever something good or bad happens that may or may not even affect the industry they raise prices.
So self sufficiency is not to our benefit it is to the benefit of the energy industry alone in the long run.Politicians of course will take credit and for what is anyone's guess. Just imagine the change to the world's current energy leaders.
In a nutshell, the US will no longer need Africa's or the middle east oil or what little natural gas we get there. So what you say, they will just sell it to India and or China who are more than happy to get it. The middle east, China, and the entire world energy balance is changing as we speak.
 The US will be off the market as a user and will be an ever growing supplier competing with the world's top natural gas producer Russia along with the middle east, Africa, and the rest of the world for oil.

Just think of the monumental changes that have already begun: Japan to build LNG terminal for US shale gas

Listen to this article. Powered by Odiogo.com






I do not like Fracking or horizontal drilling but imagine the United States as the worlds leading gas And oil exporter? A headline on an old newspaper reads: Oil Shale Development Imminent,". That edition of the defunct Grand Junction News, was published at the dawn of the 20th century.


More than a hundred years later, instability is roiling world oil markets, and Americans are paying $3.50 a gallon for gas. And oil shale fever is again rising in the geologic region known as the Piceance Basin, part of the Green River Formation that stretches across the rugged plains of northwestern Colorado and parts of Wyoming and Utah.


There is no dispute that a thousand feet below the isolated ranch country here on Colorado's western slope lie almost unimaginable oil riches. It's locked in sedimentary rock -- essentially immature oil that given a few million years under heat and pressure would produce pools of oil easy to extract.


The Energy Department and private industry estimate that a trillion barrels are here in Colorado -- about the same amount as the entire world's known reserves of conventional oil. The entire Green River Formation might hold as much as 2 trillion barrels.


Supposedly secretly Pushed by the Bush administration and legislation from Congress , and spurred by oil prices above $70 a barrel, the energy industry is mobilized to unlock the secret of oil shale. Now Obama has made retrieving shale oil a priority. 

As it has before, shale oil holds out the hope of a USA no longer dependent on foreign oil. Shell Oil is engaged in a multi year test of a new technology for extracting the oil. Previous efforts that were uneconomical and environmentally destructive entailed mining the rock, crushing it and heating it above ground to release the oil.

Shell's new process involves sinking heaters deep underground, cooking the rock at 700 degrees and recovering the oil and natural gas with conventional drilling.

For a decade, Shell has been ramping up its research on private property here. It is also one of a handful of companies vying for research and development leases on larger tracts of federal land nearby. That could lead to full-scale development across 1,200 square miles of western Colorado.

Early results are promising, says Terry O'Connor, a vice president in the oil giant's unconventional resource division. But, he admits, "no one has been able to develop oil shale on a commercially sustainable basis.

That is $3.50 to $4 fuel that is here now. My question is have the oil companies purposely been driving up the prices in order to justify retrieving this huge reserves at our expense? Also at the expense of the environment and alternative fuel sources! What about world balance? I would prefer we stay status quo and keep our own ability to be independent active but as a big stick. What say you?

James Joiner
Gardner Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com


Thursday, March 14, 2013

Japan to build LNG terminal for US shale gas imports-media




A headline on an old newspaper reads: Oil Shale Development Imminent,". That edition of the defunct Grand Junction News, was published at the dawn of the 20th century.

More than a hundred years later, instability is roiling world oil markets, and Americans are paying $3.50 a gallon for gas. And oil shale fever is again rising in the geologic region known as the Piceance Basin, part of the Green River Formation that stretches across the rugged plains of northwestern Colorado and parts of Wyoming and Utah.

There is no dispute that a thousand feet below the isolated ranch country here on Colorado's western slope lie almost unimaginable oil riches. It's locked in sedimentary rock -- essentially immature oil that given a few million years under heat and pressure would produce pools of oil easy to extract.

The Energy Department and private industry estimate that a trillion barrels are here in Colorado -- about the same amount as the entire world's known reserves of conventional oil. The entire Green River Formation might hold as much as 2 trillion barrels.

supposedly secretly Pushed by the Bush administration and legislation from Congress , and spurred by oil prices above $70 a barrel, the energy industry is mobilized to unlock the secret of oil shale. Now Obama has made retrieving shale oil a priority. 
As it has before, shale oil holds out the hope of a USA no longer dependent on foreign oil. Shell Oil is engaged in a multi year test of a new technology for extracting the oil. Previous efforts that were uneconomical and environmentally destructive entailed mining the rock, crushing it and heating it above ground to release the oil.

Shell's new process involves sinking heaters deep underground, cooking the rock at 700 degrees and recovering the oil and natural gas with conventional drilling.

For a decade, Shell has been ramping up its research on private property here. It is also one of a handful of companies vying for research and development leases on larger tracts of federal land nearby. That could lead to full-scale development across 1,200 square miles of western Colorado.

Early results are promising, says Terry O'Connor, a vice president in the oil giant's unconventional resource division. But, he admits, "no one has been able to develop oil shale on a commercially sustainable basis.

That is $3.50 to $4 fuel that is here now, then I hear this a while back and more started making sense!

Legendary oilman T Boone Pickens says he doesn't believe that the oil sands are an effective substitute for our fuel needs. Pickens said that huge development costs and a tight labor supply will prevent the Alberta oil sands and other unconventional means of production from covering the shortfall in supply. That said, Pickens holds a big stake in both the Canadian Oil Sands Trust [TSX:COS.UN] and Suncor Energy.

When Pickens was in the Alberta oil sand fields in the 60's somebody said this isn't going to work, it isn't possible. It'll all have to be subsidized to a level, said, before they'd make money you'd have to have $5 oil," Pickens says laughing. "We never thought it would happen."
Six years ago I did a story on shale oil and oil sand but it did not go over well because people felt it would never happen. Knowing all the research and development that has been put into these alternatives!

Knowing that T Boone Pickens had invested multiple millions in this! Knowing that between us and Canada we have the more reserves than the entire world combined!
 
Knowing that he said refining it would not be profitable until fuel hit $5 per gallon, you have to believe that $5 gas will be here before you know it and equitable way has been discovered to capture it and bring it to the pump. It is already $5 per gallon in parts of California.

My question is have the oil companies purposely been driving up the prices in order to justify retrieving this huge reserves at our expense? Also at the expense of the environment and alternative fuel sources!

James Joiner
Gardner Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com

Sunday, January 20, 2013

America, the Saudi Arabia of tomorrow

 
Is Fracking safe though?
 
America, the Saudi Arabia of tomorrow: The days when Mideast oil-producing dictatorships and their friends at OPEC could so easily wave their power over a trembling, oil-thirsty West are on their way to becoming a relic of the past.America still needs imported oil. But growing production and shrinking consumption have created a most promising trend. 
 
 
A headline on an old newspaper reads: Oil Shale Development Imminent,". That edition of the defunct Grand Junction News, was published at the dawn of the 20th century.

More than a hundred years later, instability is roiling world oil markets, and Americans are paying $3.50 a gallon for gas. And oil shale fever is again rising in the geologic region known as the Piceance Basin, part of the Green River Formation that stretches across the rugged plains of northwestern Colorado and parts of Wyoming and Utah.

There is no dispute that a thousand feet below the isolated ranch country here on Colorado's western slope lie almost unimaginable oil riches. It's locked in sedimentary rock -- essentially immature oil that given a few million years under heat and pressure would produce pools of oil easy to extract.

The Energy Department and private industry estimate that a trillion barrels are here in Colorado -- about the same amount as the entire world's known reserves of conventional oil. The entire Green River Formation might hold as much as 2 trillion barrels.

supposedly secretly Pushed by the Bush administration and legislation from Congress , and spurred by oil prices above $70 a barrel, the energy industry is mobilized to unlock the secret of oil shale. Now Obama has made retrieving shale oil a priority.
As it has before,  shale oil holds out the hope of a USA no longer dependent on foreign oil. Shell Oil is engaged in a multiyear test of a new technology for extracting the oil. Previous efforts that were uneconomical and environmentally destructive entailed mining the rock, crushing it and heating it above ground to release the oil.

Shell's new process involves sinking heaters deep underground, cooking the rock at 700 degrees and recovering the oil and natural gas with conventional drilling.

For a decade, Shell has been ramping up its research on private property here. It is also one of a handful of companies vying for research and development leases on larger tracts of federal land nearby. That could lead to full-scale development across 1,200 square miles of western Colorado.

Early results are promising, says Terry O'Connor, a vice president in the oil giant's unconventional resource division. But, he admits, "no one has been able to develop oil shale on a commercially sustainable basis.

That is $3.50 to $4 fuel that is here now, then I hear this a while back and more started making sense!

Legendary oilman T Boone Pickens says he doesn't believe that the oil sands are an effective substitute for our fuel needs. Pickens said  that huge development costs and a tight labor supply will prevent the Alberta oil sands and other unconventional means of production from covering the shortfall in supply. That said, Pickens holds a big stake in both the Canadian Oil Sands Trust [TSX:COS.UN] and Suncor Energy.

When Pickens was in the Alberta oil sand fields in the 60's somebody said this isn't going to work, it isn't possible. It'll all have to be subsidized to a level, said, before they'd make money you'd have to have $5 oil," Pickens says laughing. "We never thought it would happen."
 
Six years ago I did a story on shale oil and oil sand but it did not go over well because people felt it would never happen. Knowing all the research and development that has been put into these alternatives!

Knowing that T Boone Pickens has invested multiple millions in this! Knowing that between us and Canada we have the more reserves than the entire world combined!
 
Knowing that he said refining it would not be profitable until fuel hit $5 per gallon, you have to believe that $5 gas wall be here before you know it or an equitable way has been discovered to capture it and bring it to the pump.

My question is have the oil companies purposely been driving up the prices in order to justify retrieving this huge reserves at our expense? Also at the expense of the environment and alternative fuel sources!
  
James Joiner
Gardner Ma

http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com