US oil reserves-enviro's?

[Tunaslam]

Have you folks read this? Surely the enviro's are being funded by foreign oil? What can we do about it if big oil in the US can't fight them? Maybe this country has to go broke before something is really done about this crazy situation?

OIL

Here's an interesting read

Also if I may add, about 6 months ago I was watching a news program on oil and one of the Forbes Bros. was the guest. This is out of context, but this is the actual question as asked. The host said to Forbes, "I am going to ask you a direct question and I would like a direct answer, how much oil does the U.S. have in the ground." Forbes did not miss a beat, he said, "more than all the Middle East put together." Please read below.




The U. S. Geological Service issued a report in April ('08) that only scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big. It was a revised report (hadn't been updated since '95) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota ; western South Dakota ; and extreme eastern Montana .... check THIS out:

The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska 's Prudhoe Bay , and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable... at $107 a barrel, we're looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.

'When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea..' says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature's financial analyst.

'This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years' reports, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It's a formation known as the Williston Basin , but is more commonly referred to as the 'Bakken.' And it stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada . For years, U. S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the 'Big Oil' companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago.. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken's massive reserves.... and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels. And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL!

That's enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 2041 years straight.
THAT'S RIGHT. 2,041 YEARS STRAIGHT!!!!
2. And if THAT didn't throw you on the floor, then this next one should - because it's from TWO YEARS AGO!

U. S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World!
Stansberry Report Online - 4/20/2006

Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world. It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. In three and a half years of high oil prices none has been extracted. With this motherload of oil why are we still fighting over off-shore drilling?

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 ..

HOW can this BE? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this? Because the environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil! Again, we are letting a small group of people dictate our lives and our economy.....WHY?

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.

Don't think 'OPEC' will drop its price - even with this find? Think again! It's all about the competitive marketplace, - it has to. Think OPEC just might be funding the environmentalists?


Got your attention/ire up yet? Hope so! Now, while you're thinking about it .... and hopefully P.O'd, do this:

3. Pass this along. If you don't take a little time to do this, then you should stifle yourself the next time you want to complain about gas prices--- because by doing NOTHING, you've forfeited your right to complain


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Now I just wonder what would happen in this country if every one of you sent this to every one in your address book.
By the way...this is all true. Check it out at the link below!!!
GOOGLE it or follow this link. It will blow your mind.
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911

[WaterBound]

All right I feel I must comment on this article and the many claims that are completely erroneous. Right off the bat I mention experts because the so-called oil reserves you mentioned are not homogeneous oil reserves. In actual fact much of the reserves of the Rocky Mountains or over 90% of the energy is actually of “natural gas”. Which is measured in cubic feet and NOT barrels. However shale oil is another thing.

Yeah experts like James Bartis can brag about reserves all he wants. All that matters is the EXTRACTABLE AMOUNT, “technically recoverable”. And even more importantly the cost effective extractable amount, “economically recoverable”. Not what we know is there in total theoretical calculation based on 10% sampling. You can use water drive or proppants all you want. This kind of shale oil is not a solid homogenous chunk of the “good stuff”. It is LARGE for the domestic US, but expensive to “consistently maintain” production. Gradations of porosity and fractures will greatly affect the recoverability rate.

It is true that some of the finds mentioned include OIL. Shale Oil reserves that have already proven their feasibility have been in production for over 50 years such as those at the Bakken site, Williston Basin Formation that spans North Dakota, Montana and Saskatchewan, Canada. It was discovered in the 1950’s. It is true that this site has huge deposits of shale oil and natural gas. However the majority is not full of “light sweet crude” oil. Unlike the Saudis reserves, ours require huge investments for the actual extraction and processing of the rocky oil. The Saudis can literally tap straight “light sweet crude” oil. This grade of oil is the highest because it requires the least refining into fuel. The problem is we need to transport it thousands of miles from various exporters around the globe such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq.

The question is whether or not the shipping costs of the fuel will outweigh the domestic costs of “unconventional oil”. That is to say unconventional oil like shale oil at Bakken and the Pacific Northwest that require huge amounts of medium to be reprocessed. Other reserves in Texas and Louisiana also hold key reserves. Yes the US has PLENTY of oil in the ground. However it is not yet cost effective enough to extract all of it in large quantities. At over $100 a barrel unconventional oil starts to look really profitable, but no way is a site like Bakken going to produce $16 a barrel oil on a consistent or even large-scale basis. The extraction and heating alone will cost more than $16 a barrel, let alone waste disposal. Take the tar sands of Canada as an example. I really wish $16 a barrel were feasible. It could greatly help our economy and boost sales of vehicles.

However it is much cheaper to tap the natural gas at the sites mentioned. Sites such as Bakken are NOT PROVEN to hold those large amounts of cost effective EXTRACTABLE oil. Your own source given from the US Geological Survey claims that 3-4.3 billion barrels a day are EXTRACTABLE. What we now think from the latest 2006 projection is that there is indeed over 300 billion barrels of oil at the Williston Basin Formation, of which 3-4.3 billion is cost effectively extractable NOW. The 2000 estimate grossly OVERESTIMATED the percentages of oil extraction. That claim by the EIA of 503 billion barrels is really optimistic and YET TO BE PROVEN. You must remember that today’s production is in the millions of barrels. It is going to take a lot of infrastructure development before we could feasibly use this source to supplant our dependence on foreign oil.

That is STILL a HUGE amount of domestic oil. However it will NOT be produced at $16 a barrel. It needs to be highly refined and hydrolyzed in order to be useable. In other words it will be mined as shale oil. Then heated and then refined into fuel. It can also be used straight in power plants like in Estonia. However that is really bad for our air quality. The natural gas reserves at Bakken will prove to be more cost effective in the long term, especially in regards to the environmental impact.

The environmental impact will surely eclipse any ideas of profit. Look at where this operation will take place. I would move away from this area IMMEDIATELY. Think about where they will be extracting this stuff. Right near a super caldera. I am not at all afraid of setting off the super volcano itself, but the release of sulfide gases through all of our extraction. Not to mention the air quality near the refineries that will be built nearby heating all this stuff up to over 900F. Not to mention what are they going to do with the leftover medium? Hydrolysis, “water drive”, will increase production of porous shale oil, but leave toxic lake pits of wastewater not to mention other proppants. Will it contaminate the water from its permanent disposal site?

The bottom line is that these various energy sites are going to be essential for the immediate future of our nation. However the idea that these new finds can safely sustain our economy without destroying our air and water are blind and shortsighted. As stated they have not yet been proven to be technically or even economically recoverable at peak 50% rates. The US Geological Survey compiled about the Bakken site is confirmed at 3-4.3 billion barrels. That number has not even been met yet. It probably won’t be met next year or the year after that. Substantial investments in the infrastructure will need to take place before major production can begin. As with many projects the initial costs are tremendous, but will be offset within two years of production. $40-60 a barrel production costs may be achievable at this time. However we need to consider that unconventional oil creates greater pollution.

The questions regarding the environmental damage can actually greatly inflate the costs. Is this kind of direction really the future of American industry? Should we use this source of energy for 2041 years? The claim that the enviros have held up development at sites like Bakken is completely false. It has been the technological and economic restraints that have prevented the vertical development of this specific shale oil site. The Bakkens unlike ANWR are not protected in the same manner. These kinds of unidirectional actions need to be reconsidered in light of the lack of sustainability of solely relying on fossil fuels for our nation’s needs.

In sharp contrast Rare Earth Elements have a greater importance for the economic and hence military security of our nation. While we should question the long term future of oil especially shale, we should NOT question the need for REEs. The Communist Chinese Government has a 97% stranglehold on the mining and refining of global REEs. The recent decision to open REE sites in Idaho near the Montana border and reopen another in the Mojave desert of California are of utmost importance to the national security of our nation.

All environmental concerns need to be ignored in light of the urgency of the situation. Clearly the future of green and military technologies relies upon these basic materials for sustained production let alone future growth. Presently our only advantage lies in our large natural mercury resources.

Mercury is a primary material needed in the mining and refining of REEs. Luckily we have WAY more Mercury than the Chinese have access to. The one caution I would have is not to avoid the use of Mercury, but collect and dispose of the waste properly. Otherwise we could make toxic cities like the Chinese have with their mining towns. That is part of the problem. German scientists were already called in to China and have advised the Chinese that they will have to cut production because their mine was too toxic for the workers to even mine.

For better or worse REEs are going to be with us well into the 22nd century. Should oil be our primary source of energy also into the 22nd century? I think HELL NO! We will never get rid of it in the industrialized world because of its usefulness such as with plastics. However it cannot be our primary source of energy long term. Developing shale oil long term into the 22nd century is not beneficial to our nation and should not be the solution to foreign oil. The solution lies in finding an environmentally friendly and sustainable source of energy. Let us face it we have already run out of clean pristine water. I know my water in Lake Elsinore was found to be the 4th worst water in the entire US. Corona was second worst after somewhere in Florida.

[rusty6]

that was an extremely informative response...thank you for that

[yakker]

Wow you guys are smart, So how do you unlock the shale without releasing all the nasties? Ideas?

[Howling Mad Murdock]

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

Why have we not built a single refinery in the last 3 decades? Do you not think that the billions we spend on foreign oil could be a little more than offset by putting that money towards refineries?