SandBoxBlogs: Hot Air Blog "In the American west: An ocean of oil"

Jazz Shaw:
"In case you missed it – and you very well might have, since the media was too busy talking about gay marriage to be bothered – a rather remarkable thing happened in Washington this week. An auditor from the GAO testified before the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and Environment on the subject of energy. But instead of hearing about how horrible things are, she calmly delivered something of a bombshell.

“The Green River Formation–an assemblage of over 1,000 feet of sedimentary rocks that lie beneath parts of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming–contains the world’s largest deposits of oil shale,”Anu K. Mittal, the GAO’s director of natural resources and environment said in written testimony submitted to the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.
“USGS estimates that the Green River Formation contains about 3 trillion barrels of oil, and about half of this may be recoverable, depending on available technology and economic conditions,” Mittal testified.
“The Rand Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, estimates that 30 to 60 percent of the oil shale in the Green River Formation can be recovered,” Mittal told the subcommittee. “At the midpoint of this estimate, almost half of the 3 trillion barrels of oil would be recoverable. This is an amount about equal to the entire world’s proven oil reserves.”

Read those last two sentences again and think about it for a moment. The largest remaining reserves of oil on the planet are not in Saudi Arabia or buried under the frozen steppes of the former Soviet Union. They’re here in the United States. Combined with the massive resources in western Canada, that means that North America is the King of Oil for the future. But what – if anything – will we do about it?...."
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"Unapologetic pursuit and tracking of patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBoxBlogs: Grand Junction Daily Sentinel "Oil shale resolution takes dig at government"

(See lesser coverage of the same story by GSPI here)  

Gary Harmon:
"Garfield County will lead the way among several oil shale counties in three western states when its County Commission today debates a resolution lambasting the federal government for its handling of oil shale.

Garfield and Rio Blanco counties are home to the richest deposits of oil shale on the globe, and as such, Garfield County Commissioner John Martin said, “We’re probably the first ones out” with the resolution.
Environmental organizations, however, prepared a fact sheet questioning the economic viability and water requirements cited in the resolution and questioned whether the resolution was drafted by the industry.

The resolution criticizes the U.S. Department of Energy for abdicating “the responsibility Congress placed upon it to defend and uphold a viable oil shale energy program” and hammers at the Bureau of Land Management as being steered “by a host of anti-oil shale, pro-wilderness groups.”

One thing that rankles officials from the oil shale counties is an agreement reached between environmental groups and the Interior Department on lawsuits settled under President Barack Obama after being filed against the department under President George W. Bush....." (Read more?  Click title)

"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBoxBlogs: Craig Daily Press "Quicksilver ‘motivated’ by Moffat County prospects"

Joe Moylan:
"The Niobrara Formation has long been a resource of interest for some of the country’s largest oil and natural gas producers.

After years of research and land plays, companies like Shell, Axia Energy and Gulfport began exploratory operations in Moffat County last spring to determine whether the Niobrara could be the site of the next major domestic oil and natural gas boom.

Quicksilver Resources, a company based in Fort Worth, Texas, also staked its claim in the region, and on Tuesday Danny Mondragon, Colorado project manager for Quicksilver, laid out for the Moffat County Commission one of the most ambitious exploration plans to date.

“Quicksilver is the company to keep an eye on,” Moffat County Commissioner Tom Mathers said after the lunch meeting. “They’re more motivated and hungrier to grow their business.

“Unlike Shell, which seems to move at a snail’s pace because they’re so big.”...."
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"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBoxBlogs: Glenwood Springs Post Independent "County to fire off oil shale study critique"

John Stroud:
"...Garfield Commission Chairman John Martin said the resolution came out of a meeting in Vernal, Utah, last week between officials from the affected counties, including Garfield County.

“This is being put forward as part of the tri-state comment period provided in the EIS process,” Martin said. “It is the consensus of the affected counties in the three states.”

Officials from Mesa, Moffat and Rio Blanco counties were also involved in the Vernal meeting, he said. The Wyoming counties of Carbon, Sweetwater and Uinta, as well as Uintah County in Utah were also represented.

The meeting reportedly included former BLM Director Kathleen Clarke, who now heads efforts to encourage energy development on federal lands in Utah.

The joint resolution also asks that the BLM's deadline for comments on the oil shale leasing plan be extended at least another 30 days until the middle of June...."  (Read more?  Click title)
"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBoxBlogs: Glenwood Springs Post Independent "Shell produces 1,700 barrels of oil from Piceance shale"

Fascinating.

That we have had how many news reports from our local paper on this incredible technology from Shell Oil?

Technology developed right here in our own backyard?

Two?

Congrats to Shell Oil on their major progress up on the Piceance Basin.

John Colson:
"The company has been working on its own privately held land in the Piceance Basin since 1996, Tucker said.

Historically, the methods used to extract the kerogen have involved mining the ore in which it is contained, transporting the ore to a “retorting” or heating plant to liquefy the kerogen and extract it from the rock, then refining the liquid for later use.

Shell has developed a number of technological innovations, including an in-situ method that involves heating the rock in place, underground, and piping the resulting flow of oil up to the surface.

Shell also is working on a “freeze-wall” technology. This method surrounds the area to be heated with a wall of supercooled rock, to prevent contamination of nearby groundwater resources while the extraction process is underway.

Tucker said the 1,700 barrels of extracted oil came from a plot that was 30 feet by 40 feet at the surface, and roughly 1,800 feet deep, on Shell property.

The process, she told reporters, employed an “in-situ conversion” technology that sinks heating elements into the ground and heats the kerogen-rich rock layers to 260 degrees Fahrenheit. The kerogen is converted from its original solid form to liquid and gas, which flow to the surface.

The freeze-wall was used to isolate the process from the surrounding subterranean region, Tucker said...."
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"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBox Comments: KREX News 5 "Future of Oil Shale Debated During Western Slope Forum"

"Two experts with completely different ideas sit together at the same table to answer questions about what the future of this potential energy source could look like. Jeremy Boak is a Colorado School of Mines professor director who has been studying oil shale for years. Randy Udall is an energy analyst who has studied oil shale for decades.

These polar opposites opened up the dialogue Tuesday night, something that has not been done in a long time. Western Colorado has a long love-hate relationship with oil shale development. In the past, booms and busts have left many people wary of the process to get the oil from rock..."
(KREX)


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