Recoverable oil in the USA

Originally posted by Metal Brain
Why is this not front page news in the corporate news media?

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/gao-recoverable-oil-colorado-utah-wyoming-about-equal-entire-world-s-proven-oil

Why is the USA government allowing China to buy oil and gas assets across the U.S.?

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2012/03/06/chinas-footprint-in-us-oil-a-state-by-state-list/

Possibly because no significant quantity of this "recoverable oil" can be recovered using existing technology at competitive prices. From the report linked in your site:

Uncertainty about viable technologies. A significant challenge to the
development of oil shale lies in the uncertainty surrounding the
viability of current technologies to economically extract oil from oil
shale. To extract the oil, the rock needs to be heated to very high
temperatures—ranging from about 650 to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit—
in a process known as retorting. Retorting can be accomplished
primarily by two methods. One method involves mining the oil shale,
bringing it to the surface, and heating it in a vessel known as a retort.
Mining oil shale and retorting it has been demonstrated in the United
States and is currently done to a limited extent in Estonia, China, and
Brazil. However, a commercial mining operation with surface retorts
has never been developed in the United States because the oil it
produces competes directly with conventional crude oil, which
historically has been less expensive to produce. The other method,
known as an in-situ process, involves drilling holes into the oil shale,
inserting heaters to heat the rock, and then collecting the oil as it is
freed from the rock. Some in-situ technologies have been
demonstrated on very small scales, but other technologies have yet to
be proven, and none has been shown to be economically or
environmentally viable at a commercial scale. According to some
energy experts, the key to developing our country’s oil shale is the
development of an in-situ process because most of the richest oil
shale is buried beneath hundreds to thousands of feet of rock, making
mining difficult or impossible. In addition to these uncertainties,
transporting the oil produced from oil shale to refineries may pose
challenges because pipelines and major highways are not prolific in
the remote areas where the oil shale is located, and the large-scale
infrastructure that would be needed to supply power to heat the oil
shale is lacking. http://science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/documents/hearings/HHRG-112-%20SY20-WState-AMittal-20120510.pdf

pp. 9-10


Second question: "free trade".

Originally posted by no1marauder



Second question: "free trade".

Why would we import oil from abroad and sell what is already here? What about transportation costs?

Originally posted by Metal Brain
Why would we import oil from abroad and sell what is already here? What about transportation costs?

Because American workers get paid more than workers in the developing world?

Originally posted by Teinosuke
Because American workers get paid more than workers in the developing world?

Since when did the American worker have a say so in any of this? I don't buy that.

Originally posted by Metal Brain
Why would we import oil from abroad and sell what is already here? What about transportation costs?

"We" aren't oil corporations. They'll sell wherever it is most profitable.

It's not clear from the article whether the firms that have been brought at least partially by the Chinese are exporting oil, however.

Originally posted by no1marauder
"We" aren't oil corporations. They'll sell wherever it is most profitable.

It's not clear from the article whether the firms that have been brought at least partially by the Chinese are exporting oil, however.

I guess they have to invest all those dollars somewhere if they can't exchange them into another currency.

Originally posted by Metal Brain
I guess they have to invest all those dollars somewhere if they can't exchange them into another currency.

I wasn't aware it was a problem exchanging dollars for other currencies.

Originally posted by no1marauder
I wasn't aware it was a problem exchanging dollars for other currencies.

This is an old article, but it explains some of it.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5b47c8f8-488c-11de-8870-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1utBfIQdT

Originally posted by no1marauder
Possibly because no significant quantity of this "recoverable oil" can be recovered using existing technology at competitive prices. From the report linked in your site:

Uncertainty about viable technologies. A significant challenge to the
development of oil shale lies in the uncertainty surrounding the
viability of current technologies to economica ...[text shortened]... Y20-WState-AMittal-20120510.pdf

pp. 9-10


Second question: "free trade".

That could change if fracking costs are reduced in the future.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/17/us-usa-shale-costs-idUSBRE84G06620120517