by AK - Jeff 12 Replies latest social current
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911
Other than the protests of the tree huggers, I can see no reason [outside of current political thinking] for us not to get this resource working to both 'stimulate' our own economy and to short-sheet the Arab greed that holds us ransom.
I am no geo-scientist, but this seem unbelievable.
Jeff
As a student of the geo-sciences here is my 2 cents.
The oil is continuous through the geological formation, not collected in easily exploited pockets. This make recovery inherently harder and more expensive. Next a geological formation could span the a significant part of the state. (Think of a cubic yard of rocks in a pile versus 5 cubic yards of rock scattered over an acre. There might be more rocks on the acre of land but how much more work and time will it be to fill a wheel-barrel from each source.)
I do agree with you that one of the major reasons the economy stalled was the price of energy.
There is easy recovery oil, and difficult recovery oil. This stuff is non-conventional. It is a lot harder to get out of the ground than Saudi sweet crude. The end result is a higher price per barrel. You can recover oil from any formation that contains it, but there gets to be a point where it does not make economic sense, and once the energy to extract approaches the energy yield extracted, it stops making physics sense also. I wonder what the cost estimates are on these oil deposits.
BTS
Well the short answer is: Its not OPEC.
US: Foreign oil is a little over half of total.
OPEC oil is well under half of total foreign oil.
Things that make one go... hmmm....
This oil is called technically recoverable. One oil field has produced 65bbl from this Bakkan.
SO the oil is feasibly extracted, though I do not doubt there are problems in this regard. I do not want the efforts to create 'cleaner' energy stifled - I am green-minded long term. But the short term needs, and the ability to drive the price structure downward seems to be in our grasp. If I correctly read another report on this, there are about 500bbl of oil reserve inside our borders now, making US among the largest holders of known oil reserves on the planet.
THe real jobs that could be created by using this oil, combined with the real jobs that would be created in development of new energy sources, could improve the economy short-term and the ecology and economy long-term. Oil can be extracted safely, and without the old pollution issues of the past.
I wish that true political bipartism could be achieved, allowing us to see the potential, and exploiting that potential, to reap the benefits.
Jeff
I agree with you Ak - Jeff. There is however tremendous political resistance to exploiting domestic reserves (unfortunately.) The impact to the balance of trade and payments alone would be enormous.
BTS
US: Foreign oil is a little over half of total.
OPEC oil is well under half of total foreign oil.
No, actually we produce about 8.5bbl domestically, and export about 1.2bbl of that per annum, leaving our net domestic usage at around 7.3bbl.
We consume around 20.75bbl annually. We import therefore, around 13.5bbl per annum, or approximately 66%.
But Opec, though a lesser supplier than non-OPEC, is still a very large factor here. I found it difficult to nail down the percentages.
Jeff
Perhaps a better header for this thread would have been: Why are allowing oil-imports to hold us hostage [without direct reference to OPEC].
Jeff
Oil is a global market, as such, it really doesn't matter if it is OPEC oil itself getting shipped in.
BTS
AK Jeff,
This morning (either on the Today Show or MSNBC) T. Boone Pickens was interviewed on this very subject.
If you get a chance to watch it you should. He discusses the current circumstances of U.S. energy sources and options.
