Technology of getting oil from shale

wildsparrow

Has anyone seen this article? Could perhaps delay the onset of PO -

rockymountainnews

Originally published on slashdot so the site may be running slow due to high traffic.

backstop

WildSparrow -

Last Monday I saw the British government's cheif scientist interviewed on TV over Katrina. He was very clear on the strong probability that the unprecedented GoM sea temperatures (that changed the storm from a Cat.1 to a Cat 5 in just 24 hours) were an outcome of Global Warming.

He spoke of the growing global scientific consensus of this origin for Katrina's destructive power. The implication is that what we now see in sudden global oil problems is a shock of Climate Destabilization interacting with the stresses of Peak Oil.

I suggest that being committed to action over one while being complacent over the other is pointless and, as in NO, lethally dangerous and economically ruinous. I'm not accusing you of complacency by the way, but rather those who hype the likes of tar sands and oil shales for profit.

They ignore the fact that far from increasing our CO2 pollution via these options, we urgently need to cut it globally by 2/3rds, just to stop making the problem of excess atmospheric CO2 worse.

Given also that the scale of growth of these FFFs (filthiest fossil fuels) required to keep ahead of annual oil reserves' depletion is way beyond anything ever acheived in the days of cheap oil, they are, in reality, a non-starter.

So, in answer to your question, could they perhaps delay the onset of PO, I'd have to say no, not a chance.

regards,

Backstop

Raxozanne · Last edited by Raxozanne on Sun Sep 04, 2005 9:01 am; edited 4 times in total

Sorry I keep on editing this because I don't know what I want to say really apart from that I agree with what Baby says below. At 3.5 units for every 1 unit of energy invested these sands are no where near as good as oil was and will not be able to keep business as usual.

BabyPeanut

NeoPeasant

And between the second and third paragraph of this article explaining why you needn't worry about oil is an ad for a GM SUV.

Newspapers are roughly 50% by weight automobile and suburban real estate ads. They would not exist without them. Newspapers don't dare publish anything suggesting that auto suburbia has anything less than a rosy future.

bobbyboy · Tar Sands Joined: May 16, 2004 Posts: 75

According to Jean Laherrere the electricity costs alone for this Shell project are $200/Barrel.

Googolplex · Heavy Crude Joined: Apr 11, 2005 Posts: 127

The simple response:

This is an interesting new way to produce oil, but like TDP it is not really an energy source like the oil we can get ready-made out of the ground is.

joe1347 · Heavy Crude Joined: Sep 05, 2005 Posts: 146

Etalon · Heavy Crude Joined: Sep 04, 2005 Posts: 117

To be viable, I would think they would be using nuclear power for the heating/refrigeration. It would be more efficient than normal, as waste heat from the plant can be used directly as the heat source.

This whole oil shale thing does not seem to be about "making" energy (yes im well aware you cant make energy) it seems to be about using a inconvenient energy source (nuclear power) to make convenient energy source you can use in your car. I say make, as it looks like you end up putting more energy in than you get out, although the energy out is of higher value.

sicophiliac

Ok, It seems like anytime a new technology or potential means to extract oil gets brought up its almost always shot down by the doomers sighting global warming concerns. However signifigant that problem is or may be its still not the issue here. Can this postpone peak oil ? Id say theres a good chance of it. They state an EROEI of 3.5:1 which is better than the rate of tar sands. That link did state that was only for the energy envolved in heating it rather then the refrigoration too but that might have just been overlooked in the article. It was not explicitly mentioned by the way... and I doubt Shell would simply forget to factor that in before investing millions of dollars into this. Also with any really small scale experimental procedure like this the total costs of energy and what not in ratio to energy recovered would be alot higher then a large scale comerically viable project. Its like the first experimental nuclear plants of the first time somebody did research setting up a small scale offshore drilling rig.

wildsparrow

Lehyina · Heavy Crude Joined: Jan 12, 2005 Posts: 104

Shell's ingenious approach to oil shale is pretty slick

Dukat_Reloaded · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jul 31, 2005 Posts: 1005

It's bull, just another scam to get investors money.

Lehyina · Heavy Crude Joined: Jan 12, 2005 Posts: 104

Probably should have posted this under Wildsparrows earlier thread. Apologies for not seeing it earlier. Mods feel free to move this.

{thread merged by moderator}

rowante

This reports suggest this will not mitigate world peak.

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2005/RAND_MG414.sum.pdf