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May 12, 2012
Recoverable Oil In Green River Formation Equal to Entire World’s Oil Reserves ~ And Obama Does Nothing!
GOA: Recoverable Oil In Green River Formation Equal to Entire World’s Oil Reserves
GAO: Recoverable Oil in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming 'About Equal to Entire World’s Proven Oil Reserves'
The Green River Formation, a largely vacant area of mostly federal land that covers the territory where Colorado, Utah and Wyoming come together, contains about as much recoverable oil as all the rest the world’s proven reserves combined, an auditor from the Government Accountability Office told Congress on Thursday.
The GAO testimony stressed that the federal government was in “a unique position to influence the development of oil shale” because the Green River deposits were mostly beneath federal land.
It also noted that developing the oil would pose “socioeconomic challenges,” which included bringing “a sizable influx of workers who along with their families put additional stress on local infrastructure” and “making planning for growth difficult for local governments.”
“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.”
In her oral statement before the subcommittee, Mittal said that developing the shale oil would create wealth and jobs for the country, but also challenges for government.
“Being able to tap this vast amount of oil locked within this formation will go a long way to help to meet our future demands for oil. The U.S. Geological Survey, as you noted, estimates that the formation contains about 3 trillion barrels of oil of which half may be recoverable,” she said.
“As you can imagine having the technology to develop this vast energy resource will lead to a number of important socioeconomic benefits including the creation of jobs, increases in wealth and increases in tax and royalty payments for federal and state governments,” she said.
“While large-scale oil-shale development offers socioeconomic opportunities it also poses certain socioeconomic challenges that also should not be overlooked,” she testified. “Oil shale development like other extractive industries can bring a sizable influx of workers who along with their families put additional stressed on local infrastructure. Development from expansion of extractive industries has historically followed a boom-and-bust cycle making planning for growth difficult for local governments.”
Wild Thing's comment.........
Great news, ifi we just had a president that would jump on this and appreciate it.
Posted by Wild Thing at May 12, 2012 12:55 AM
Comments
The present oil boom in the Bakken and Three Forks Shale Formation (a broad area the size of France comprising the Western third of North Dakota, Eastern Montana and Canadian Saskatchewan) proves just what can be done and has been successful because it is mostly all under privately held land.
So great is this boom, that by this time next year North Dakota is expected to surpass Alaska in oil production second only behind Texas which in number one.
The Bakken together with the Green River Shale Formations could within a decade go a very long way towards American energy independence.
The problem lies in that development of the Green River Formation will be much more challenging as it is mostly under federally owned land in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, and would require strong long term political leadership both federal and state to allow high capital risk taking ventures to establish themselves there.
With an administration in Washington that includes the Vice President talking like this:
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/05/11/video-biden-claimed-coal-power-is-more-dangerous-than-terrorism/
we will never get there;
but a true understanding by more American voters of just how the extraction of hydrocarbons from the labyrinth of bedding planes; top seal, reservoir rocks, shale source rocks and sandstones is all possible without environmental damage to water tables, then maybe we will someday soon.
The game changer has been the combining of hydraulic fracturing with the development and evolution of directional drilling with steerable horizontal drilling which is now all the rage, making tapping these natural resources possible and most importantly domestically, all here on American soil.
This fascinating video by the remarkable oil field geologists of Northern Oil and Gas Company in the Bakken graphically explains this modern day process of combining hydraulic fracturing with horizontal drilling:
http://www.northernoil.com/drilling
Wouldn't it be something if more videos like this from well educated, results oriented, productive private sector Americans who know what they're talking about would be broadcast on our television networks rather than the muddled process and politics garbage of public sector talking heads and their protracted ineffectiveness we see far too much of these days from and including the highest office holders of this administration which is well on its way out.
Posted by: Carlos at May 12, 2012 06:31 AM
It seems the problem is the federal government owns too much land in America and most of what they own seems to be out West. I know when I lived in Montana,folks out there despised the fact that politicians from other states, particularly the Northeast, could tell them what they could and couldn't do with their land.
Posted by: BobF at May 12, 2012 07:38 AM
One would think that the present Administrationj would be all over this.
Stuff like this is a real game changer as far as the voter is concerned.
It just goes to show how much the politicians , of both parties, are more into special interest groups, the enviros, in this case, than they are in serving the best interests of the population in general.
Posted by: Sean at May 12, 2012 10:04 AM
Perhaps the refusal of our federal govt. to allow America to gain energy independence will lead to a second American revolution. Or maybe we will just go on to live under the daily control of various govt. electronic black boxes like all our new cars have..
Posted by: TomR, armed in Texas at May 13, 2012 02:19 AM
Thank you so much. Thank you for the links and information.
Posted by: Wild Thing at May 13, 2012 04:24 AM
Thank you so much. Thank you for the links and information.
Posted by: Wild Thing at May 13, 2012 04:25 AM
