3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in North Dakota and Montana...

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smace
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3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in North Dakota and Montana...
reikiman
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Re: 3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil ...

That amount of oil is "nothing" in terms of oil reserves in a country that uses 11 million barrels per day. That's 400 days supply.

Oil shales and tar sands are a very dirty and hugely environmental-degrading process. The "oil" is deeply embedded in rock (or sand in the case of the tar sands) which means strip-mining the rock, pouring it into a vast machine, that heats and compresses the rock, just to squeeze out the few drops of oil. It's a very energy intense operation to run, requires a lot of water, and outputs a lot of pollution.

The Energy Return on Investment is around 1:1 (or worse) so in terms of gaining 'energy' it's a losing game.

smace
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Re: 3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil ...

True stetements, but I believe this report is on conventional oil. I have not had time to read the full report, but the summary fact sheet is talking about well derived oil.
Have to wait until I am not on someone elses time to read it.

reikiman
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Re: 3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil ...

Every reference I've heard to the Bakken Formation is it is an oil shale deposit, just like the other one in Colorado.

There is an information sheet: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2008/3021/ ... just read through it and it doesn't explicitly say one or the other.

DaveD
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Re: 3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil ...

Here's a good article about the Bakken Oil Formation: http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3868

eped
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Re: 3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil ...

I grew up in eastern Montana and my dad has mineral rights on family property in ND near this formation. What they are talking about is recoverable oil, not shale. They do have to use fracturing and sequestering to get it out and it has not been profitable up until lately when compared to "easy oil" that flows out of the ground easily (such as TX and the middle east). Also, this oil is over 2 miles down so not trivial to drill to.

Sure, it would be great from a money standpoint if they hit oil on some of the property my dad has rights on as I would inherit it being an only child (but the property is on the fringe of the formation and there is little interest in that area so far; FYI - this property mineral right dates back to the 19th century when who knew what was under "them there hills"). However, I still prefer we get off of our oil dependence regardless.

Green electric power and use thereof; what more do we need?

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