Not cheap, easily drillable oil.
-SNIP
Study reveals huge U.S. oil-shale field
By Jennifer Talhelm
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The United States has an oil reserve at least three times that of Saudi Arabia locked in oil-shale deposits beneath federal land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, according to a study released yesterday.
But the researchers at the RAND think tank caution the federal government to go carefully, balancing the environmental and economic impacts with development pressure to prevent an oil-shale bust later.
"We've got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East," said James Bartis, RAND senior policy researcher and the report's lead author. He added, "If we go faster, there's a good chance we're going to end up at a dead end."
For years, the industry and the government considered oil shale — a rock that produces petroleum when heated — too expensive to be a feasible source of oil.
However, oil prices, which spiked above $70 a barrel this week, combined with advances in technology could soon make it possible to tap the estimated 500 billion to 1.1 trillion recoverable barrels, the report found.
The study, sponsored in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, comes about a month after the president signed a new energy policy dramatically reversing the nation's approach to oil shale and opening the door within a few years to companies that want to tap deposits on public lands.
The report also says oil-shale mining, above-ground processing and disposing of spent shale cause significant adverse environmental impacts. Shell Oil is working on a process that would heat the oil shale in place, which could have less effect on the environment.
-END SNIP
: U.S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World!
: Stansberry Report Online
: 4/20/2006
: Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains
: lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world — more
: than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush
: mandated its extraction. Three companies have been chosen
: to lead the way. Test drilling has already begun…
: Five months ago, the U.S. Energy Department announced the
: results of a land survey…
: They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our
: borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth.
: Here are the official estimates: 8-times as much oil as Saudi
: Arabia 18-times as much oil as Iraq 21-times as much oil as
: Kuwait 22-times as much oil as Iran 500-times as much oil
: as Yemen …And it’s all right here in the Western United
: States.
: James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says, “We’ve
: got more oil in this very compact area than the entire
: Middle East.”
: More than 2 TRILLION barrels. Untapped.
: “That’s more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil
: in the world today,” reports The Denver Post.
: When asked about America’s least-publicized oil supply, Utah
: Senator Orrin Hatch said: “The amounts of oil are
: staggering. Who would have guessed that in just Colorado
: and Utah, there is more recoverable oil than in the Middle
: East?”
: Three million barrels of oil per day… That translates into
: more than $20 BILLION a year.
: These are the conservative estimates. The U.S. Energy Dept.
: estimates an eventual output of 10 million barrels of oil
: per day. At that rate, the money flow would be even
: greater.
: http://www.stansberryonline.com/OIL/
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