Monday, August 30, 2010

Oil shale resources of Utah and Colorado


"The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently completed a comprehensive assessment of in-place oil in oil shales of the Eocene Green River Formation of the Uinta Basin of eastern Utah and western Colorado."

"The total in-place resource for the Uinta Basin is estimated at 1.32 trillion barrels. This is only slightly lower than the estimated 1.53 trillion barrels for the adjacent Piceance Basin, Colorado, to the east, which is thought to be the richest oil shale deposit in the world." [from the publication ReadMe file]

That's a total of 2.85 trillion bbls in the Uinta basin. To put this in perspective, the world has used less than 1 trillion barrels since the first commercial oil well was completed in 1859 (one calculation puts it at 875 billion bbls so far)

Ref: U.S. Geological Survey Oil Shale Assessment Team, 2010, Oil shale resources of the Uinta Basin, Utah and Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS–69–BB, 7 chapters, pages variable.

7 comments:

  1. really... und the native sulphur problem

    what are the values of the bonding energy between kerogen and mineral constituents

    this is a UINTATHerium joke?

    for the Uinta Basin is estimated at 1.32 trillion ....or future profit shares?
    an EOCENe BASIN
    oil shale deposit
    AND how high are the recuperability rate 5% 10%
    and the cost per barrel 100-200 ?
    ah and i forget the big plants of shale oil

    the total amount of kerogen extracted in America

    is bigger than in the 70's?

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  2. will be visible after approval
    no need
    The aThabasca tar sands give about 20 gallon's per ton and they have a solid technology

    Both physical and chemical methods have been
    very onerous...

    if the kerogen is altered chemically during the process losses of significative amounts of energy occur


    the kerogen concentrate should be fully of minerals
    gravity techniques - low yields
    carbonic acid extraction is a good method does not alter the kerogen, yet does dissolve
    carbonates converting them to the soluble bicarbonates and extra co2

    at say 20 gallon's/ton of shale
    the amount of CO2 for each ton of kerogen
    is humongous....
    for 5,000 million ton's....think a little

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  3. but it's a nice perspective
    for oil burning fools

    ReplyDelete
  4. and plenty of raw data in the article

    Comparison of the total in-place barrels of oil in each oil shale zone assessed in the Uinta and Piceance Basins.
    [GPT, gallons per ton; high ....
    BBL, bbls, barrels; potential....
    BPA, barrels per acre; high....
    MBO, million barrels of oil???? or potential oil? equivalent ? no
    NA, not assessed.....

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  5. Figure 3. Overburden above the Mahogany bed in the Uinta Basin....and plenty of figures

    2... or 3 trilion
    but the problem is....

    ReplyDelete
  6. شكرًا على حسن انتباهكم: It's listed as a resource, not a mining or economic reserve.

    ReplyDelete
  7. resources, like shale kerogen und tar sands are a economic reserve, for years of oil scarcity

    the real problem is the lack of commitment of money or technologic investment to purchase and develop instruments for the petrochemical industrie's, in order to gain profitable returns in kerogen extraction

    and this with an expectation of favorable future in the oil drilling bussiness
    oil barrel at 150 in less than 20 years

    ReplyDelete