Energy 1.0 shale in Situ process could provide millions of barrels of oil cheaply
ML - The way the world works - analyzing how things work - En podkast av David Nishimoto
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1. Harold Vinegar is the oil industry leading expert on complex petroscience of transforming solid oil shale into synthetic crude. 2. Shell is convinced that shale oil is not myth. Shell says Vinegar technology will produce large quantities of high quality oil without ravaging the local environment and be profitable around $30 a barrel. 3. The Department of Energy believes that the Green River formation could produce 2 million barrels of oil a day by 2020 and three million by 2040. There is enough shale oil to maintain oil production for hundreds of years. 4. Vinegar process is called “In Situ Conversion Process” (In place) and it works like this: a. shell drills 1,800 foot wells and then inserts heating rods that raise the temperature of the oil shale to 650 degrees Fahrenheit. B) freeze walls are created by coolant piped deep into the ground preventing the oil from escaping. C) the heat transforms the kerogen into oil and natural gas. D) the natural gas is separated and oil is piped to a refinery to be converted into gasoline and other products. 5. The rapid growth in worldwide oil demand necessitates the development of unconventional oils. 6. Vinegar discovered that slower and lower temperature process – 650 degrees Fahrenheit verses 1000 degrees allows more hydrogen molecules to be liberated from kerogen being heated to react with the carbon compounds, the result is better oil, hallmarks of light crude. In 2005, Shell yielded 1,700 barrels of light oil and inserting heating rods in several hundred feet wells. Shell believes the Green River Formation could yield more than one million barrels of oil per acre. 7. Shell plans to build a refinery onsite, the first in 30 years. Some of the water utilized will be salinated water pumped from deep acquifers 8. Shell could earn a lot of money, assuming $20 a barrel profit and 300,000 barrel per day production would add $2.2 billion to Shell’s annual pretax profits. Three million barrels a day would be worth $22 billion.
