From the Telegraph:
The discovery in central Australia was reported by Linc Energy to the stock exchange and was based on two consultants reports, though it is not yet known how commercially viable it will be to access the oil.
The reports estimated the company’s 16 million acres of land in the Arckaringa Basin in South Australia contain between 133 billion and 233 billion barrels of shale oil trapped in the region’s rocks.
The find was likened to the Bakken and Eagle Ford shale oil projects in the US, which have resulted in massive outflows and have led to predictions that the US could overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer as soon as this year.
WUWT reader John V. Wright in his Tip and Notes submission writes:
This is a huge problem for PM Gillard. No one lives out there so all the usual garbage about shale oil extraction causing earthquakes and threatening people’s home will not wash. So now she has got to get thinking – how can I put the kibosh on this fantastic energy windfall for Australia without it being completely obvious that I am only interested in squeezing every last ‘green’ tax dollar out of the idiots who voted for me last time?
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QUICK! Find an animal we can claim is endangered!
David Middleton says:
January 24, 2013 at 7:44 am
D&M, a well-respected consulting firm
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You just like the initials 🙂
Obviously they are going to leave it in the ground, because they are so concerned with the CO2 emissions. For sure they rather stick to their principles than gain fossil fuel money. Even if it’s trillions
Like everything else on the Internet, fact checking is required. 235Bbbl is a hyped speculation, not even close to likely technically recoverable reserves. What the CEO of Linc Energy actually said is that if you take the probable sweet spots (just like one must in the Bakken) then TRR is probably about 3.5Bbbl. That is very significant for Australia. It is not for the world. Actual remaining Saudi reserves alone are about 190Bbbl after removing ‘quota war’ exaggeration.
More evidence the eco-loons are just useful idiots for the oil companies, the reason we find Shell ect funding the CRU and Sierra Club, is their activities drive oil prices higher.
This gets us public resigned to paying too much for fuel.
These unearned profits allow the oil companies to develop marginal fields and explore new areas, almost out of pocket change.
“Big Oil” can’t lose, if fact must act in this manner when faced with absolute loonies holding the power to destroy their business.Self defence is no crime.
Most geologists know, there is not a resource shortage, as much as a cost barrier.
When its profitable to develop a resource it will be developed.
Eco-lunies are making development profitable sooner, when they restrict more accessible resources for ideological reasons.
rockdoc
January 24, 2013 at 7:10 am
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I hope you realize that all you have done is to quote the, required by lawyers, Disclaimer paragraph. Its inclusion in any report is meaningless. Pretending such a thing is meaningful and using to support an argument is something that only the ignorant or the Marxist propagandist(or their brainwashed minions) would do.
‘Peak Oil’ is a myth. The more we look, the more we find, and the more our technology progresses, the more we are able to recover. The factors that cause high prices are numerous. In some cases, it’s obvious that the petroleum companies’ hands are tied by politicians looking out for their own interests, but in other cases it’s equally obvious that the cartel is watching out for its main interest: to maintain high prices/profits.
It may be much more common than we currently believe:
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/28111
I just wonder how many people are suddenly going to remember they misheard their grandmother when she told them they were born in Portland, Shepparton or Echuca when she really meant Coober Pedy.
john robertson says:
January 24, 2013 at 8:21 am
More evidence the eco-loons are just useful idiots for the oil companies, the reason we find Shell ect funding the CRU and Sierra Club, is their activities drive oil prices higher.
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Most of the “Great” American Industrialist, that are often denigrated in our schools as those evil capitalistic “Robber Barons”, where in fact died in the wool socialists. The businesses they founded were designed to support socialist aims, and for the most part they still do. It is why we now call such, Corporatists because capitalists they are not.
mpainter says:
January 24, 2013 at 7:05 am
“The find was likened to the Bakken and Eagle Ford shale oil projects in the US, which have resulted in massive outflows and have led to predictions that the US could overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer as soon as this year.”
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This is an absurd statement. The U.S. shale production is gas, not oil. The whole post has a problem with reality. There is no “fantastic energy windfall” with oil shale because the prospect of oil shale development is a big unknown.
————————————————————————————————————
Bakken estimated recoverable oil is 24 billion barrels… and climbing. Who has a problem with reality?
mpainter says:
January 24, 2013 at 7:05 am
References please.
I touched on this in http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/10/03/cheap-natural-gas-but-wait-theres-more/ :
The discussion paper is worth reading, see http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/Oil-%20The%20Next%20Revolution.pdf
Some here are conflating recoverable oil associated with shale formations with “shale oil,” i.e., oil released from shale via thermal decomposition. The latter is the wave of the future. And always will be.
mpainter says (January 24, 2013 at 7:05 am)
“The find was likened to the Bakken and Eagle Ford shale oil projects in the US, which have resulted in massive outflows and have led to predictions that the US could overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer as soon as this year.”
===========================
This is an absurd statement. The U.S. shale production is gas, not oil.
——————————————————————————————————
Sorry, but thanks to the development of hydrofracturing, the Bakken and Eagle Ford ARE producing massive amounts of oil from shale – the Bakken grew from 4470 barrels of oil per day (bpd) starting in 2006 to 669,091 bpd in 2012, and is expected to soon reach 1 million. Only six other fields (Saudi Arabia’s famed Ghawar field, Burgan (Kuwait), Cantarell (Mexico), Daqing (China), Samotlor (Russia) and Kirkuk (Iraq)) have ever topped 1 million barrels per day. See https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/stats/historicalbakkenoilstats.pdf for official government Bakken numbers. The Eagle Ford has jumped from 842 bpd in 326,978 in late 2012. http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/12/texas-eagle-ford-shale-map-and-chart/
While the first shale fracturing production was gas, they have now learned to do it in oil shales also. I am an employee of a state oil & gas regulatory agency.
In fact, in Bakken they are just burning off the gas since there is no infrastructure to pipe or liquify it.
@Ric Werme @9:14. Thank you for the link to Maugeri’s paper. I just took a quick look at the executive summary. Looking forward to sitting down and reading the entire paper. Highly recommended to others.
Mods: This paper appears to be a solid look down the road at the import of shale oil and gas in the future and the likely impact on geopolitics. Please consider a separate discussion of this paper.
Thanks,
RG
The Sierra Club has declared war on the KeystoneXL pipeline.
When an enemy is making a mistake, don’t stop him.
Really, what difference would another pipeline make? There are thousands of oil and gas pipelines in the U.S. and Canada.
KeystoneXL will create thousands of high paying jobs, and help protect U.S. consumers from Middle East politics. Unfortunately, the Sierra Club has been hijacked by anti-American activists.
Decisions, decisions for us now down here in South Oz. We are already the Saudi Arabia of uranium (hypocritically we smoke but never inhale if you get my drift) so what say you now Greeny warmenistas?
I think John Wright should amend is comment to the following:
“squeezing every last ‘green’ tax dollar out of the idiots who voted AGAINST me last time?”
The political/financial feedback loop always takes care of the ones who voted for them. At least the ones who are more equal than the others.
More on my comment at 9:47 above. You might ask Maugeri to draft a post. It would gain much wider coverage than the paper itself.
When Mussolini create fascism, he said the more appropriate term is “corporatism.” Keep in mind that what Mussolini meant by “corporatism” is far different from what the 99% Unoccupied useful idiots call corporatism. In fascism, the state doesn’t own the means of production, it just controls it through laws and regulation. The state pulled the strings, and as long as the businessmen and industrialists danced, they were allowed to profit all they wanted.
Gillard will be long gone before she can stymie this, if the AWU investigation stays in top gear…
Water supplies are the critical issue. Even with gel-fracking, you still need water to make the gel.
You could have saltwater in overlying/underlying rock formations, porous and permeable ones that are completely wet. (I don’t know the geology, but all zones start out wet because all sendimentary rock starts out in either freshwater streams or salt water seas). You’d have to treat the water, though, possibly desalinate it completely. Very expensive (especially if you use solar power!), but do-able.
The “stress test” to the core area is said to drop the number to 3.5 billion barrels. That is still a RESOURCE number Linc is giving not producible reserves and not (even less) recoverable reserves. It is still big, but we are now talking about 3%, or 100 million barrels.
These days everyone tells you “resource” numbers because the security exchange rules on “reserves” and “recoverable reserves” are tight these days. A resource is simply a molecule-in-the-ground.
Not to say there aren’t some recoverables here, but keep an eye on the thimble when it comes to the pragmatic understanding of what it means.
Sounds like a very big number, but how big when compared to Saudi reserves?
Just looked up the answer on Wikipedia :
Venezuela – 296
Saudi 265
Australia 233 (?)
Iran 151
Iran 151
Iraaq 143
Kuwait 101
UAE 136
Russia 74
Khasakstan 49
Libya 47
Nigeria 37
Well if you believe it! But it is a promising find
Good let all the greens choke on this! They hate to hear good news (for the rest of us).
Maybe someone could make Yoko a milkshake out of it and send it to her!