I'm not in the oil business. However, even I have known about the oil shale deposits in the western US (and Canada.) Yep, there is a LOT of oil out there, that was never part of the equation, it's a matter of recovery economics. It will be expensive, rather more than a little bit. "We" have been messing with experiments trying to find a best way to recover and refine the oil shale product since the 60s. It ain't cheap. But as the easy pools run dry, we will certainly exploit this resource. The forces of supply and demand will shift the use of petroleum product toward it's highest and best use. That may well not be transportation.
oil shale; like "tar sands" takes alot of energy to free the hydrocarbons,but at better than $70 a barrel I think this stuff is becoming "economically feasible anymore, ( A reading from the book of "Heinberg" ):However: "your kids may never fly commercially, only the military will be fueled by the remaining expensive petroleum fuels."
Economics aside, the biggest hurdle to mining the tar sands, since it boils down to good old strip mining, is the EcoNazis. We need to get them out of the equation, so we can truly get down to business.
This from a recent report by The National Petroleum Council entitled " Facing the Hard Truths about Energy" released July, 27th, 2007. “Oil shales may become a commercial resource by 2020, although large-scale production is unlikely until 2030.” The problem is that we don't have until 2020 much less 2030 before the ramifications of Peak Oil have altered our way of life. Plus the amount of recoverable oil seems quite high until you do the math. A high figure of one trillion barrels. We consume nealy 80 million barrels a day worldwide now. And that demand is expected to tripple before 2015. So yes there is a lot of oil out there. And we will eventually recover it. But it will be when conventional sources dry up and the price supports it. It is theorised that it would take about $8 to $15 a gallon gasoline to make shale and tar sands a viable source. But even then there just isn't enough to make that much of an impact. The much vaunted "ANWAR" field only contains a few months worth of world demand.
