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Jordan: 500 Billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent in Oil Shale

A forum for discussion of regional topics including oil depletion but also government, society, and the future.

Jordan: 500 Billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent in Oil Shale

Unread postby Carlhole » Sat 02 Oct 2010, 13:44:36

Al Fin
Petroleum Economist wrote:JORDAN has over 0.59 trillion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of oil-shale reserves, says one of the companies trying to develop the resource. It is an estimate that could revolutionise the country's economy – and slash its dependence on energy imports.
And, suddenly, the resource could be viable at around $65 a barrel, making it profitable in the range in which international oil prices have traded in the past two years. Estonia's state-run Eesti Energia says it can produce Jordan's oil-shale economically, and cleanly, within seven years.

As with Canada's vast oil sands resources, the enemy of oil shale development is low oil prices. As long as the price of oil stays in the vicinity of $80 a barrel, a world wide bonanza of new oil and oil-equivalent resources will be unleashed onto world markets -- and OPEC will have little to say about it.

While Jordan's oil shale resources are tiny in comparison to North American oil shale and oil sands resources, there is a significant difference -- the government of Jordan is not handicapped by a philosophy of energy starvation, nor is it under the influence of a faux environmental desire for a great human dieoff.orgy. Jordan will use its resources, if it is economical to do so.

Rigzone wrote:Dr. Maher Hijazin, the Director General of The Natural Resources Authority, added, "The oil shale deposits are strategically important to Jordan's national energy policy. Through this concession, we have put in place the framework for future development of the oil shale industry. We strive to balance the benefits from commercial exploration of Jordan's natural resources with the need to ensure that the projects are conducted in a sustainable and environmentally responsible manner."
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Re: 500 Billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent in Jordan's Oil Sh

Unread postby Carlhole » Sat 02 Oct 2010, 14:04:05

pstarr wrote:I live in Humboldt Co and with all our trees, we have the equivalent of 575 billion barrels of oil-equivalent. You just have to squeeze the trees really really hard until they heat up and compact into a a black slimey goo. Then they are oil. Done. Drive to Mall. Have a burger and fries, buy a DVD, and maybe a top? :razz:


This is typical dumbass sarcasm on PeakOil.com.
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Re: 500 Billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent in Jordan's Oil Sh

Unread postby Pops » Sat 02 Oct 2010, 14:09:27

I really don't see the point, at $65 this stuff can be made to run your car, at $150 more could and at $500 you could make oil from old socks.

Don't you see the problem here carl?
The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.
-- Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on Government (July 1, 1854)
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Re: 500 Billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent in Jordan's Oil Sh

Unread postby Carlhole » Sat 02 Oct 2010, 14:29:39

Pops wrote:I really don't see the point, at $65 this stuff can be made to run your car, at $150 more could and at $500 you could make oil from old socks.

Don't you see the problem here carl?


Yeah, right. Civilization is going to crash imminently when there is gobs of conventional petroleum left, gobs of $65 unconventional, gobs of thorium, uranium... plus everything else.

Geez, dude, its a veritable energy Horn of Plenty. The main problem is CO2 and pollutants. There isn't any shortage of energy. Global economies have shrugged off energy costs at $100/barrel equivalent.

Exploration/innovation/adaptation continues.
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Re: 500 Billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent in Jordan's Oil Sh

Unread postby Carlhole » Sat 02 Oct 2010, 14:52:55

pstarr wrote:
Pops wrote:I really don't see the point, at $65 this stuff can be made to run your car, at $150 more could and at $500 you could make oil from old socks.

Don't you see the problem here carl?
No. He never sees the problem. Carl does not understand a rather specific yet elementary concept bandied around here forever. Carl does not seem to understand that it costs energy to acquire energy stores.


Of course I understand that simple idea, you moron. But there is gobs and gobs of thorium on the planet. They're designing small mod reactors for it in Japan and India and Russia now - 30% cheaper than Light Water Reactors according to a consortium of Japanese companies. And no, these aren't your father's nuclear reactors.

The main significance of unconventional fossil fuel play, such as the the Jordanian shale finds, simply means there won't be any shortages of fossil fuels while the nuclear renaissance gets into full swing.
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Re: 500 Billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent in Jordan's Oil Sh

Unread postby Carlhole » Sat 02 Oct 2010, 15:00:19

pstarr wrote:OIL SHALE WILL NEVER FLY. PERIOD. END OF THREAD. SEE YA!


Well, I've asked you politely to quit spamming my threads with your moronic nonsense. Hopefully, now you will comply with that request. Good riddance.
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Re: 500 Billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent in Jordan's Oil Sh

Unread postby Carlhole » Sat 02 Oct 2010, 15:23:29

pstarr wrote:
Carlhole wrote:
pstarr wrote:OIL SHALE WILL NEVER FLY. PERIOD. END OF THREAD. SEE YA!


Well, I've asked you politely to quit spamming my threads with your moronic nonsense. Hopefully, now you will comply with that request. Good riddance.
Are you completely out of your mind? This thread is about shale oil. 8O


I've read a bunch of books on peak oil. The ideas described by Deffeyes and others would be dire indeed - if there were no thorium or uranium. Nuclear energy resources are able to thoroughly replace ALL fossil fuels of and by themselves.

However, nukes don't get built overnight. They take time. But fortunately, there will be plenty of fossil fuels to last through the period of dramatic nuclear facility construction. Expect to see a thousand state-of-the-art reactors built in China over the next several decades.

Huge new discoveries, such as the Jordanian oil shale, merely provide for additional ample supply of fossil fuels, exerting a moderating price pressure. Gradually, nuclear energy will allow for a complete phase out of the filthiest fossil fuels.

The upshot is that civilization is not dependent on $3/barrel oil. The price can get quite high comparatively and things don't collapse. The main result of insanely cheap oil is the prevention of the development of alternatives. It's just standard economics.
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Re: 500 Billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent in Jordan's Oil Sh

Unread postby Pops » Sat 02 Oct 2010, 16:29:33

Carlhole wrote:Yeah, right. Civilization is going to crash imminently...

C'mon Carl you know I don't believe that.

Carlhole wrote: ...when there is gobs of conventional petroleum left...

And you know it's "peak" oil not "No" oil, so of course there's gobs (I could say something about deepwater drilling and gobs on beeches about now but I won't, well, I did, but...)

Geez, dude, its a veritable energy Horn of Plenty.

Really? You really think everything is peachy with every tank farm full and oil still at $86?

There isn't any shortage of energy. Global economies have shrugged off energy costs at $100/barrel equivalent.

Is that like an Atlas shrugged shrug where people with money go off and hide and everyone else suffers?
Or do you really think average Joe has easily adapted to oil rising 800% in the last decade?
Although it's added like $3k (I think) to his bills and his paycheck has stayed the sam, he's just happy to be spending his entire life just a few years from Mr. Fusion and power to cheap to meter - that kind of shrug?

Exploration/innovation/adaptation continues.

I agree with that.
The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.
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Re: 500 Billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent in Jordan's Oil Sh

Unread postby Carlhole » Sat 02 Oct 2010, 16:58:35

Pops wrote:
Geez, dude, its a veritable energy Horn of Plenty.

Really? You really think everything is peachy with every tank farm full and oil still at $86?


Yeah, it's OK. the world has obviously shrugged off oil at prices of $100 and below. These higher prices have spurred all sorts of energy development activity. And it's a good thing because widespread use of fossil fuels has lots of adverse side effects - like global warming, pollutants, etc. If it were not for higher prices, a nuclear energy renaissance may not be in the offing. There would be no further development of solar, or a smart grid, or artificial photosynthesis, syngas, wind, etc.

Ultra-cheap oil kept innovation and alternatives down. That's no longer the case. Higher oil prices create opportunities for energy development that otherwise would not be economical. I think it's just great that prices are ranging between $70 and $100 at present.

With finds of vast shale oil and gas, it means that prices can remain high but not TOO high - which is just peachy.

NOTE: Coincidentally, I happen to be having a meal of peaches, yogurt, walnuts and wheat germ as I write and read this. :)
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Re: 500 Billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent in Jordan's Oil Sh

Unread postby Xenophobe » Sat 02 Oct 2010, 17:24:10

pstarr wrote:Let me be clear to you newbies and lurkers about Shale oil. Various in situ technologies (conversion of heavy shale oil into liquid underground) such toe-to-heel-air-injection (THAI) and steam-assisted-gravity-drainage (SAG-D) have been tried and failed at many price points over the last 100 years. These gimmicks are not and never will be energy or dollar profitable.

nuff said?


Let us be clear for newbies and lurkers then. SAG-D was invented in the 80's, so it certainly hasn't been tried and failed over 100 years. It has been proven economically viable to the point where the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board was able to document the conversion of their tar sands from a resource into a reserve. The ability of the SAG-D process to be both economically and energy profitable relies more on decreasing costs related to improvements in horizontal drilling technology, as these types of wells are the primary capital investment to make this type of technique work.

The THAI process is much newer than SAG-D, certainly isn't a 100 year old process either, is a practical success at least in Alberta but could be considered still experimental, and certainly its profitability isn't known yet and can't be discounted in the future without a crystal ball.

It should be noted that Estonia, Germany, Israel, and China generate electricity with shale oil powerplants, so claims of "tried and failed" would be more accurately represented as "tried and still running fine".

The Colony oil project terminated by Exxon in 1982 was also easily profitable under some of the conditions feared after the peak in global oil production in 1979. In 1982 dollars the capital investment was perhaps $5 billion dollars, for a flowrate of perhaps 16 or 17 million barrels a year. The resulting revenue stream, discounted at an industry standard of 10%, with 10% of gross revenue as operating costs, based on a gross $55/bbl oil price, would have been required to meet this minimum profitability level for a breakeven on the capital investment in one (10 years) decades time. By 1982 it was becoming obvious that the hysteria of "running out of oil" could not offset an obviously deteriorating oil price environment and the project was terminated.

Obviously inaccurate positions of detractors aside, there is a basic fact of shale oil production which does not change: Shale oil production isn't really oil and gas production, its more like mining. As such, until the abundance of conventional oil, unconventional flowing oil, and stranded natural gas (both conventional and unconventional) can be reduced enough to cause a price point balance with shale oil, it will stay right where it has been since President Taft created the Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserve. In 1912. In part because of fears of the USGS which in 1909 had proclaimed that there was only oil left in the US for another 26 years. Those crazy optimists! :-D
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Re: 500 Billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent in Jordan's Oil Sh

Unread postby Cid_Yama » Sat 02 Oct 2010, 17:42:15

Besides the low EROEI, processing Oil Shale is very water intensive and that entire area is in water crisis.

Also Oil Shale does not yield oil. The term Oil Shale is a misnomer. It produces Kerogen which requires far more processing than crude to produce a usable form of synthetic oil.
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