Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
of this oil is recovered, it could satisfy America's energy needs for many
years. Producing this oil requires extensive fracturing of the impermeable
rock to release the oil, but this technology is well developed. The Bakken
is one of the largest on-land oil formations in the United States, now
made economical by the skyrocketing price of oil in recent years. It is an
illustration of the truism that we never run out of anything in the earth.
As technology improves and the value of a product increases, additional
supplies of the product become economically obtainable.
Oil Shale
According to the Department of Energy, up to 2 trillion barrels of oil,
eight times the reserves of Saudi Arabia, are locked within fi nely grained
brown rock known as oil shale in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. The
oil in America's oil shale is enough to meet current demand for the next
250 years. It is probably the largest unconventional oil reserve on the
planet. Technology makes mining and refi ning the immature oil (kerogen)
in this rock economically profi table when the price of a barrel of petro-
leum exceeds $30—and no one believes the price of a barrel of oil will
ever be below $30 again.
The Department of Energy believes the oil shale region can produce
2 million barrels a day by 2020 and 3 million by 2040. Other govern-
ment estimates have suggested an upper range of 5 million.
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At that
level, oil shale in the western United States would rival the largest oil
fi elds in the world. Production levels could be maintained without the
steep depletion rates that have affected other oil fi elds, perhaps for cen-
turies. It is not clear that environmentally conscious President Obama
will permit oil shale development on the federal lands where most of the
oil shale is located. If and when he does, it would still be at least ten
years before oil production could be expected.
Environmental Considerations
Mining of oil shale has a negative impact on the environment, as does
all other mining. They include mountains of waste material, acid drain-
age, the introduction of metals into surface water and groundwater,
increased erosion, sulfur gas emissions, carbon dioxide gas, and air
pollution caused by the production of particulates during processing,
transportation, and support activities.
In addition, ecological damage occurs wherever humans interfere in
the natural setting. Rapid development of alternative energy resources is
much more environmentally friendly than oil shale development.
