Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
available offshore in waters much deeper than have been
exploited to date (there is so little of it compared with
demand that the recent chant
as a solu-
tion to the huge oil imports problem in the United States
is obviously silly). Arctic is what is thought to be available
in all the world
“
drill baby drill
”
'
s arctic regions. Average oil extraction
from an oil
field with today
'
is technology is typically only
about
nes the extra
that would be available if plausible enhanced oil recovery
technology improved the recovery rate.
Heavy oil, bitumen, and oil shale represent the uncon-
ventional resources. Their extraction and re
% of the total available. EOR de
ning cost
energy as well as money. The former Chief Scientist of
the British oil company BP, Dr. Steven Koonin, told me
that the Canadian tar sands require
% of their
energy content to extract the material and turn it into
useful oil. The heavy oil and bitumen that we know about
now are located mainly in Canada and Venezuela while oil
shale is present in large amounts in the United States.
Exploration of the world continues, and new resources are
likely to be found. This is especially true for unconven-
tional oil. Keep in mind that these resource estimates are
uncertain. There may be more.
Four and a half trillion barrels yet to be extracted
sounds like a lot of oil, but it will not even last to the
end of this century if the projected yearly rate of increase
in consumption is really as large as
%to
.
%. At that rate
consumption doubles every
years, and the
.
trillion
barrel reserve would run out in only
years. The cost of
oil will go up as the world comes to depend on the harder-
to-extract unconventional oil. An oil optimist who did not
care much about emissions would say that it is possible
