Pre-development of huge Utah oil shale block begins
August 23, 2011TomCo Energy is a London-based company which owns leases on over 3000 acres of oil shale land in Utah’s Uintah Basin. As I have noted several times (most recently just last week), the Uinta Basin is the site of the massive Eocene Green River Shale formation – potentially the largest reservoir of unconventional petroleum in the world. With total reserves estimated at up to 1.3 trillion barrels, and ultimately recoverable reserves of 800 billion barrels or more , this formation holds three times or more the amount of Saudi Arabia’s proven reserves. Unlocking this formation would change the energy outlook of the nation – and of the world – for a century or more.
Today, TomCo has announced that it has awarded contacts toward the development of this resource. These are pre-development contracts intended to provide the baseline operational and environmental information required to move forward.
There is a long way to go in developing this resource. As I have noted in the past, the Uinta Basin is a place of scenic beauty and we can anticipate very strong resistance from environmental interests on any development. However, TomCo will be able to avoid the most visible environmental damage by refraining from traditional mining methods. TomCo envisions using an in situ heating process to develop their lease blocks. They plan to use what they call a new type of heating process called EcoShale In-Capsule technology. While the EcoShale process sounds similar to the in situ process long under development by Shell Oil, a major difference seems to be in the use of water. Shell’s process was said to utilize three barrels of water for every barrel of oil produced. The EcoShale process, on the other hand, claims to use no water. If so, this would of course be a tremendous development and would disarm one of the main points of attack against shale oil development. If successful, TomCo’s development would mark the beginning of The Second Age of Oil.
EGP will watch this story closely over the coming months.
Ain’t. Gonna. Happen. Interior Department “national monument” designation in 5…4…3…2…
The peak oil wackos are going to just hate this. Between the gas discoveries in the East and shale oil in the West this bodes very well for out future. If we can just get the enviro-nuts out of the way this will be very good for the country!
Well, the environmentalists do have a point – especially regarding water. In the American West, water is every bit as precious a resource as is oil. If this can be done without water use, then it is certainly a game changing moment, but we are a long way from knowing for sure whether this process is really viable. Shale Oil has been “imminent” for over a century, but the promise has never been met. This is a very hopeful moment, but it is not a sure thing. Stay tuned . . .
The cost of water even in the american west is no where near the cost of oil.
I pay a retail price of $ 0.60/1000gal for water in Utah. I pay $3 – 4 gal of gasoline. Oil at $80/bar is ~$2/gal.
Oil is more than 2000x more precious than water!
Charles, I guess it is semantics and we will have to agree to disagree on this one. Oil is certainly more costly, but it is nowhere near as precious as water.
Green River mean flow rate 20,000 gal/sec x60x60x24 = 1.7B gal/day.
US gasoline consumption 0.4B gal/day.
Assuming 2gal water per 1gal gasoline one would supply the entire US for half of the Green river average flow. Or replace all oil imports for 1/4 or the Green river flow.
With the money saved from buying imported oil, the country could build and operate desalination plants on the California coast ( $3/1000 gal water), and pay all the farmers currently using Green River water to do nothing.
Water in the american west is much better utilized producing gasoline than growing food. Grow food where it rains.
Charles – Again, agree to disagree, but I believe that, ultimately, fresh water has a value well beyond it’s market price. And, it is not just about farming – the economic boom that would accompany a genuine shale oil breakthrough would require vast amounts of water for drinking, cleaning, bathing, etc.
That being said, I very much welcome your comments and would be happy to publish a full guest post on the site if you would like.
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