GAO: Recoverable Oil in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming 'About Equal to Entire World’s Proven Oil Reserve

GAO: Recoverable Oil in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming 'About Equal to Entire World’s Proven Oil Reserves'
By Terence P. Jeffrey
May 11, 2012
CNS News Story


The General Accounting Office reported to Congress Thursday and had an interesting report.

They say there is Possibly as much as 3 trillion barrels of oil in the The Green River Formation.
(The Green River Formation is territory where Colorado, Utah and Wyoming come together)


The story has a video

(CNSNews.com) - The Green River Formation, a largely vacant area of mostly federal land that covers the territory where Colorado, Utah and Wyoming come together, contains about as much recoverable oil as all the rest the world’s proven reserves combined, an auditor from the Government Accountability Office told Congress on Thursday.

The GAO testimony stressed that the federal government was in “a unique position to influence the development of oil shale” because the Green River deposits were mostly beneath federal land.

It also noted that developing the oil would pose “socioeconomic challenges,” which included bringing “a sizable influx of workers who along with their families put additional stress on local infrastructure” and “making planning for growth difficult for local governments.”

“The Green River Formation--an assemblage of over 1,000 feet of sedimentary rocks that lie beneath parts of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming--contains the world's largest deposits of oil shale,”Anu K. Mittal, the GAO’s director of natural resources and environment said in written testimony submitted to the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.

“USGS estimates that the Green River Formation contains about 3 trillion barrels of oil, and about half of this may be recoverable, depending on available technology and economic conditions,” Mittal testified.

Drill ?? or Wait...

reply to post by xuenchen


There is quite a plethora of slippery definitions regarding methods of recovery,
types of reserves, and geographical mapping.

I know you are smart enough to be aware of that.

Just throwing in my 2 Cents.

Campai

Drill Baby Drill!!!!

Don't wanna?

The quit crying about the price at the pump that is on you not us who support drilling.

reply to post by xuenchen


We definately have to WAIT! We need to get away from dirty fuel! The short term gain is not worth the long term set backs our kids and grand kids will face.

Wake up people!

And maybe if people didn't drive gas guzzling vehicles and find the need to live 30+ miles away from where they work, people wouldn't have to spend nor use that much fuel.

The solution is to use less fuel, not more!

Drill, baby drill!

They won't do it. It would have a major impact on the price of gas and profits. I say DRILL, but I'm just a guy lookin' at $5 a gal in the near future. Heating bill going up too. But, what do I know.

Originally posted by 1plusXisto7billion
reply to post by xuenchen

 

We definately have to WAIT! We need to get away from dirty fuel! The short term gain is not worth the long term set backs our kids and grand kids will face.

Wake up people!

And maybe if people didn't drive gas guzzling vehicles and find the need to live 30+ miles away from where they work, people wouldn't have to spend nor use that much fuel.

The solution is to use less fuel, not more!

edit on 12-5-2012 by 1plusXisto7billion because: (no reason given)

And what would be the ultimate solution for those problems then ?

Everybody needs power .... right ?

What would you suggest we do while they develop new energy ?

reply to post by xuenchen

Ask yourselves, how long have they known this, why are you being told now?

Question is, if they started with electric engines 150 years ago, why do we still hold on to fossil fuels?
Oh wait...

Wait,

The smartest and shrewdest move is to use up everyone else's oil first. It's a reserve, we can't use it up prematurely to lower the current price a few cents. It's short sighted.

reply to post by Juanxlink


Electrical motors are fine, with a consistent and clean power supply.

What's the point of driving an electric car for example, if you recharge it from a power sourced from a coal fired power plant?

Then there is storage, even now the batteries needed to run an electrical car weigh hundreds of kilos.

If we want to completely stop relying on fossil fuels, then we need to a) have 100% clean energy (solar, hydro, wind etc etc) and b) develop smaller, more efficient batteries to store the power.

first you don't drill oil shale you mine oil shale.
en.wikipedia.org...

and before mining oil shale we need to go into a full recycle program where we are turning all organics now being put into landfills into synthetic oil,

the Fischer–Tropsch process was developed in the 1920 and the Germans made fuel for there military during WW2 with the process.
en.wikipedia.org...
www.greencar.com...
www.caer.uky.edu...

Once we have the process in full scale operation around the US then we may think about mining oil shale.

The real joke of using the Fischer–Tropsch process to turn trash into fuel is how much of that trash comes from china as products and packaging of the products they send to the US.

In the future the Chinese would be buying high price oil from the middle east and shipping products made from that oil to the US. after using the products we can turn it back to oil and use it in our cars.
and we would need a lot less middle east oil.

The best part is no more expensive and harmful landfills to pollute the environment in the US

Originally posted by xuenchen

Originally posted by 1plusXisto7billion
reply to post by xuenchen

 

We definately have to WAIT! We need to get away from dirty fuel! The short term gain is not worth the long term set backs our kids and grand kids will face.

Wake up people!

And maybe if people didn't drive gas guzzling vehicles and find the need to live 30+ miles away from where they work, people wouldn't have to spend nor use that much fuel.

The solution is to use less fuel, not more!

edit on 12-5-2012 by 1plusXisto7billion because: (no reason given)

And what would be the ultimate solution for those problems then ?

Everybody needs power .... right ?

What would you suggest we do while they develop new energy ?

Its not rocket science! humans have lived without fuel for thousands of years. Stop being lazy and use public transportation, a wood burner to heat your home, ride a bike, etc.

The problem is people have become spoiled with things such as air conditioning, new phones every year, and the like that our entire planet and future for life on this planet is doomed. Maybe not in the next 50 years or 100 years, but it will definately be very soon in terms of the planets age verses life cycle. Everyone expects science to save us, but anyone who is familiar with thermodynamics, basic chemistry, and the laws of physics will tell you that it is impossible.

Originally posted by 1plusXisto7billion
reply to post by xuenchen

 

We definately have to WAIT! We need to get away from dirty fuel! The short term gain is not worth the long term set backs our kids and grand kids will face.

Wake up people!

And maybe if people didn't drive gas guzzling vehicles and find the need to live 30+ miles away from where they work, people wouldn't have to spend nor use that much fuel.

The solution is to use less fuel, not more!

edit on 12-5-2012 by 1plusXisto7billion because: (no reason given)

While I agree with you overall we are over looking one key element. If the reserve report is accurate and the oil is accessible then I say drill. The more we can rely on ourselves the less we have to be present in the ME.

I say drill as well as placing a special tax to go specifically to R and D on alternative energy sources. The oil industry is not going to be going anywhere anytime soon. While we associate oil with the gas station we forget that almost every single sector fo the economy (manufacturing / production / operations) still needs the oil to operate.

The less we have to rely on in the Middle East the better.

ETA - S and F.. I am curious why the MSM is overlooking this.

Originally posted by Xcathdra

Originally posted by 1plusXisto7billion
reply to post by xuenchen

 

We definately have to WAIT! We need to get away from dirty fuel! The short term gain is not worth the long term set backs our kids and grand kids will face.

Wake up people!

And maybe if people didn't drive gas guzzling vehicles and find the need to live 30+ miles away from where they work, people wouldn't have to spend nor use that much fuel.

The solution is to use less fuel, not more!

edit on 12-5-2012 by 1plusXisto7billion because: (no reason given)

While I agree with you overall we are over looking one key element. If the reserve report is accurate and the oil is accessible then I say drill. The more we can rely on ourselves the less we have to be present in the ME.

I say drill as well as placing a special tax to go specifically to R and D on alternative energy sources. The oil industry is not going to be going anywhere anytime soon. While we associate oil with the gas station we forget that almost every single sector fo the economy (manufacturing / production / operations) still needs the oil to operate.

The less we have to rely on in the Middle East the better.

ETA - S and F.. I am curious why the MSM is overlooking this.

edit on 12-5-2012 by Xcathdra because: (no reason given)

They may be ignoring it for now, but wait till election time gets closer. I'm betting at least one candidate brings it up as part of their platform. Obama could just be saving it for a rainy day. Politically speaking.

This information has probably been known to the government for fifty years already. They use foreign oil to preserve U.S. Oil reserves so that when the world goes to crap the united states will still have enough resources to keep the country running without even a hiccup.

reply to post by xuenchen


For the most part there's no "development" needed. That's simply an excuse thrown about by people that apparently want an excuse to keep polluting the planet. Funding and manpower is what is needed. The actual willingness of lazy Americans to get off their fat asses and do the dirty work of building a sustainable energy grid from the ground up. It is that which so many Americans balk at. Actual work. The majority of jobs here are now service jobs that only require them to push a button on a phone or computer.

You live in Vegas, an inhospitable place which consumes much more power than other American cities. Two thirds comes from coal, a third from natural gas, with a tiny fraction from Hoover Dam. There are on average 310 sunny days in Vegas a year. Is solar energy perfect? No. Could it supply Vegas with all its power needs? Yes. Would it be expensive? Yes. Would its cost be drastically reduced over the years as the process is streamlined and better technology is implemented? Yes. "Oh, but what about days when it's cloudy, huh? Or at night with all the Vegas lights and 24 hour a day casinos and restaurants and bars and..." Thermal salts. Thermal power storage is viable and works. Or how about geo-thermal energy? Completely sustainable. Dirt cheap after its initial costs. It would be expensive to find a viable place to plunge a well and build the piping, tubes, turbines, etc. But once that's done there's no remaining costs but maintenance.

There are dozens of alternative energy sources to tap, but we've been duped into Big Oil's great lie. Paid for with our own money being dumped into their pockets and thrown back at us as propaganda.

By the way, I absolutely love Vegas. I'm currently debating moving to North Las Vegas, a few blocks from Aliante Station off of Elkhorn Rd. So I am by no means taking a swipe at Vegas in particular.

Pretty soon we will find WMDs in those states and the citizens out of those states will be subject to more TSA screening.

reply to post by drock905


They know that SHTF when people can't drive their cars and will blame the car and oil companies for not developing alternatives in time or suppressing alternative technology. It is only delaying their death. You think what is going on in Iraq/afghanistan is bad? Wait till retired military etc take control over all US drones and use it on the oil companies.

Originally posted by 0zzymand0s
Drill, baby drill!

Not yet (unchecked). Drill just enough, have capped wells in the ready just enough, that if the foreign countries want to blackmail or destroy the US by energy choking, the US can unleash it's energy sources to keep the refineries fully employed. Also domestic production levels and threats of increases serve as a governor on pricing from overseas.

But for now, use up everyone else's oil until it's gone then only the US will have oil and be in the power seat over the whole world. Why do you think we've keep our resources capped and on federal land? This has always been the strategy.

Hopefully it won't have to come to that and in time an unlimited energy source will have been invented put into place.