Comments on: Which Country Has the Biggest Oil Supply? http://www.greenpacks.org/2008/07/18/which-country-has-the-biggest-oil-supply/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:39:21 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Curtis Swain http://www.greenpacks.org/2008/07/18/which-country-has-the-biggest-oil-supply/comment-page-1/#comment-3926 Curtis Swain Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:51:19 +0000 http://www.greenpacks.org/2008/07/18/which-country-has-the-biggest-oil-supply/#comment-3926 I have to assume that whoever wrote the piece What in the world is going on? was counting on people not bothering to check the references or look into it too deeply. Well, I did, and it's quite obviously B.S. Yes, the web page given at the end... ( http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911 ) ...is the U.S. Geological Survey site, and that really is a USGS report. But, it sure as heck doesn't say there's 503 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the Bakken region. It says quite clearly in the first sentence, "North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation." The estimate of "503 billion barrels" appears to have been cherry-picked from this 2006 report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA): ( http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/feature_articles/2006/ngshock/ngshock.pdf ) The EIA report merely references an unpublished, never peer-reviewed report that some USGS geochemist was working on in 1999 just before he died. He gave "estimates ranging from 271 to 503 billion barrels (mean of 413 billion) of potential resources in place." In other words, it was an estimate of how much oil the Bakken shale might contain, not how much might be recoverable. That estimate is sighted above (3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels). And, no, it's not "light, sweet oil", it's shale, which requires an enormous amount of water, energy and processing to convert into synthetic crude. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_shale ). All this highly inaccurate and misleading "information" about the Bakken oil reserves supposedly comes from something called the Stansberry Report Online. Funny thing is, I can't find it anywhere online except as referenced in blogs and wacko web sights that specialize in "UFOs, The Apocalypse, New World Order.. Armageddon, Conspiracies, Prophecies", etc. (http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi/noframes/read/87888) And, the link they all provide to the Stansberry Report is dead. What in the world is going on? then makes reference to " 2 TRILLION barrels" of oil "hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains" that we can't exploit because "environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil!" Well, if you actually read the Denver Post article it's referring to ( http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_11409406 ), you'll see it's not actually oil, but "there may be a trillion or two barrels of the energy source kerogen — perhaps 800 billion barrels of it are recoverable." Again, it's oil shale. It's rock that has to be strip mined. You can't pump it out of the ground like actual oil, and then you need an enormous amount of water, energy and processing to convert it into synthetic crude. So, no, there is no panacea for our addiction to foreign oil. The fact that we're already digging rocks out of the ground and trying to convert them into usable fuel shows just how low the world's oil supply is getting. Talk about scrapping the bottom of the barrel. I have to assume that whoever wrote the piece What in the world is going on? was counting on people not bothering to check the references or look into it too deeply. Well, I did, and it’s quite obviously B.S.
Yes, the web page given at the end…
( http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911 )
…is the U.S. Geological Survey site, and that really is a USGS report. But, it sure as heck doesn’t say there’s 503 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the Bakken region. It says quite clearly in the first sentence, “North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation.”
The estimate of “503 billion barrels” appears to have been cherry-picked from this 2006 report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA):
( http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/feature_articles/2006/ngshock/ngshock.pdf )
The EIA report merely references an unpublished, never peer-reviewed report that some USGS geochemist was working on in 1999 just before he died. He gave “estimates ranging from 271 to 503 billion barrels (mean of 413 billion) of potential resources in place.” In other words, it was an estimate of how much oil the Bakken shale might contain, not how much might be recoverable. That estimate is sighted above (3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels). And, no, it’s not “light, sweet oil”, it’s shale, which requires an enormous amount of water, energy and processing to convert into synthetic crude. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_shale ).
All this highly inaccurate and misleading “information” about the Bakken oil reserves supposedly comes from something called the Stansberry Report Online. Funny thing is, I can’t find it anywhere online except as referenced in blogs and wacko web sights that specialize in “UFOs, The Apocalypse, New World Order.. Armageddon, Conspiracies, Prophecies”, etc. (http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi/noframes/read/87888) And, the link they all provide to the Stansberry Report is dead.
What in the world is going on? then makes reference to ” 2 TRILLION barrels” of oil “hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains” that we can’t exploit because “environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil!” Well, if you actually read the Denver Post article it’s referring to ( http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_11409406 ), you’ll see it’s not actually oil, but “there may be a trillion or two barrels of the energy source kerogen — perhaps 800 billion barrels of it are recoverable.” Again, it’s oil shale. It’s rock that has to be strip mined. You can’t pump it out of the ground like actual oil, and then you need an enormous amount of water, energy and processing to convert it into synthetic crude.
So, no, there is no panacea for our addiction to foreign oil. The fact that we’re already digging rocks out of the ground and trying to convert them into usable fuel shows just how low the world’s oil supply is getting. Talk about scrapping the bottom of the barrel.

]]> By: Dee http://www.greenpacks.org/2008/07/18/which-country-has-the-biggest-oil-supply/comment-page-1/#comment-3915 Dee Thu, 05 Mar 2009 04:36:40 +0000 http://www.greenpacks.org/2008/07/18/which-country-has-the-biggest-oil-supply/#comment-3915 Let snopes poke the holes for you: http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/bakken.asp Let snopes poke the holes for you:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/bakken.asp

]]> By: twoubyeme http://www.greenpacks.org/2008/07/18/which-country-has-the-biggest-oil-supply/comment-page-1/#comment-3829 twoubyeme Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:23:40 +0000 http://www.greenpacks.org/2008/07/18/which-country-has-the-biggest-oil-supply/#comment-3829 could it be that they know they have this oil and wanted to be use only for a case of possible www111? we will need alot of it, to run a good military operation could it be that they know they have this oil and wanted to be use only for a case of possible www111? we will need alot of it, to run a good military operation

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