Shusli was forwarded an e-mail about alleged oil reserves in the North Dakota and Montana in an area known as the Bakken Formation. Click here to read the whole article. Here are the first two paragraphs:
Reston, VA - 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.
A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released April 10, shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency's 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil.
Shusli responded with the following:
Civilization, especially oil-based industrial civilization, is not and never has been sustainable. This is probably fortunate for planet Earth, because carbon emissions from us human types are mucking everything up.
Bakken does not provide the quick fix (think heroin to a junkie) that this article wants us to think. Also, take a look at the Alberta tar sands oil extraction, and the absolute hell that is inflicting on Earth and the indigenous folks up there. Shale extraction would probably be about like that.
According to information found at Life After the Oil Crash http://lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/Index.html,
"The Bakken oil shale field was discovered in 1953. In spring of 2008, a series of breathless reports regarding the Bakken shale began circulating the internet. Even if the reports are true, the 4.3 billion barrels supposedly contained within it will push the global peak back by only 2.15 billion barrels. That amounts to about one month's worth of at current levels of global demand.
Assuming all 4.3 billion barrels could be retrieved, it would represent nine months of oil consumption in the United States. Now, let's consider the nature of the Bakken oil. It doesn't sit in big underground pools where you can just pop in a metal straw and suck it out. This oil is trapped in layers of shale – a sedimentary rock – up to 3,000 metres deep. It will cost dearly to go after Bakken oil, just as will have to pay a bundle if it hopes to extract the 3 to 15 billion barrels it has discovered in the Gulf of Mexico, kilometres under the water at its "Jack" wells. The technology exists to get it – at least some of it. We can also have a manned mission to Mars if we truly wanted to pay for it. If everything breaks just right, the Bakken oil shale might produce a maximimum of a few hundred thousand barrels per day albeit at great cost..."
Here I would like to add my two cents.
I am reading a very interesting book about the history of the car industry, and a nasty dirty history it is. It is called "Internal Combustion," by Edwin Black.
What I find most interesting about the book, which I am listening to on CD but plan on reading as well, is the nasty and dirty dealing EVEN TO THE DETRIMENT OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES corporations did and do. There has been a lot of dirty dealing in the backrooms of corporate board offices from past to the present and on into the future.
What this allegation of oil most likely is, is an attempt to inflate stocks with false, or shall we say, EXAGGERATED claims of oil reserves. Stocks go up, and execs make off with the money. Since the U.S. government is a plutocracy, more than likely the wealthy will make off with the wealth and the not so wealthy will take it up the old poop-chute. A clear and consistent pattern and practice amongst corporations. It is well documented in Edwin Black's "internal Combustion."
Then come the logical questions:
If there were actually easily accessible vast amounts of oil in this field, why haven't they already discovered it?
Knowing that there are many Indian reservations in the area, why aren't there campaigns of race hate specifically around terrorizing the indigenous to release the rights to their resources to the excessively wealthy oil billionaires?
Knowing there are many farms in these areas, why isn't there a hate campaign going up against farmers being in the way of the saving grace of the U.S., the oil industry?
Where is the infrastructure destruction and corruption in the cities and towns in these areas knowing that such folk will have to either be bought out or potentially forcibly removed?
There are more questions I'd have, but you get the gist. If these statements were actually true and there was actually oil under there, the CONSISTENT patterns listed in the questions I posed above would have happened already and the oil would be extracted or already had been. That, and so much more, so much worse.
Thank you Shusli for passing this information on. Thank you for your response to those who wish to believe in any fantasy sent out that there might be some saving grace of oil that will keep this alleged civilization running.
Team Shusli and Eugene, on the job.
Bakken will be put into play only if the price of oil can have a sustaned $200+ handle.
ReplyDeleteAt $80 per barrel, extraction of the oil shales using current technology/methods is not ecomomically feasible.
Natural gas holds great promise as a domestic transportation energy source.
The cost of the infrastructure and development will not only be in the billions of dollars, but the infrastructure development will use a vast amount of resources. If it is true that corporations are looking into getting their hands on this oil, which I only see as an economic ploy to raise stocks and steal money (common practice amongst corporations), there would be vast...VAST...environmental destruction. See the Tar Sands issue discussed by my wife Shusli.
ReplyDeleteWith Natural Gas as a transportation energy source, we again have to look at the reality. There are relatively few natural gas vehicles. To mass produce such vehicles as oil runs out would require vast retooling of factories and even rebuilding of factories and building of new factories. With the U.S. vehicle manufacturers in a continued financial pinch, who would put forth the vast sums of money required for such a mass creation? The banks...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Plus, there are the continued uses of finite resources: natural gas, metals, oil for plastic parts and tires, etc. And then what of the old gas guzzler vehicles?
Some questions need answerin' before such an idea as Natural Gas vehicles can be mass produced. Then there will be the vast litigations between patent holders, etc., that it would take years in the court system before such a thing could be legally mass produced.
It costs an extra $800-1500 for an automaker to convert gasoline to CNG, so it is really not an issue of cost. Estimates are that an engine will also last longer running on CNG. The technology is here to mass produce these vehicles.
ReplyDeleteIf the powers that be were truly concerned about lessoning energy usage we would keep old gas guzzlers on the road, as the carbon footprint to build and deliver a new energy efficient car is much greater than keeping the old one on the road.
IMO, the spike in oil and commodity prices were due to speculation by hedge funds (among others)and not a true supply and demand equation. I would hope that we could regulate these essential commodities markets that so only the natural producers and consumers of these commodities could participate (hedging production and consumption). To have speculators enter these markets, without any economic interest other than speculating is plain wrong. These commodities are too vital in our everyday life to be manipulated. To take away corn from people that depend on it for food, and divert it to make ethanol, which is subsidized by the government is evil.
Excellent points. I don't know too many folk, however, with $300-1500 to spare.
ReplyDeleteThe powers that be believe in infinite growth on a finite planet.
I definitely agree with you about the speculators, that is why the price went up. We will not get rid of speculators in a capitalist system, however.
If you get a chance, you should read "Internal Combustion." The monopolistic speculation that the various industries have done for hundreds of years is quite insane. The patent litigations and downright greed headedness is DISGUSTING! Still happens today.