[IP] more on Oil Independence?
Begin forwarded message:
From: Jack Holleran <jholleran@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 12, 2005 10:36:16 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [IP] Oil Independence?
Dave,
For IP:
I'm using the following numbers according to the article below.
1 billion barrels in a square mile.
One URL defined a barrel as being 34 inches high with a diameter of 24
inches. (I'm not sure if this is right or wrong, but for the purpose of
calculations, I used it.)
One mile is 5280 feet.
Using a spread sheet, a barrel produces a volume of 8.901 cubic feet.
(height(34) x radius(12) x radius * PI)
A billion barrels would then produce 8,901,000,000 cubic feet of oil.
A square mile is 5280 x 5280 = 27,878,400 square feet.
The volume equals length x width x depth AND the length x width is
27,878,400 feet; there is an implication that the depth is 319 feet
(typical
two story house is probably 25 feet high, including a peaked roof; so
depth
is 12-13 houses stacked or a 32 story building). Now if the
dimensions of
the barrel are larger, the depth will be deeper; correspondingly,
smaller
dimensions, less depth.
My question is will the ground collapse since 8.9 billion cubic feet of
material has been removed in that square mile.
Jack Holleran CISSP
-----Original Message-----
From: "Robert C. Atkinson" <rca53@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 12, 2005 6:40:44 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Oil Independence?
This is a promising development. Excerpts below, full link:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/
0,1299,DRMN_86_4051709,00.html
What do IP skeptics say?
Shell's method, which it calls "in situ conversion," is simplicity
itself in concept but exquisitely ingenious in execution. Terry
O'Connor, a vice president for external and regulatory affairs at
Shell Exploration and Production, explained how it's done (and they
have done it, in several test projects):
Drill shafts into the oil-bearing rock. Drop heaters down the
shaft. Cook the rock until the hydrocarbons boil off, the lightest
and most desirable first. Collect them.
Please note, you don't have to go looking for oil fields when
you're brewing your own.
.
Upwards of a million barrels an acre, a billion barrels a square
mile. And the oil shale formation in the Green River Basin, most of
which is in Colorado, covers more than a thousand square miles -
the largest fossil fuel deposits in the world.
Wow.
They don't need subsidies; the process should be commercially
feasible with world oil prices at $30 a barrel. The energy balance
is favorable; under a conservative life-cycle analysis, it should
yield 3.5 units of energy for every 1 unit used in production. The
process recovers about 10 times as much oil as mining the rock and
crushing and cooking it at the surface, and it's a more desirable
grade. Reclamation is easier because the only thing that comes to
the surface is the oil you want.
--
***************************************
Robert C. Atkinson
Director of Policy Research
Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI)
1A Uris Hall, Columbia Business School
3022 Broadway
New York, NY 10027-6902
212-854-7576
cell: 908-447-4201
***************************************
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