The Washington Post reports (link dead) that a Shell subsidiary, Chevron USA, and EGL Resources have received permission from the Interior Department to research and develop oil locked in shales in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.
The cool thing about this, besides the projected 100-year supply, is the method of extraction. The companies aren’t going to strip mine.
Since 1996, Shell has tested procedures on private land in western Colorado that involve baking shale rock in the ground with electric heating rods, then pumping the melted oil to the surface. The plan is to circulate refrigerants such as ammonia dioxide through underground pipes to freeze adjacent areas to keep groundwater away from the melted oil.Earlier this year, the Bureau of Land Management declared the projects would have no significant environmental impact. In authorizing the leases, the Interior Department agreed with that assessment.
FuturePundit has a longer article on the technology’s viability. Shell thinks this method can be profitable at $30 per barrel. I’m not sure if there’s an application for Halliburton conventional technology in this process, but I welcome the potential for more domestic energy.
