Oil Sham

Paul Brandt
21 April, 2011
Once again, oil shale is back in the spotlight as a way to decrease our dependence on foreign oil. Between Colorado, Wyoming and Utah there is an estimated 1.5 trillion barrels of recoverable oil in the shale deposits, the richest of which is in Piceance Basin of Western Colorado (an area around the Green River and Roan Plateau).
Oil shale, which is actually called kerogen, is fossilized organic matter from 50 million years ago and generally sits a couple thousand feet below the surface of the Earth. It was “discovered” on accident by settler in Colorado who some used the shale to build a chimney for his cabin, which subsequently burned to the ground after inaugurating his fireplace. For the past century or so, companies have toiled with extracting and refining the shale to little, if any success. During the Oil Crisis of the 1970’s investment was made to the point of a boom on the Western Slope in Colorado for oil shale, but then went bust in the early eighties, which is a scar and vivid memory to this day on the West Slope.
A handful of companies are experimenting on public land with how to extract and refine the shale efficiently, but the general process is to heat up the shale to liquefy, but not so much as to ignite it (no small challenge) and pump it to the surface for refinement. This is water intensive, in an area that is water-scarce. Estimates from studies are that “one to 12 barrels of water, or up to about 500 gallons, may be needed to produce a barrel of oil” with an average of about 5 barrels (Tsai, C.). In an area of the country that is arid, dealing with increased pressures from scarce water resources, limited un-purchased water rights, and facing unknown effects of climate change on its water supply, this seems extremely foolish at best, no matter the energy crisis. In my opinion, this is not only a waste of precious water, but of our public lands and research efforts that could be used to reduce our dependency on oil, foreign or domestic. Developing new oil extraction techniques is like coming up with a new lifeboat on the Titanic: mostly useless and ignores the actual problem. Not least important, no one yet knows the potential effects of any pollution from shale development on the water supply; there are vague assurances of research and to prevent it somehow, someday. Given that we are now only a year out from the BP oil fiasco, I am not inclined to blindly trust the good intentions of big oil.
Work Cited:
Tsai, Catherine. “GAO: More Research Needed on Oil Shale, Water.” The Aspen Times. 29 November, 2010. Available from http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20101129/NEWS/101129858&parentprofile=search