Comments on: Seeking Alpha: Can Royal Dutch Shell’s Shale Extraction Technique End ‘Peak Oil’ Paranoia?

By: Makere

Makere — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:56:04 +0000

so… where IS the link to the patent?

By: Chunjie

Chunjie — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 12:58:29 +0000

Thomas, if you care so much about this wonderful earth, perhaps you should stop using any technology of the world. Even simply using electricity (based on the famous theory of global warming) will cause global warming!!! Throw away your fridge at home and don’t heater when you are cold!!! don’t use your car because they will create demand for oils which will cause suffering to your poor polar bear. Go live in the jungle where you can live without destroying earth. While preaching about what’s happening to your poor polar bear, have you thought of the meet you ate??? what happened to the poor cow??? if you say you are a vegetarian, well, you know what?? you shouldn’t eat them because they help produces the O2 that helps reduces global warming!!! so just sit there quitely and die already…

By: Feo Amante

Feo Amante — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 19:33:15 +0000

We’re all a bunch of idiots? What is happening to the poor polar bear, Thomas? Links to your statement please. Validate your charge.

By: thomas

thomas — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:30:28 +0000

you all sound like a bunch of idiots…know what is happening to the poor polar bear and then you’ll know we are destroying this wonderful earth.

By: Not Sleeping

Not Sleeping — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 20:52:38 +0000

From the description of Shell’s process on Wikipedia’s article on “Oil Shale”:
“An electrical heating element is lowered into each well and allowed to heat the kerogen to 650 to 700oF over a period of approximately four years, slowly converting it into oils and gases, which are then pumped to the surface. An operation producing 100,000 barrels a day would require a dedicated electrical generating capacity of 1.2 gigawatts. To maximize the functionality of the freeze walls, working zones will be developed, in succession, adjacent to each other. This in-situ method requires 100% surface disturbance, greatly increasing the footprint of extraction operations in comparison to conventional oil and gas drilling.”

4 years? Just more pie in the sky. Also how is all this oil going to get to China? Gonna fly it out of Colorado in the bellies of winged pigs. How much for the pipeline? How much for the electricity? Daily demand WILL outstrip daily supply. That’s Peak Oil. Doesn’t matter how much there is in the ground. The industry mouthpieces cant discuss the subject on the level, they discuss an assumption of what Peak Oil sounds like, not the actual situation. They know that if Saudi Arabia’s daily output goes into irreversible decline, there is no other producer able to pick up the slack in time. Not Nigeria, not Iraq, and of course not Venezuela. Something has to slow down demand. So lets all fight “Global Warming” huh. All the indicators show we are a day late and a dollar short on any real progress there. Once Siberia’s permafrost starts to thaw out, ridiculous amounts of methane will be let loose into the atmosphere, and thats much worse then the little CO2 weve been belching out.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 20:24:46 +0000

Read Tertzakian’s book (“A Thousand Barrels a Second”) for a balanced non-scare treatment of the concept of peak oil. The infrastructure we have is highly dependent on light sweet crude, and it’s not a chicken-little statement to anticipate a peak in the availability of light sweet crude. In addition, some economies are very sensitive to price changes, so that a long-term price of (e.g.) $75, while not a catastrophy, might have a significant and painful economic impact on some nations (PRC being a leading example). I completely agree with the posting that the sky is not falling and I recognize that a disruptive technological change like the one being discussed could completely reorganize the global economy – but a patent is a long way from a large scale production process.

By: agitator

agitator — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 20:16:12 +0000

Man-made global warming is a fraud. A Marxist inspired power grab by a bunch of parasites that couldn’t get a real job if they wanted to, which they don’t. It has also spawned a wholly unnecessary and fabricated commodities market that directly benefits certain large financiers and companies at the expense of the public. I certainly hope Mr. Brynaur is right and that Shell is able to do what is discussed. On the other hand, Mr. Brynaur’s credibility goes down the drain when he puppets Marxist man-made global warming propaganda.

By: kasikstan

kasikstan — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 02:11:48 +0000

where is the link to the patent

By: jessica

jessica — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:56:45 +0000

because people are chronically stupid. Did they forget to mention how much deep frying is required for this or many coal powered plants are going to be required?

By: Nick Nolan

Nick Nolan — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:36:34 +0000

How it is possible that people still dont understand the concept of peak oil? It is not the oil in the ground that is running out. It is the volume of oil that is produced.

Saudi Arabia produces 9.1 million barrels per _day_ (with net energy gain 10-15%). In one day! That is 6.5 Exxon Valdez tankers every day! If we eventually get 10-100 million barrels per _year_ from shale, it will be good high margin business to Shell, but hardly noticed in the grand scale of things. Yes, there will be enormous quantities oil inside US soil, and they will never run out because it is physically and economically impossible to drag it out fast enough to suck those reserves empty.