Posts Tagged ‘Colorado’

As a result of Shell’s actions, Colorado residents can breathe a little easier and the Yampa River lives to flow another year. ”

"This agreement positions Suncor well to continue to provide quality fuels to our marketers and consumers under the Shell brand, the No. 1-selling gasoline brand in America."

Recent studies have created unnecessary hysteria by overstating likely water use associated with potential oil shale development, an energy company official says.

"The technology continues to advance. We're making good progress," said James Thurman, the manager of regulatory policy for Shell Unconventional Resources. "There's still a lot that needs to happen. ... But nothing is insurmountable."

The entities are among 25 groups that have logged oppositions against the application filed by Shell Frontier Oil and Gas in water court in Steamboat Springs in late December 2008.

A Shell Oil official confirmed Friday that the “in-situ” oil shale production the company is researching at its Mahogany facility near Rangely currently consumes about three barrels of water for every barrel of oil produced.

Estimates put the water requirements of an oil shale industry producing 1.55 million barrels of oil a day at 378,000 acre-feet per year, compared to the Denver metro area’s consumption, which is less than 300,000 acre feet.

"We're picking up properties as they become available or look strategic," said Tracy Boyd, a spokesman for Royal Dutch Shell PLC. Shell does not expect to need large quantities of water for at least 15 years, he said, and by then it may have developed less water-intensive ways to extract oil, perhaps using wind power.

Shell is convinced climate change is occurring and is pursuing everything from sequestration to pursuit of cleaner energy sources to address it in all of the company’s operations, Boyd said. A big part of the carbon footprint associated with oil shale development could come from the electricity needs such projects would create. Boyd said he expects Shell would use wind energy to help power its shale effort.

Steamboat Springs — The Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District filed a statement of opposition on Friday to Shell Frontier Oil and Gas’ Dec. 30 request for substantial water rights on the Yampa River.

BG Group PLC, the British oil and gas company, and Royal Dutch Shell PLC's Australian partner Arrow Energy Ltd. are competing for Pure Energy Resources Ltd., an Australian player in coalbed methane.

Local and regional representatives expressed “serious” concerns in the past two weeks about the recent Yampa River water right filing by Shell Frontier Oil & Gas.

San Francisco Chronicle

Jodi Peterson, Jonathan Thompson, Terray Sylvester, High Country News, www. hcn.org

Sunday, January 18, 2009

DEVELOPMENT: Oil shale development grabs more water

WHAT IT MEANS: Royal Dutch Shell has filed a claim on about an eighth of the spring flow in Colorado’s Yampa River. If the claim survives the expected legal challenges, Shell will use that water to extract and process shale oil. But focusing on the Yampa misses a larger point. Shell and other companies, including Chevron and EGL Resources, have been collecting water rights on the Colorado and White rivers for decades in hope of exploiting the shale deposits beneath Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. read more