The Colorado Oil Rush - Who Knew? And Is It The Answer?

                                  The Colorado Gold Oil Rush

In 2006, it was revealed that lying 1000 feet under the surface of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming is more than 2 TRILLION barrels of untapped oil reserves. This is the largest untapped oil reserve on the planet. The oil here comes from "oil shale", which looks like  ordinary black rock. When heated, the shale produces oil.

Who knew? Until it was announced in 2006, pretty much only the government knew. But they'd known for a long time. In the 1930's the government took steps to protect this area, comprising about 1.9 million acres, making it BLM land. The thing is that for the past 80 years or so, buying oil from other countries was cheaper than producing our own.

Here are the official estimates of the amount of oil available:

* 8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
* 18-times as much oil as Iraq
* 21-times as much oil as Kuwait
* 22-times as much oil as Iran
* 500-times as much oil as Yemen

And it’s all right here in the Western United States.

Full story by Rense: http://www.rinf.com/columnists/news/the-us-governments-secret-colorado-oil-discovery

" According to other estimates, Colorado and Utah have as much oil as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Nigeria, Kuwait, Libya, Angola, Algeria, Indonesia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates combined. Trapped in limestone up to 200 feet thick in the two Rocky Mountain states is enough so-called shale oil to rival OPEC and supply the U.S. for a century". 

Full Story by Joe Carroll, Bloomberg News: http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,660227927,00.html

The area is known as the Green River Formation, and holds approximately 2 million barrels of oil PER ACRE.  In an article on September 4, 2008, Gary Harmon writes that over 360,000 acres are to be set aside for oil shale development. About 140,000 acres in Colorado were excluded for environmental reasons. This production was looked at in the 1970's, and scraped after the fuel prices began to come down again in the eighties.

This is not without controversy. State leaders claim that the environmental costs are too high, and the technology required is unproven.

There is also the question of the amount of water needed to develop the oil shales. John Orr, Colorado Water Examiner, claims that "it will take ALL the water left to develop in Colorado. No water for new agriculture, a growing population or other industries such as electrical generation or bio fuels".

"Our elected officials, on both sides of the aisle, are pretty much all supportive of oil shale development. There are just too many unknowns right now."

Full Story on water issues from John Orr: http://www.examiner.com/x-395-Colorado-Water-Examiner~y2008m6d17-Shell-Oil

There are 3 companies in Northwest Colorado with 160 acres each, operating six research and development leases.

"Shell Oil  is working on its freezewall technique aimed at preventing groundwater contamination from the process the company hopes to use to heat the rock to free petroleum.

By some estimates, Shell and other companies could produce 50,000 barrels of petroleum per day on each 160-acre lease and the companies could convert them to 5,120-acre commercial leases if they can show commercial production.

Shell, however, has said it’s years from deciding whether its process can be a commercial success.

The 1.9 million acres marked for possible development lie atop about the equivalent of 800 billion barrels of oil, according to the Interior Department.

The bureau’s decision also affects 631,000 acres in Utah and 1 million acres in Wyoming."

Full Story by Gary Harmon: http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/news/stories/2008/09/04/090508_1a_Oil_shale_PEIS.html

The Bush administration auctioned off 55,000 acres of oil and natural gas leases in a wildlife habitat area of Colorado in August of this year. Colorado's Governor, Bill Ritter, says "The federal government has once again failed to act as a responsible partner for Colorado".      

Apparently, rising and devastating fuel costs have brought this possible production back to the forefront, and with it, continued, and heated, controversy.

Prudential Professional REALTORS, ASP REALTOR, Woodland Park Real Estate, Woodland Park Colorado 80863 – Serving the City of Woodland Park, Teller County, Ute Pass, and Park County