Oil Shale News

From: Platts

The government of Queensland has cleared the way for the development of a commercial oil shale industry in the eastern Australian state.

The government’s new oil shale policy sets rigorous environmental controls on the industry and will allow existing oil shale operator Queensland Energy Resources Limited to progress its trial plant at Gladstone to the commercial stage, Natural Resources and Mines Minister Andrew Cripps said in a statement Wednesday. QER’s pilot plant is designed to operate at around 2.5 mt/hour of oil shale feed, producing 37-40 b/d of shale oil.

From: The Hill 

By: Zack Colman

An oil boom launched by “fracking” has led energy leaders to take a second look at harnessing the potential of oil shale, a fossil fuel that energy firms largely abandoned the hope of harnessing in the 1980s.

No commercially viable method of producing oil shale exists, but American Petroleum Institute CEO Jack Gerard turned heads earlier this month when he predicted a game-changing technological breakthrough could allow the use of oil shale.

Gerard’s remarks caught many by surprise as doubts abound on oil shale’s future.

From:  Estonian Public Broadcasting

Fresh off a trip to Jordan where he mainly discussed Estonian state energy projects with the prime minister of the shale-rich country, Foreign Minister Urmas Paet has emphasized that the activities of Eesti Energia must be profitable.

“Eesti Energia began exploring Jordanian oil shale back in 2006. Today there is a concession agreement in place with the government of Jordan, according to which Eesti Energia will invest in extraction of Jordanian oil shale and production of electricity and oil from it. At the same time, this project must be profitable.”

From: Boston Globe

As chief economist for the Paris-based International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol helps shape energy policies worldwide. He recently guided the publication of the agency’s World Energy Outlook, which predicts the United States will soon become the world’s largest oil producer. While in Cambridge recently to speak at MIT, he sat down with Globe reporter Erin Ailworth.

Why do you believe the US will soon overtake Saudi Arabia as the largest oil producer?

From: Government of Jordan

Tallinn (Estonia), Dec 17 (Petra) – Jordan has approximately 40-80 billion tons of oil shale (about 34 billion barrels of shale oil) that could last for over 900 years at current consumption, said a top official at an Estonian company tapping the Kingdom’s reserves of oil shale.

Director of Jordan Project at Enfit, a world oil shale exploration and development company, Andres Anijalg, has recently said during a meeting with a number of Jordanian journalists, that his company will carry out two projects in Jordan; an electricity generation project and oil extraction project from oil shale.

From: MENAFN

SALT LAKE CITY, UT, Nov 19, 2012 (Menafn – MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –As oil shale producer Red Leaf Resources moves from the technologydevelopment and R&D phase into full-scale production, it is pleasedto announce their hiring of a CEO with vast natural resourcedevelopment experience, Adolph Lechtenberger.

Lechtenberger has experience in all aspects of Red Leaf’s business.He has worked in surface mining, refining and marketing of petroleumproducts, and was the new technology manager for the Colony oil shaleproject in the 1980s. He has overseen the full life-cycle of energyproduction and has helped several companies through growth periodsthat require strong leadership. Lechtenberger succeeds Jim Patten,who was part of the founding team at RLR and will serve as VicePresident of Technology Development.

From:  U-T San Diego

Last December, Gov. Jerry Brown said a key reason to pursue very costly alternative energy was that America was running out of oil. During the presidential campaign, Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s declaration that he wanted North America to be energy independent by 2020 drew snickers in social media.

Now, thanks to the International Energy Association, maybe we can mothball this ignorance. As a new IEA report notes, the U.S. is on track to surpass Saudi Arabia as the world’s leading oil producer, thanks to improved methods of hydraulic fracturing – aka, fracking – that make it far easier to get to oil shale supplies.

From: The Hill

The Interior Department on Friday issued a final plan to close 1.6 million acres of federal land in the West originally slated for oil shale development.

The proposed plan would fence off a majority of the initial blueprint laid out in the final days of the George W. Bush administration. It faces a 30-day protest period and a 60-day process to ensure it is consistent with local and state policies. After that, the department would render a decision for implementation.

The move is sure to rankle Republicans, who say President Obama’s grip on fossil fuel drilling in federal lands is too tight.

A new report on oil shale has been released, The Oil Shale Market 2012-2022.

Report Details

Global oil shale reserves are vast, estimated to be over twice as big as conventional oil reserves.With high oil prices and world energy demand set to increase continuously, oil shale offers a great opportunity for certain countries to alleviate energy security concerns and for companies to profit from the vast untapped reserves. The market is still developing and to-date oil shale is only being exploited on a commercial scale in a small number of countries. Many countries, however, are increasingly interested in advancing their domestic industry as oil shale is becoming an economically viable industry. Technology is constantly improving and an increasing number of projects are developing around the world. As a consequence, Visiongain has determined that the value of the global oil shale market in 2012 will reach $3.3bn.