jmw
Industrial
- Jun 27, 2001
- 7,435
The EIS (Energy Information Service) advises (what we already know) that while it took a long time to break the $100 a barrel target, the £200 a barrel barrier won't be long following.
What I wonder is what new changes the rising price of crude will bring and what the critical values are.
For example, Shale oil: when does the price make it too attractive not to exploit on a major scale?
Back in 2006 when crude was $40 a barrel someone asked whether shale oil would ever be viable. ((
Shale oil is profitable in some processes at $30 a barrel. The USA has some of the largest deposits of shale oil in the Green River deposits. This means that it is increasingly attractive as a means to recover energy self-sufficiency.
The downside is environmental.
One thing I anticipate is that truth is going to take a further hit and there will be some shifts in the Environmental Propaganda war which already obscures the truth to a remarkable degree.
One might argue that there is a vested interest in energy self-sufficiency that means that the USA, for example, could find it expedient to exploit its Green River deposits.
To that end, the Anthropogenic Global Warming fanciers might find themselves a embarrassment, Al Gore could end up in Quantanamo Bay..... (I'll go along with that).
Of course, this also means putting a lot of support behind the ideas that temperatures have fallen and been falling for the last 10 years and disproving the claimed causal link between CO2 rises and a consequence temperature rise (Shale oil production releases a lot of CO2).
On the other hand, the environmental issues are a handy tool with which to attack the western economies which means that the environmentalist groups could become more obviously under the control of the anarchists.
The interesting question then isn't simply shale oil, but what are the critical price levels for other changes, innovations etc and what are those innovations or major changes we can expect?
JMW
What I wonder is what new changes the rising price of crude will bring and what the critical values are.
For example, Shale oil: when does the price make it too attractive not to exploit on a major scale?
Back in 2006 when crude was $40 a barrel someone asked whether shale oil would ever be viable. ((
Shale oil is profitable in some processes at $30 a barrel. The USA has some of the largest deposits of shale oil in the Green River deposits. This means that it is increasingly attractive as a means to recover energy self-sufficiency.
The downside is environmental.
One thing I anticipate is that truth is going to take a further hit and there will be some shifts in the Environmental Propaganda war which already obscures the truth to a remarkable degree.
One might argue that there is a vested interest in energy self-sufficiency that means that the USA, for example, could find it expedient to exploit its Green River deposits.
To that end, the Anthropogenic Global Warming fanciers might find themselves a embarrassment, Al Gore could end up in Quantanamo Bay..... (I'll go along with that).
Of course, this also means putting a lot of support behind the ideas that temperatures have fallen and been falling for the last 10 years and disproving the claimed causal link between CO2 rises and a consequence temperature rise (Shale oil production releases a lot of CO2).
On the other hand, the environmental issues are a handy tool with which to attack the western economies which means that the environmentalist groups could become more obviously under the control of the anarchists.
The interesting question then isn't simply shale oil, but what are the critical price levels for other changes, innovations etc and what are those innovations or major changes we can expect?
JMW
