How Might The Baht To Us Dollar Rate Change

[chownah]

What would happen to the baht to US dollar exchange rate if a huge shale oil field became economically productive in the US? Shell oil has announced that they think they have a method for economic extraction of oil from shale deposits in the US...these deposits would become the worlds largest proven reserve if their technique works....

[calibanjr.]

Eventually, when oil prices go high enough, and the extraction technology gets better, shale oil will be an economically viable product. I believe Canada actually has massive amounts of oil rich shale.

[LivinLOS]

Is shale oil the same as 'tar sands' oil I have read about ???

From what I have seen prices need to be sustainably high (not that I dont think they will) to makle this viable.. Lots of oil but only profiatble at the 80+ usd pricing..

[britmaveric]

Large tar pits in North America - heaps of oil could be produced - too costly to refine right now, but one day.....

[chownah]

Sorry, I'll be a bit clearer...I just read today that Shell has just announced that they have completed a small test plot using a new extraction method...they claim with this new process they can profitably extract oil from oil shale if the oil price is $30 per barrel...or more.... here's the link:

Link:http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_4051709,00.html

A brief cut and paste of part of the article:

"

Drill shafts into the oil-bearing rock. Drop heaters down the shaft. Cook the rock until the hydrocarbons boil off, the lightest and most desirable first. Collect them.

Please note, you don't have to go looking for oil fields when you're brewing your own.

On one small test plot about 20 feet by 35 feet, on land Shell owns, they started heating the rock in early 2004. "Product" - about one-third natural gas, two-thirds light crude - began to appear in September 2004. They turned the heaters off about a month ago, after harvesting about 1,500 barrels of oil.

While we were trying to do the math, O'Connor told us the answers. Upwards of a million barrels an acre, a billion barrels a square mile. And the oil shale formation in the Green River Basin, most of which is in Colorado, covers more than a thousand square miles - the largest fossil fuel deposits in the world.

Wow.

They don't need subsidies; the process should be commercially feasible with world oil prices at $30 a barrel. The energy balance is favorable; under a conservative life-cycle analysis, it should yield 3.5 units of energy for every 1 unit used in production. The process recovers about 10 times as much oil as mining the rock and crushing and cooking it at the surface, and it's a more desirable grade. Reclamation is easier because the only thing that comes to the surface is the oil you want.

"

Sounds good...read the article...what do you think?

[calibanjr.]

Well, the article is interesting, and the Rocky Mountain News is a legit paper, but if it were imminently available, I think Shell stock would be untouchable now. I love the idea of getting the f'k out of the Middle East, but we'd probably still hang out anyway.

Edited September 5, 2005 by calibanjr.

[johnnyk]

It's been happening in northern Alberta, Canada for a long time.

In fact Dickless Cheney was sposed to visit, no doubt reasoning there were no pesky Iraquis around to screw up Halliburton and the boys. His visit was postponed due to Katrina.

Only lately has it become really economically viable as extraction costs are much higher (about $50bbl I think is the threshold) than just sinking a pipe into the desert.

But the sinking a pipe into the desert scenario is rapidly coming to a close. The "easy" oil is depleting fast. Get used to the prices folks.

Edited September 5, 2005 by johnnyk

[chownah]

It's been happening in northern Alberta, Canada for a long time.

In fact Dickless Cheney was sposed to visit, no doubt reasoning there were no pesky Iraquis around to screw up Halliburton and the boys. His visit was postponed due to Katrina.

Only lately has it become really economically viable as extraction costs are much higher (about $50bbl I think is the threshold)  than just sinking a pipe into the desert.

But the sinking a pipe into the desert scenario is rapidly coming to a close. The "easy" oil is depleting fast. Get used to the prices folks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Interesting.....maybe the difference is that this article claims the threshold has been reset to $30 per barrel based on their new techniques....its easy to claim anything I know...but even at $50 per barrel it looks like it could become a happening thing fairly soon and since the amount of oil available at that price is truly vast it seems like there could be a shift in global economy coming since OPEC influence could diminish....of course this is all theoretic at this point.