[IP] more on Oil Independence?

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Jack Holleran <jholleran@comcast.net>
Date: September 12, 2005 10:36:16 PM EDT
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: RE: [IP] Oil Independence?


Dave,

For IP:

I'm using the following numbers according to the article below.

1 billion barrels in a square mile.

One URL defined a barrel as being 34 inches high with a diameter of 24
inches.  (I'm not sure if this is right or wrong, but for the purpose of
calculations, I used it.)

One mile is 5280 feet.

Using a spread sheet, a barrel produces a volume of 8.901 cubic feet.
(height(34) x radius(12) x radius * PI)

A billion barrels would then produce 8,901,000,000 cubic feet of oil.

A square mile is 5280 x 5280 = 27,878,400 square feet.

The volume equals length x width x depth AND the length x width is
27,878,400 feet; there is an implication that the depth is 319 feet  
(typical
two story house is probably 25 feet high, including a peaked roof; so  
depth
is 12-13 houses stacked or a 32 story building).  Now if the  
dimensions of
the barrel are larger, the depth will be deeper; correspondingly,  
smaller
dimensions, less depth.

My question is will the ground collapse since 8.9 billion cubic feet of
material has been removed in that square mile.

Jack Holleran CISSP

-----Original Message-----

From: "Robert C. Atkinson" <rca53@columbia.edu>
Date: September 12, 2005 6:40:44 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: Oil Independence?


This is a promising development. Excerpts below, full link:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/
0,1299,DRMN_86_4051709,00.html
What do IP skeptics say?


> Shell's method, which it calls "in situ conversion," is simplicity
> itself in concept but exquisitely ingenious in execution. Terry
> O'Connor, a vice president for external and regulatory affairs at
> Shell Exploration and Production, explained how it's done (and they
> have done it, in several test projects):
>
> 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.
.



> 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.


--
***************************************
Robert C. Atkinson
Director of Policy Research
Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI)
1A Uris Hall, Columbia Business School
3022 Broadway
New York, NY 10027-6902

212-854-7576
cell: 908-447-4201
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