by rockdoc123 » Thu 27 Oct 2011, 12:06:06
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'i').e. no natural drive mechanism as I have been saying all along. Thus the acts perpetrated on these shale formations is best described as "mining" not "oiling". Furthermore my inclusion of horizontal shale fracturing with various other unconventional (at best marginally economic) liquid fossil-fuel production systems (SAGH, THAI, tar sands, oil shale, etc.) has a lot more meaning than you oil-company boosters have been willing to grant.
You really don't get it, do you? I have to question your education at this point, I can't remember first year university students having as big a problem with the concepts as you are having.
Mining describes an activity where rock material is extracted from its in-situ position and generally crushed, treated with chemicals etc in order to extract whatever product one is looking for (i.e., gold, copper, iron, etc). Mining as applied to hydrocarbons is exactly similar in that large draglines are used to first remove whatever thin layer of cover is in place (almost nothing in the McMurray area) and then dig up all of the sand reservoir along with the bitumen that resides in it's pore space. The oil has no internal energy in this case as the gas to oil ratio or Boi is effectively so low that no gas is expelled as it is mined. The sand and oil is then sent through series of separtors to extract the hydrocarbon from the sand. That hydrocarbon can then be treated in various fashions dependant on its intended end use (put through a catalytic cracking unit if used as a light oil replacement). For shale kerogens mining is the only way to make it work with shales near surface extracted with drag lines (or bucket and shovel) and crushed and heated to extract hydrocarbons. Again this is not shale oil as referred to in the Bakken or EagleFord or any other formation in North America currently producing.
Fracturing of shales does not remove rock material. The hydrocarbon flows under its own power (unlike heavy oil this hydrocarbon usually has high gas content) once permeability is increased and a series of pressure drops to the well bore are created. PCP or ESP pumps in the borehole help to increase the wellhead rate. This is not mining.
In-situ heavy oil methods such as SAGD and THAI are also not mining as the rock is never removed. In this case permeability is not a problem, what is a problem is the oil viscosity is very high (several thousand centipoise as compared to shale oil/liquids that is general in the tens of centipoise) and there is no gas in the oil. As a consequence thermal energy is needed to decrease the viscosity and create flow.
The processes, recovery factors, cost profile, surface impact, production profile, economics and pretty much everything else related to extraction are completely different between the in-situ heavy oils and shale oil. The only similarity whatsoever between any of these is they are not conventional light hydrocarbons. But that would be similar to saying that apples and oranges are very similar because neither are bananas.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he fact that we are reduced to scraping (at a great cost in energy/money) the bottom of the fossil fuel barrel would suggest a paradigm change you cornies are incapable of admitting. I would call it peak oil.
And again you don't listen. I am on record in these forums as producing my own model for peak oil which encorporated Wood Mackenzie and IHS Energy independant data sources along with some tweaks based on personal knowledge of some countries production. There were a series of posts on this back in 2005 or 2006 with my prediction being somewhere around 2015 (not having the benefit of knowing a global recession would bring us to an earlier but longer lasting peak). I was aware of the peak oil concept back in the early seventies having the benefit of grad studies professors, one of whom was personal friends with King Hubbert having worked with him in the Shell Research centre and the other who was present when Hubbert dropped the peak oil bomb at the AAPG convention.
You make the mistake of thinking that to believe in peak oil means that you must believe unconventionals are of no consequence. Nothing could be further from the truth.
