[ROCKMAN]

pstarr - I also found that prospect very distasteful. Imagine letting the seller of a commodity decide what they could sell their property for. Ahh...for the days when Britannica ruled the waves.

[StarvingLion]

http://nanoscale.blogspot.ca/2015/09/na ... ustry.html

Nano and the oil industry
I went to an interesting lunchtime talk today by Sergio Kapusta, former chief scientist of Shell. He gave a nice overview of the oil/gas industry and where nanoscience and nanotechnology fit in. Clearly one of the main issues of interest is assessing (and eventually recovering) oil and gas trapped in porous rock, where the hydrocarbons can be trapped due to capillarity and the connectivity of the pores and cracks may be unknown. Nanoparticles can be made with various chemical functionalizations (for example, dangling ligands known to be cleaved if the particle temperature exceeds some threshold) and then injected into a well; the particles can then be sought at another nearby well. The particles act as "reporters". The physics and chemistry of getting hydrocarbons out of these environments is all about the solid/liquid interface at the nanoscale. More active sensor technologies for the aggressive, nasty down-hole environment are always of interest, too.

When asked about R&D spending in the oil industry, he pointed out something rather interesting: R&D is actually cheap compared to the huge capital investments made by the major companies. That means that it's relatively stable even in boom/bust cycles because it's only a minor perturbation on the flow of capital.

Interesting numbers: Total capital in hardware in the field for the petrochemical industry is on the order of $2T, built up over several decades. Typical oil consumption worldwide is around 90M barrels equivalent per day (!). If the supply ranges from 87-93M barrels per day, the price swings from $120 to $40/barrel, respectively. Pretty wild.

----------------------------------

What a bunch of gibberish. These scientists are retards. Look what this moron nano scientist says in the comment section:

"We're not about to run out of oil or gas or coal. If oil was $150/barrel, huge supplies of stuff that is difficult to extract (tar sands) would become economically viable."

LOL...If oil goes to $150/barrel kiss the world goodbye you dumb shit.

[GHung]

Our global dependence on hydrocarbons is clearly one of "damned if you don't - damned if you do". We'll never feed, clothe, move, warm/cool, and house 7.3 billion+ humans without near current inputs from cheap energy, and our planet won't remain habitable for long if we keep burning stuff. Indeed, a classic predicament. Colour me a 'shill' for the reality of our situation. I see a big shift in humanity's collective behaviour over the next few decades, and I seriously doubt that shift will be voluntary. There's no answer anyone will like to our oil/coal/gas-fueled overshoot condition. Ideas like nano-tech will be rendered irrelevant.

[Cog]

Researching the idea makes sense to me. No molecule of oil left behind is a good idea.

[onlooker]

Yeah, guys what a bunch of garbage being spewed out by said scientist. So we are reduced to searching tiny cracks between rocks below ground to get "our" oil. Also, yes we are in a catch 22, reduce drastically FF use and you are cutting the life cord for many many people. Continue with our rate of FF use and we are dooming the oceans and climate system of the Earth and thus probably at least for thousands of years most higher life forms. That is the facts of the matter whether some lurkers here want to accept it or not.

[Tanada]

I read somewhere or other that if we took all the ethanol we use for fuel blending and instead injected it into old oil formations as a detergent we would get more energy out of the recovered oil than we used making the ethanol out of the corn. I dunno how true that is, but it does give one a thought to ponder.

[Newfie]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GHung', 'O')ur global dependence on hydrocarbons is clearly one of "damned if you don't - damned if you do". We'll never feed, clothe, move, warm/cool, and house 7.3 billion+ humans without near current inputs from cheap energy, and our planet won't remain habitable for long if we keep burning stuff. Indeed, a classic predicament. Colour me a 'shill' for the reality of our situation. I see a big shift in humanity's collective behaviour over the next few decades, and I seriously doubt that shift will be voluntary. There's no answer anyone will like to our oil/coal/gas-fueled overshoot condition. Ideas like nano-tech will be rendered irrelevant.

[GHung]

Cog said: "No molecule of oil left behind is a good idea."

Problem is, those molecules don't just go away, but you know that, Cog. In fact, I'm betting your ecocidal asshole is just twitching every time you think about burning all that shit. The Devil himself couldn't get more enjoyment from the thought of humanity festering in its own detritus.

Take a bow. Your master is waiting! Don't choke on his big, nasty......

[Cog]

Do you really think for one moment we won't use every tool in the technology arsenal to extract oil? Of course we will. To the last drop. Once you understand that fact, life will be much easier for you. I am reminded of this quote from the movie Three Days of the Condor. It is as true today as it was then.

HIGGINS: No, it's simple economics. Today, it's oil, right? In ten or fifteen years, food, plutonium, maybe even sooner. Now what do you think the people are going to want us to do then?

TURNER: Ask them HIGGINS:

HIGGINS: Not now; then! Ask them when they're running out! Ask them when there's no heat in their homes and they're cold. Ask them when their engines stop. Ask them when people who've never known hunger start going hungry. Want to know something? They won't want us to ask them! They'll just want us to get it for them.

[GregT]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'D')o you really think for one moment we won't use every tool in the technology arsenal to extract oil? Of course we will. To the last drop. Once you understand that fact, life will be much easier for you.

[Cog]

We all die GregT.

You should embrace this hard life that you believe is coming for us all. After all, I am told on this very board that we should be living in grass huts or caves, grubbing for roots and insects. That, in a doomer's mind, was the ultimate in human culture among the hunter-gatherer fanbois. For me, I prefer central air and happy motoring. I do not want to discourage you from taking on whatever hardships you desire, right now, instead of waiting. Leaves me more fuel for my consumption.

I do find it interesting that the peak oil gurus, having found that peak oil did not happen as forecast, have moved on to the even more nebulous concept of climate doom. I suppose one must find the doom where one can find it.

[ROCKMAN]

T - Solvent EOR is a decades old tech. Every proven EOR method has been applied every applicable oil reservoir for many decades. Someone comes up with a new trick poney that's OK. But until that time there is no significant inventory of new EOR projecte waiting to be done. In fact a significant amount of current US oil production is coming out of the ground this way...at the rate of less the 10 bbls of oil per day per well. That's the little detail the EOR cornies leave out: even when it works profitably it doesn't yield a big surge but more typically a decades long dribble.

[GHung]

Cog asks: "Do you really think for one moment we won't use every tool in the technology arsenal to extract oil?"

Sure, and we'll keep killing each other in wars-not-of-necessity, men will keep beating their wives (or vice-versa), raping their kids, kicking their dogs,, and humans will keep doing all of those things that ensure that their children's children won't have a chance in hell of living any sort of life that you would find acceptable. Some will even insist those are good things. I call you out as an example. You're our local Nero; fiddling away with obvious glee.

[StarvingLion]

StarvingLion's State of the Union Address in 2015.

Fact1: The US and UK fracking industry is based on unsecured debt (fraud)
Fact2: Without fracking, the US and UK has to import more energy and economy goes tits up like Greece, etc

Fact3: Because of Fact1 and Fact2, there is no such thing as capitalism and market economy

Fact4: Nanotech is simply a status builder (eg. free "money" comes your way). The economy is about status now like in every pinko system. See here:

http://condensedconcepts.blogspot.ca/20 ... -from.html

Fact5: Pinko Central Bank system will buy up every garbage financial asset on the planet that has status associated with it.

Fact6: "Renewables" is really just transmission lines to connect up your nanotech devices (solar cells, and batteries) . Transmission lines carry not just electricity but information. Therefore, transmission lines and smart grids are a bombless form of imperialism. They invade "your" land and eliminate domestic unlimited energy sources such as nuclear reactors.

Fact7: Climatology or AGW is simply a extension of the central bank system to eliminate self-governance through banning widely available energy sources (coal and nuclear). Isn't it interesting that although nuclear is emissions friendly, it is still on the ban list? It isn't nanotech, now is it? Another reason for associating status with nanotech is to ban nuclear.

You good at nanotech science or endorsing it? Then you get "money" (aka status, (digital ranking)).

"money": there is no money concept. Its all about status because Finance "Capitalism" is nothing more than the politically connected dumping their bad debt onto the peasants.

Profitability is irrelevant which is another signal that capitalism does not exist. Highly unprofitable "businesses" are booming due to "investors". Meanwhile, local profitable businesses cannot even get a loan. Even the local butcher now sees that capitalism does not exist.

"Google is your friend"...LOL...Google quit the energy business a long time ago. Google (digital computers) is here to rank (status) YOU.

What is your ranking?

[jedrider]

StarvingLion, you left me in the dust after Fact 5.

However, a NanoLithic Converter would be nice: Rocks in, Heat out.

That's going to take a lot of rocks, though.

[GregT]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'Y')ou should embrace this hard life that you believe is coming for us all. After all, I am told on this very board that we should be living in grass huts or caves, grubbing for roots and insects. That, in a doomer's mind, was the ultimate in human culture among the hunter-gatherer fanbois. For me, I prefer central air and happy motoring. I do not want to discourage you from taking on whatever hardships you desire, right now, instead of waiting.

[Cog]

@GregT

Just to be clear on where I am coming from. I am a cornie in the sense that I don't believe peak oil or peak climate change is going to do me in or anyone else. But, at the same time, I am a prepper. I live well below my means, save money like a fanatic, store food and water, and live a fairly simple life. I do all of this because I understand that financial drama can occur in anyone's life. Recessions happen and I have lived through four major ones. I suppose as a side benefit, if you doomers are right about the other stuff, I am partially prepared for that eventuality as well.

In the meantime, I will run my central air at 72 F and eat sirloin steak cooked to perfection over charcoal.

[GregT]

Interesting Cog. 10 years ago I would have considered you a doomer.

[Cog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GregT', 'I')nteresting Cog. 10 years ago I would have considered you a doomer.