Should the US tap into the oil shale in the West to drop our dependancy of Arabs?

Answer 1

First, let's dispell a notion: US does not depend on oil import from Arabic country. Here is a summary of the abount of daily import of oil in the US, and where that oil is coming from:

Canada 2.2 million barrels a day
Mexico 1.7 million barrels
Venzuela 1.45 million
Saudi Arabia 1.44 million
Nigeria 1.17 million
Algeria 617 thousand
Iraq 553 thousand
Angola 501 thousand
Russia 343 thousand

This is the average from the first of January of this year 2006 until July.

With less than a quarter of its imported oil coming from Saudi Arabai, there is not much dependency. There are otehr countries that are far more dependent on oild from Suadi Arabia than the US, mostly European countries.

Now, as the well informed answerer before me pointed out, extracting oil from shale is costly. And polluting. You need lots of energy and water with the current processes, although cheaper and better methods could be possible, provide that someone comes with a "Eureka" somewhere.

So, the way it looks now, is that going full force with shale oil would mean a definite bye bye to cheap gas, as the price of the extraction per barrel is around $50 from the start. That is a decision that can be taken, as long as the average consumer is willing to pay that price.

Answer 2

Sure, if you or someone else can find a way to release the oil from shale it would be great. The problem is that shale has a lot of pore spaces (good porosity) with little interconnectivity between these pores (bad permeability). Trying to release hydrocarbons has been tried before, with little to no success. A better way to decrease our dependency on imported oil is to improve the efficiency of our automobiles or to reduce total driving. Neither of these projects are being touted by the current administration as solutions.

Answer 3

It's easier said than done. The technology is not quite there to do it economically, but with the price of oil going up, it is getting to be more and more likely. Alberta's oil sands are also a viable alternative.

Answer 4

Come at this from another angle guys. Should the US just stop using so much oil?