tjg2121

Can Royal Dutch Shell's Shale Extraction Technique End 'Peak Oil' Paranoia?

>From what I've read, large natural gas pipelines are being routed to the area to power the shale extraction


What Matthew Simmons calls "turning gold into lead."

Can Royal Dutch Shell's Shale Extraction Technique End 'Peak Oil' Paranoia?

You left out just a few "unimportant" details. First among them is that the heating of the shale will go on continuously for TWO YEARS before any "oil" can be extracted. Following that, the substance extracted, which is not oil but a precursor called kerogen, must be treated and processed to turn it into oil. The energy to run the heaters and the freezers for 2 years, and to do the post-processing, would require a dedicated power plant for a moderately sized operation. You need to subtract that energy from the energy content of the final product to come up with your net gain. It's ain't gonna be a lot. This process is not going to be producing oil in any kind of volume.