Investing in Energy: The Next American Oil Boom
According to a report by the U.S. Department of Energy, the United States has more oil within its borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth. Today, this gigantic oil deposit sits untapped under parts of Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah, and some companies could stand to profit enormously from exploiting this resource.
Official estimates indicated that untapped American Oil reserves could contain up to:
- 8x as much oil as Saudi Arabia
- 18x as much oil as Iraq
- 21x as much oil as Kuwait
- 22x as much oil as Iran
- 500x as much oil as Yemen
The RAND corporation estimates that there are 500 billion to 1.1 trillion barrels of recoverable oil in the Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. With present U.S. demand for petroleum products at about 20 million barrels per day, if oild shale supplied 25% of U.S. oil needs, the Green River Formation could supply oil to the U.S. market for more than 400 years.
Future industry profits are estimated at up to $20 billion per year, at a production rate of 3 million barrels per day, with about half the money going to governments in the form of federal state and local governments.
Approximately 80% of the Green River Formation is on Governemnt land. In June, 2005, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its call for nominations for parcels to be leased for R&D and demonstration of technologies.
Development of oil shale does have potentially negative environmental impacts, both in Greenhouse gas production, water use, and power usage, for example. But the potential for greatly decreasing American dependence on foreign oil, along with rapidly increasing oil prices, has made potential exploration of oil shale much more viable.
Learn more about the next great oil rush.
