I have been reading about Shale oil deposits around Gladstone and Central/ Northern Queensland from this article.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2005/5294/pdf/sir5294_508.pdf
It states that in 1987 they had estimated around 24 billion barrels of recoverable shale oil. I understand that the technology for shale oil recovery has improved considerably since 1987, so it would be safe to assume that the estimate would be significantly higher today.
I have been trying to get my head around what that will mean in terms of production and jobs compared to other places around the world where this is already a booming industry.
The massive Bakken shale oil activity in North Dakota currently employs 30,000 people, with estimates stating that this could increase to up to 100,000 people employed in the next few years as production increases.
http://www.ndenergyforum.com/topics/bakken-three-forks-shale
Now to understand the difference in scale between this and the potential in Central Queensland...
"According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), as of 2008, the Bakken Shale was estimated to have an estimated 3 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil (SOURCE: USGS). This estimate is larger than all other current USGS oil assessments of the lower 48 states, and is the largest "continuous" oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS. "
So the largest shale oil reserves in USA which currently employ 30,000 people are at most 1/6th the amount of reserves that are sitting in the ground in Central / Northern Queensland, predominantly around Gladstone and Prosperpine (near Mackay). Condor (near Prosperpine) alone has at least 6.7 billion barrels, larger than Bakken on its own!
To me this appears to be an incredible untapped resource that will start to come online in the next decade, leading to massive population growth in this area. Could be in for some exciting times.
Interested to hear the thoughts of others that may have more knowledge than I do on the topic.
Cheers,
Matt
http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2005/5294/pdf/sir5294_508.pdf
It states that in 1987 they had estimated around 24 billion barrels of recoverable shale oil. I understand that the technology for shale oil recovery has improved considerably since 1987, so it would be safe to assume that the estimate would be significantly higher today.
I have been trying to get my head around what that will mean in terms of production and jobs compared to other places around the world where this is already a booming industry.
The massive Bakken shale oil activity in North Dakota currently employs 30,000 people, with estimates stating that this could increase to up to 100,000 people employed in the next few years as production increases.
http://www.ndenergyforum.com/topics/bakken-three-forks-shale
Now to understand the difference in scale between this and the potential in Central Queensland...
"According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), as of 2008, the Bakken Shale was estimated to have an estimated 3 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil (SOURCE: USGS). This estimate is larger than all other current USGS oil assessments of the lower 48 states, and is the largest "continuous" oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS. "
So the largest shale oil reserves in USA which currently employ 30,000 people are at most 1/6th the amount of reserves that are sitting in the ground in Central / Northern Queensland, predominantly around Gladstone and Prosperpine (near Mackay). Condor (near Prosperpine) alone has at least 6.7 billion barrels, larger than Bakken on its own!
To me this appears to be an incredible untapped resource that will start to come online in the next decade, leading to massive population growth in this area. Could be in for some exciting times.
Interested to hear the thoughts of others that may have more knowledge than I do on the topic.
Cheers,
Matt
