The government of Queensland has cleared the way for the development of a commercial oil shale industry in the eastern Australian state.

The government’s new oil shale policy sets rigorous environmental controls on the industry and will allow existing oil shale operator Queensland Energy Resources Limited to progress its trial plant at Gladstone to the commercial stage, Natural Resources and Mines Minister Andrew Cripps said in a statement Wednesday. QER’s pilot plant is designed to operate at around 2.5 mt/hour of oil shale feed, producing 37-40 b/d of shale oil.

“Queensland currently has around 90% of Australia’s known oil shale resources, which are equivalent to approximately 22 billion barrels of oil,” Cripps said. “As the world supply of conventional crude oil diminishes, there are strong prospects for oil shale to become the next major source of liquid fuel supplies in Australia, and Queensland is well placed to lead that charge.”

According to Cripps, Queensland’s new policy would encourage private sector investment in oil shale extraction technologies and ensure project proponents demonstrate that their processes meet high environmental standards and community expectations. It would also continue the existing 20-year moratorium on development of QER’s McFarlane oil shale deposit near Proserpine until 2028.

Queensland Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection Andrew Powell said strict environmental controls would apply to any proposal to mine and process oil shale.

“To date, there has been extremely limited commercial application of oil shale in Australia and overseas,” Powell said. “That’s why any proposed oil shale development will be subject to detailed environmental assessments on a project-by-project basis. We will consider these proposals on their merits and require a trial stage to determine the feasibility and environmental performance of any unproven technologies.”

Under the new policy, existing operator QER, which has already demonstrated the viability of its processing technology, would be able to proceed directly to commercial production, but new entrants to the industry would need to prove their oil shale extraction technologies through trials, Powell said.

“Importantly, both existing and new operators in the oil shale industry will need to prepare full Environmental Impact Statements for their projects,” he added.

QER holds the rights to several large oil shale resources in Queensland, including the Stuart and Rundle deposits where former owner Southern Pacific Petroleum conducted an unsuccessful pilot plant trial which ended in 2004, according to information on its website. The company’s total net oil shale resource base is 15.8 billion barrels of oil in place.

QER plans to build and operate a commercially viable large-scale shale-to-liquids processing plant in Queensland. The company estimates it can extract between 60 and 220 liters of oil from each tonne of rock shale it processes.

Shale oil is a suitable feedstock for Australian oil refineries in the production of diesel and aviation fuels, QER said. The company has commissioned a small-scale oil upgrader at Gladstone to produce ultra-low sulfur diesel and jet fuels, mainly for testing purposes.

QER also has interests in the state’s burgeoning coalseam gas sector.

By Brian Maffly

From: The Salt Lake Tribune

By: Zack Colman

An oil boom launched by “fracking” has led energy leaders to take a second look at harnessing the potential of oil shale, a fossil fuel that energy firms largely abandoned the hope of harnessing in the 1980s.

No commercially viable method of producing oil shale exists, but American Petroleum Institute CEO Jack Gerard turned heads earlier this month when he predicted a game-changing technological breakthrough could allow the use of oil shale.

Gerard’s remarks caught many by surprise as doubts abound on oil shale’s future.

“To date, what we’ve seen is 100 years of promises and taxpayer funds for projects that have all gone belly up,” said Ellynne Bannon, a spokeswoman with spending watchdog group Checks and Balances Project.

Environmentalists abhor the prospect of trying to harness oil shale, which would involve extracting oil that is contained in rocks. Extraction methods so far use a considerable amount of fossil fuels and water, which is scarce in the West.

Yet before fracking — which injects a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals into tight rock formations to capture oil hidden under the rocks —many had thought accessing the oil and gas buried deep underground was too expensive.

Now — largely because of fracking — the U.S. is now projected to overtake Saudi Arabia to become the number one oil producer in the world by 2020.

Fracking allowed drillers to tap more natural gas, helping drive U.S. prices from $13.19 per million British thermal units in June 2008 down to $3.14 per million Btu as of Wednesday, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That has industry and lawmakers alike bullish on finding technological breakthroughs to develop other energy sources once thought too expensive to access.

The developments are likely to put further political pressure on President Obama to allow more fossil fuel access, particularly given the slow U.S. economy.

Gerard thinks oil shale could be the next bonanza.

“Oil shale alone in three western states is three times the proven reserves of what Saudi Arabia holds today. The key to it is to access the ability to develop it, to find the technologies to extract it for domestic consumption and even potential exports going down the road,” Gerard said.

Tapping oil shale would mean heating rocks under intense pressure to separate the fuel contained within them. Energy firms have had some success in doing this in Estonia, but the practice is heavily subsidized.

A handful of firms are operating in the U.S. on research, development and design leases from the Interior Department. But many others have wound down or ended their U.S. oil shale activities.

The Obama administration’s approach so far has been to offer funds for research and development of oil shale, but not commercial leases, a policy praised by Bobby McEnaney, a senior lands analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“There is no sort of known way to get it out of the ground. So I think the administration is approaching this from a cautious perspective,” McEnaney said.

But Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) thinks the administration is going too slowly. He said he is likely to reintroduce legislation in this Congress that would call on the Interior Department to open up more land for oil shale development.

Lanborn’s PIONEERs Act would have Interior open 2 million acres for commercial oil shale development with a federal royalty rate of 5 percent.

It passed the House with 237 votes, 216 of which were Republicans, in the last Congress but did not receive a vote in the Senate.

Lamborn said the Obama administration has kept too much land off-limits to oil shale development. He said that has deterred investment, making it harder to strike a technological breakthrough.

“There’s tremendous potential there. It’s not yet in a commercially viable stage, but it is at least something that should be allowed to move forward in the research and development stage,” Lamborn said.

Potential can be elusive, said McEnaney, who noted that many energy firms have backed out of oil shale development.

He said Chevron has largely abandoned its research, development and design lease, and noted that Shell is curtailing its activities.

Bannon said many Coloradans are suspicious of oil shale promises after Exxon left overnight in 1982 in what became known as “Black Sunday.”

The company had entered Colorado hoping to harness oil shale, but failed, and took more than 2,000 jobs when it left.

“I think there’s a lot of people who have lived through the boom and bust, and they’re naturally skeptical,” Bannon said.

Still, McEnaney said the domestic energy boom might also have emboldened fossil fuel-friendly lawmakers to trumpet oil shale’s possibilities.

“So long as you have this what I would call mythical expectation that Colorado would be some Saudi Arabia of oil shale, this probably isn’t going away,” McEnaney said.

Energy firms are taking a “wait and see attitude before spending any big bucks to move the industry forward,” Glenn Vawter, executive director of the National Oil Shale Association, told The Hill.

Fresh off a trip to Jordan where he mainly discussed Estonian state energy projects with the prime minister of the shale-rich country, Foreign Minister Urmas Paet has emphasized that the activities of Eesti Energia must be profitable.

“Eesti Energia began exploring Jordanian oil shale back in 2006. Today there is a concession agreement in place with the government of Jordan, according to which Eesti Energia will invest in extraction of Jordanian oil shale and production of electricity and oil from it. At the same time, this project must be profitable.”

Paet said Estonia was also looking into cooperation between Estonian and Jordanian higher education institutions and joint training projects.

Paet noted that Jordan still depended on other countries for its energy supply and said that adopting oil shale for power generation would be a guarantee of energy security – a theme that is important for Estonia.

On his trip earlier this week, Paet met in Amman with Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, the country’s energy and natural resources minister Alaa Aref Al Batayneh and the environment and tourism minister Nayef Hmeidi Al Fayez.

As chief economist for the Paris-based International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol helps shape energy policies worldwide. He recently guided the publication of the agency’s World Energy Outlook, which predicts the United States will soon become the world’s largest oil producer. While in Cambridge recently to speak at MIT, he sat down with Globe reporter Erin Ailworth.

Why do you believe the US will soon overtake Saudi Arabia as the largest oil producer?

The fundamentals of our global energy system are shifting. In the United States, oil production, which was declining for years and years, is now increasing mainly as a result of shale oil [drilling]. We expect, therefore, around 2017, the US to be the largest oil producer of the world.

In that light, how important is it for the US to develop a ­national energy policy?

Very much so. The major move in the United States toward self-sufficiency mainly is the result of development of technology in the shale oil [sector] but also policy. The Obama administration has successfully introduced [vehicle] fuel efficiency standards.

The United States also has responsibilities in terms of ­climate change, and those would need a national energy strategy, a national energy policy. ­Energy efficiency should be one of the key pillars of this new energy policy.

If energy efficiency is so important, why haven’t we done more?

Energy-efficiency improvements require a concerted ­effort of many players in the market. You need energy ministries, transportation, finance, construction — lots of people have to play a role. However, there is a growing momentum worldwide. At least four major economies in the world within the last nine months have pushed the button of energy ­efficiency: the US, China, ­Europe, and Japan.

What role do you see fossil fuels and renewables playing in the future energy landscape?

Fossil fuels will continue to dominate the energy mix, with the consequences mainly on the climate change front. We see that the share of coal [will continue] to decline whereas the share of natural gas [will continue] to increase. We expect that nuclear energy will grow, but much less than what we expected before Fukushima [the site of the nuclear disaster in Japan last year].

Renewable energies are just going through very difficult times. Ten years in a row, global renewable energy investments were increasing and this year, for the first time, we expect a decline. In many countries, renewable subsidies are being reduced, which is not good news.

Yet the agency’s forecast says renewables have the potential to become the second largest source of electricity?

This is definitely true, provided governments continue [their] support. For example, the United States. At the end of this year, there is an important ­decision to be made whether or not renewable support policies will continue.

The renewable industry is different than the fossil fuel industry. If they [take] a strong hit as a result of a lack of government support, it will be very difficult for them to come back because they’re a very new industry, unlike the oil or gas or coal or nuclear industry.

What role do you see fossil ­fuel subsidies playing in the energy future?

Fossil fuel subsidies [globally] are over half a trillion dollars — $523 billion exactly. For me, fossil fuel subsidies are the number one enemy of fighting climate change. You are putting out an award to pollute the world.

How do you change that?

What we have to do is make the governments understand that this may be good in the short term for the popularity of the government, however, it has major negative effects for the economy, efficiency, and environment of those countries.

Why has the agency highlighted water as one of the biggest challenges going forward?

Today, the energy sector uses about 15 percent of global ­water for electricity generation, biofuels, shale gas, and other applications. We see that this need will increase substantially in the future. The availability of water for energy will be a critical factor in assessing the economic and technical viability of any energy project.

Energy and water scarcity will go hand in hand. In the ­absence of water, we will have difficulties to produce energy.

Tallinn (Estonia), Dec 17 (Petra) – Jordan has approximately 40-80 billion tons of oil shale (about 34 billion barrels of shale oil) that could last for over 900 years at current consumption, said a top official at an Estonian company tapping the Kingdom’s reserves of oil shale.

Director of Jordan Project at Enfit, a world oil shale exploration and development company, Andres Anijalg, has recently said during a meeting with a number of Jordanian journalists, that his company will carry out two projects in Jordan; an electricity generation project and oil extraction project from oil shale.

He explained that the company will build two circulating-fluidized-bed (CFB) combustion units with a capacity of 460Megawatts with the possibility of expansion to four units in the future in the company’s concession area at Attarat Um Ghudran in the central region.

Indications show that the tariff of electricity that will be generated from the project is substantially lower than at current diesel and HFO based power production, Anijalg said.

He added that this project would consume 10 million tons of oil shale a year.

Speaking of the oil project, the official said his company signed in 2012 a 30-year-long agreement with Jordan to tap the Kingdom’s deposits of surface oil shale at a 70-sqaure-kilomerter concession area at Attarat Um Ghudran which has a massive reserve of oil shale of 30 billion tons.

He pointed out that the expected oil output of the project is about 38,000 barrels a day. The official said the ventures would offer Jordan with cheaper and stable electricity tariff than alternatives.

He described the investment in Jordanian oil shale as a promising project, and that the quantities in the Kingdom are very encouraging for investment, stressing the importance of the project to help Jordan to meet energy challenges and to increase the contribution of domestic sources of energy in the total energy mix.

The key conditions for the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), Implementation Agreement (IA) and the Land Lease Agreement (LLA) have been negotiated with Jordanian government and documents will be signed after the Engineering, Procurement and construction (EPC) tender results, Anijalg said, adding the tariff will be agreed after the EPC tender. The official affirmed that the project meets the World Bank environmental requirements, noting that proposed amendments into the existing Jordanian environmental legislation were presented to the Jordanian government in August this year pending approval.

Speaking of the timetable of the project, Anijalg explained that receiving mine and EPC bids will be in February 2013, EPC contract awarding and tariff agreement with the National Electric Power Company will be in June 2013, and financial close, and the start of construction will be in December 2013. He noted that the project will be operational in 2016.

He said the project will save approximately $280 million of gas or $515 million of oil purchases from abroad and will provide 3,000 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs.

The project will employ proven technology and advanced stage development and is environmentally compliant with the World Bank standards, Anijalg asserted. Furthermore, no government guarantees or capital or construction risk support are needed.

Estonian officials expect the volume of actual investment in the electricity generation and oil production projects in Jordan at about $ 5 billion.

Enefit is an Estonian government owned company and the largest shale oil energy company worldwide. It specializes in making liquid fuels from oil shale and is engaged in oil shale mining, oil shale based electricity and heat generation, shale oil production, electricity distribution, and sales of electricity.

SALT LAKE CITY, UT, Nov 19, 2012 (Menafn – MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –As oil shale producer Red Leaf Resources moves from the technologydevelopment and R&D phase into full-scale production, it is pleasedto announce their hiring of a CEO with vast natural resourcedevelopment experience, Adolph Lechtenberger.

Lechtenberger has experience in all aspects of Red Leaf’s business.He has worked in surface mining, refining and marketing of petroleumproducts, and was the new technology manager for the Colony oil shaleproject in the 1980s. He has overseen the full life-cycle of energyproduction and has helped several companies through growth periodsthat require strong leadership. Lechtenberger succeeds Jim Patten,who was part of the founding team at RLR and will serve as VicePresident of Technology Development.

“I am very excited to join Red Leaf as they embark on commercializingthe game changing EcoShale(TM) In-Capsule Process for oil shale,”said Lechtenberger. “Because this technology addresses majorenvironmental concerns of the past surrounding oil shale, the successof Red Leaf’s first development project will prove that oil can beproduced from oil shale in an efficient, cost-effective andenvironmentally responsible way.”

Red Leaf has significant oil shale leaseholds located in the UintahBasin of Utah. The company has already completed a successful test ofits EcoShale(TM) In-Capsule Process. This patented ‘ex-situ’technology is applicable to shallow oil shale formations that isfirst mined, then placed into large sealed capsules before undergoinga slow pyrolysis reaction to yield high quality hydrocarbons. TheEcoShale(TM) process has a significantly reduced environmentalfootprint compared to operations for any other existing ‘ex-situ’ oilshale production technologies.

Earlier this year, Red Leaf announced a joint-venture partnershipwith the U.S. affiliate of Total SA, the 5th largest internationalintegrated oil and gas company. Red Leaf and Total will soon commencea commercial demonstration of the EcoShale(TM) technology, intendedto prove the economic and environmental attributes of the process.Thereafter, Red Leaf and Total intend to proceed with an advancedcommercial scale project on jointly owned oil shale leaseholds thatare estimated to contain several hundred million barrels ofrecoverable hydrocarbons.

Last December, Gov. Jerry Brown said a key reason to pursue very costly alternative energy was that America was running out of oil. During the presidential campaign, Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s declaration that he wanted North America to be energy independent by 2020 drew snickers in social media.

Now, thanks to the International Energy Association, maybe we can mothball this ignorance. As a new IEA report notes, the U.S. is on track to surpass Saudi Arabia as the world’s leading oil producer, thanks to improved methods of hydraulic fracturing – aka, fracking – that make it far easier to get to oil shale supplies.

But while this finally sinks in with the public, we’d like to point out something that has barely gotten any media attention: California can lead this energy revolution if its leaders have the foresight to make it happen, creating many tens of thousands of jobs and vast new wealth.

A 2011 federal report on California’s biggest oil shale resource, known as the Monterey Formation, estimated it had at least 15.4 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil. That’s four times bigger than the Bakken formation, where oil drilling has turned North Dakota into an economic dynamo. Our state’s shale resource extends from the eastern edge of Silicon Valley south to Kern County.

On Dec. 12, the federal Bureau of Land Management is set to auction off drilling rights to nearly 18,000 acres in Monterey, San Benito and Fresno counties. We hope Gov. Jerry Brown and state regulators talk a calm look at fracking and its long history. Environmentalists’ griping about fracking’s allegedly huge downside only ramped up when new methods proved transformative for oil and gas exploration.

Unfortunately, lawsuits are inevitable. A lawsuit over the Dec. 12 lease auction has already been threatened. Meanwhile, a much smaller BLM lease auction of 2,700 acres from September 2011 is already tied up in litigation filed by the Center for Biological Diversity.

Even if California’s media haven’t caught on to the state’s potential for a Bakken-style economic boom, the oil industry has. By far the BLM’sbiggest 2011 lease was the $180,000 paid for a 200-acre parcel by Vintage Production California, a Bakersfield-based subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, the third-largest U.S. oil and gas producer. On Oxy’s website, it estimates the shale reserves on California land it already controls to have over 20 billion barrels of potential oil – a claim that the company says is made in accordance with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rule that only “economically producible” reserves can be cited in SEC filings.

This is a striking development. But will a Bakken West be allowed to benefit Californians? The state, after all, is formally committed to having one-third of its energy come from cleaner but costlier renewable sources by 2020, and is home to a powerful environmental movement.

But the fracking boom is steadily becoming a worldwide phenomenon, and the idea that fossil fuels will fade from the scene seems more preposterous every day. Instead of getting left behind in this new era, the Golden State could – and should – lead the way.

The Interior Department on Friday issued a final plan to close 1.6 million acres of federal land in the West originally slated for oil shale development.

The proposed plan would fence off a majority of the initial blueprint laid out in the final days of the George W. Bush administration. It faces a 30-day protest period and a 60-day process to ensure it is consistent with local and state policies. After that, the department would render a decision for implementation.

The move is sure to rankle Republicans, who say President Obama’s grip on fossil fuel drilling in federal lands is too tight.

Interior’s Bureau of Land Management cited environmental concerns for the proposed changes. Among other things, it excised lands with “wilderness characteristics” and areas that conflicted with sage grouse habitats.

Under the plan, 677,000 acres in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming would be open for oil shale exploration. Another 130,000 acres in Utah would be set aside for tar sands production.

The administration and Democrats said that while the plan would curtail what was originally sought for oil shale development, it still opens up a significant amount of land that was previously unavailable for the energy production method.

The administration noted the plan pushed forward Friday also included two research, development and demonstration (RD&D) leases for oil shale development.

“The proposed plan supports the Administration’s all-of-the-above approach to explore the full potential our nation’s domestic energy resources and to develop innovative technology and techniques that will lead to safe and responsible production of resources, including oil shale and tar sands, which industry recognizes are years from being commercially viable, but require RD&D today,” Interior spokesman Blake Androff said.

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) praised the plan, saying the administration exercised the right amount of caution on oil shale development, which has not yet been brought to commercial scale and brings concerns about the amount of water used in the practice.

“I am glad the Interior Department is taking measured steps to encourage research and development of our oil shale resources. With water being one of our most precious commodities in the West, I have concerns about the potential impacts of commercial oil shale development. Nonetheless, I look forward to seeing this technology explored further,” Udall said in a Friday statement.

Oil shale development is not to be confused with drilling into shale formations for oil and natural gas. The practice, which involves separating hydrocarbons bound up in rocks, has not been widely executed since Exxon’s failed Colorado venture in the 1980s.

Bobby McEnaney, senior lands analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, praised Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for the proposed final plan.

“By significantly reducing the acreage of wilderness potentially available for leasing, Secretary Salazar is laying out a creative, thoughtful and more responsible approach in managing some of our most precious resources,” McEnaney said in a Friday statement.

Congressional Republicans are not likely to be as pleased.

GOP lawmakers, along with some Democrats, have pushed for more fossil fuel production in the West. Republicans have led the charge, saying Obama’s policies on fossil fuel drilling on federal lands are too restrictive.

While Obama notes domestic oil-and-gas production has increased during his administration, Republicans contend that it is activity on private and state land that is driving the boost. They point to this year’s dip in oil-and-gas production on federal land — though levels are still higher than they were during the Bush administration.

The Congressional Western Caucus released a report in August to deliver that message.

“This proposal will place further limitations on the exploration and development of our country’s natural resources and is yet another example of how this administration continues to stand in the way of North American energy independence,” Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), the chairman of House Energy and Commerce’s subcommittee on Energy and Power, said in a statement to The Hill.

Oil and gas lobby the American Petroleum Institute, an ally of congressional Republicans, slammed the decision.

Jack Gerard, the group’s chief, said Thursday he would take a “wait-and-see” approach to Obama’s second term to gauge whether he would live up to campaign rhetoric in which he praised the domestic oil-and-gas industry.

Reid Porter, the lobby’s spokesman, said Friday’s news was a disappointing sign from the administration.

“This is another step in the wrong direction that limits development and investment in one of the nation’s most energy-rich areas and goes against a prior government decision that would allow for research and development over a much wider geographical area. Just days after the election this decision by the administration sends negative signals to industry and capital markets at a time when we need to encourage growth and innovation in the U.S.,” Porter said in a statement to The Hill.

Report Details

Global oil shale reserves are vast, estimated to be over twice as big as conventional oil reserves.With high oil prices and world energy demand set to increase continuously, oil shale offers a great opportunity for certain countries to alleviate energy security concerns and for companies to profit from the vast untapped reserves. The market is still developing and to-date oil shale is only being exploited on a commercial scale in a small number of countries. Many countries, however, are increasingly interested in advancing their domestic industry as oil shale is becoming an economically viable industry. Technology is constantly improving and an increasing number of projects are developing around the world. As a consequence, Visiongain has determined that the value of the global oil shale market in 2012 will reach $3.3bn.