December 06, 2016
Microwave Fracking
Timothy Birdnow
Fracking is fun, but Microwaves are marvelous!
Microwave oil drilling is coming soon, and it will greatly expand our ability to get at oil - including the icky oil shale, which currently requires strip mining to get at. There are at least 1.5 TRILLION barrels of oil we will be able to tap using this technology.
According to Oilprice.com:
"These trillion barrels are contained in oil shale, in the Green River formation. Although it sounds confusingly identical to shale oil, it’s not, and this is why fracking does not work on it. Something else does work on oil shale, though, and that’s microwaves.
Oil shale, unlike shale oil, is not oil per se; it’s a solid organic material accumulation in shale rocks. To get the oil, you need extremely high temperatures, which are currently being achieved with the environmentally disastrous methods of strip mining – crushing the rock formation and then heating it up to liquefy the oil – and steam injection into the rock. Neither of these methods is particularly effective, which is why we haven’t been hearing much more about the Green River formation.
Microwaves, on the other hand, are capable of doing the job of the steam more effectively, more efficiently, and, what’s particularly important when it comes to oil and gas, more sparingly for the environment.
The idea of using microwaves to get to the fossil fuels hiding in shale rock is not new. In fact, it has been studied since at least 1983. The idea, as expressed by modern-day proponents such as Colorado-based Qmast, is to point a microwave beam with the power of, say, 500 regular microwave ovens to the shale formation and liquefy the crude in this particular sector. The crude then flows freely to a wellbore in the vicinity. According to Qmast’s CTO Peter Kearl, this vicinity – the space that this beam can heat up – can reach 80 feet from the wellbore.
Eighty feet is not a lot, were it not for the estimate that one single microwave-stimulated well can yield up to 800,000 barrels of crude. For now, this sounds too good to be true, and Qmast has not yet started doing trials outside the lab. It does have plans to launch trials outside the lab next year, and even has the ambition to start producing crude by the end of the year. "
End excerpt.
And this method does not produce nasty waste-water. Oh, and it can be powered by methane extracted from the well itslf. Again from the article:
"The very notion of microwaving to extract oil shale is mouthwatering, because it is a water-free process, and doesn’t leave behind waste—one of the main points of contention between the oil industry and environmentalists. It can also save on new-well investment by maximizing the yield from existing wells.
It is perhaps precisely for these reasons that some of these same environmentalists are adamant that microwaving must never be put to wide-scale use as a fossil fuel extraction method: because it will undermine efforts to switch to renewables, much in the same way that cheap oil did.
Leaving the anti-renewables consideration aside, there’s a much bigger problem with microwaves as a means of extracting oil, and that’s money. Microwaving a piece of shale rock 1,000 feet below ground takes quite a lot of energy. Now, this energy could come from the associated gas at the well or—why not—from renewable sources. Even so, the pumping cost per well remains about $9, which is more or less the same as the pumping cost of a conventional or a fracking well. In other words, for all its benefits, the microwave approach needs higher international oil prices to become commercially viable.
The good news is that until this happens, it can be used for other purposes, such as cleaning up clogged wells and de-blocking shale oil deposits where water prevents the crude from flowing to the wellbore. These multiple applications certainly increase the technology’s chances of success at some point in the future. It’s just unclear when exactly we will get to this point."
End excerpt.
And while the cost is still high, it will come down as the technology becomes established.
Expect a huge fight over this and some more dissembling criticisms from liberals. They don't want us to use oil. Some want us to use renewables because they believe in it, but many environmentalists want to power America down, to return the continent to it's pre-settlement condition, or as near as posssible. No energy is what they want.
And our buddies in the Arab world and in Russia aren't going to like this at all. Right now petrodollars fund the turmoil in the Middle East, giving the cash needed to run groups like ISIS or Al Qaeda or Boko Haram. Driving the price of oil down (which competing oil invariably does) strangles these evil enterprises in utero. Money is what gave the Islamic world the power to attack us. If we become energy independent they lose.
Ditto the Russians. How can Putin invade Ukraine or any other place if he doesn't have the money? As I noted at Pajama Media after Putin invaded Georgia, the Russians were forced to pull out because they ran out of money. War is expensive. And taking the money out of our enemies purses is critical to brokering peace; peace comes not from agreements but when one side cannot carry on. Strangle the oil money and our big enemies can't carry on against us.
This is wonderful news!
Fracking is fun, but Microwaves are marvelous!
Microwave oil drilling is coming soon, and it will greatly expand our ability to get at oil - including the icky oil shale, which currently requires strip mining to get at. There are at least 1.5 TRILLION barrels of oil we will be able to tap using this technology.
According to Oilprice.com:
"These trillion barrels are contained in oil shale, in the Green River formation. Although it sounds confusingly identical to shale oil, it’s not, and this is why fracking does not work on it. Something else does work on oil shale, though, and that’s microwaves.
Oil shale, unlike shale oil, is not oil per se; it’s a solid organic material accumulation in shale rocks. To get the oil, you need extremely high temperatures, which are currently being achieved with the environmentally disastrous methods of strip mining – crushing the rock formation and then heating it up to liquefy the oil – and steam injection into the rock. Neither of these methods is particularly effective, which is why we haven’t been hearing much more about the Green River formation.
Microwaves, on the other hand, are capable of doing the job of the steam more effectively, more efficiently, and, what’s particularly important when it comes to oil and gas, more sparingly for the environment.
The idea of using microwaves to get to the fossil fuels hiding in shale rock is not new. In fact, it has been studied since at least 1983. The idea, as expressed by modern-day proponents such as Colorado-based Qmast, is to point a microwave beam with the power of, say, 500 regular microwave ovens to the shale formation and liquefy the crude in this particular sector. The crude then flows freely to a wellbore in the vicinity. According to Qmast’s CTO Peter Kearl, this vicinity – the space that this beam can heat up – can reach 80 feet from the wellbore.
Eighty feet is not a lot, were it not for the estimate that one single microwave-stimulated well can yield up to 800,000 barrels of crude. For now, this sounds too good to be true, and Qmast has not yet started doing trials outside the lab. It does have plans to launch trials outside the lab next year, and even has the ambition to start producing crude by the end of the year. "
End excerpt.
And this method does not produce nasty waste-water. Oh, and it can be powered by methane extracted from the well itslf. Again from the article:
"The very notion of microwaving to extract oil shale is mouthwatering, because it is a water-free process, and doesn’t leave behind waste—one of the main points of contention between the oil industry and environmentalists. It can also save on new-well investment by maximizing the yield from existing wells.
It is perhaps precisely for these reasons that some of these same environmentalists are adamant that microwaving must never be put to wide-scale use as a fossil fuel extraction method: because it will undermine efforts to switch to renewables, much in the same way that cheap oil did.
Leaving the anti-renewables consideration aside, there’s a much bigger problem with microwaves as a means of extracting oil, and that’s money. Microwaving a piece of shale rock 1,000 feet below ground takes quite a lot of energy. Now, this energy could come from the associated gas at the well or—why not—from renewable sources. Even so, the pumping cost per well remains about $9, which is more or less the same as the pumping cost of a conventional or a fracking well. In other words, for all its benefits, the microwave approach needs higher international oil prices to become commercially viable.
The good news is that until this happens, it can be used for other purposes, such as cleaning up clogged wells and de-blocking shale oil deposits where water prevents the crude from flowing to the wellbore. These multiple applications certainly increase the technology’s chances of success at some point in the future. It’s just unclear when exactly we will get to this point."
End excerpt.
And while the cost is still high, it will come down as the technology becomes established.
Expect a huge fight over this and some more dissembling criticisms from liberals. They don't want us to use oil. Some want us to use renewables because they believe in it, but many environmentalists want to power America down, to return the continent to it's pre-settlement condition, or as near as posssible. No energy is what they want.
And our buddies in the Arab world and in Russia aren't going to like this at all. Right now petrodollars fund the turmoil in the Middle East, giving the cash needed to run groups like ISIS or Al Qaeda or Boko Haram. Driving the price of oil down (which competing oil invariably does) strangles these evil enterprises in utero. Money is what gave the Islamic world the power to attack us. If we become energy independent they lose.
Ditto the Russians. How can Putin invade Ukraine or any other place if he doesn't have the money? As I noted at Pajama Media after Putin invaded Georgia, the Russians were forced to pull out because they ran out of money. War is expensive. And taking the money out of our enemies purses is critical to brokering peace; peace comes not from agreements but when one side cannot carry on. Strangle the oil money and our big enemies can't carry on against us.
This is wonderful news!
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
12:10 PM
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