Australian Oil Find Challenges Saudi Reserves

[AiA in Atlanta]

*peak oil* anyone?

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - An intelligence brief said that a small Australian town called Coober Pedy has A$ 20 trillion worth of shale oil--the biggest find in 50 years, the Money Morning TV reported. The oil deposit is estimated to be six times larger than the Bakken, 17 times the size of the Marcellus formation, and 80 times larger than the Eagle Ford shale.

The recently discovered Arckaringa Basin, located just outside the sleepy Australian town, contains more oil more than in all of in Iran, Iraq, Canada, or Venezuela. With current estimates at 233 billion barrels, its just 30 billion shy of the estimated reserves in all of Saudi Arabia.

According to one renowned international expert, this massive discovery could eventually dwarf the oil rich kingdom as the original estimates are revised.

An advisor to six of the top 10 oil producers and active consultant to 20 world governments, Dr. Kent Moors now believes the find, "may land at 300 or 400 billion barrels," making it one of "the greatest unconventional oil discoveries any of us will see in our lifetimes."

"It's represents a bona fide redrawing of the global energy map as we know it," Moors says, "and the mainstream media is completely ignoring it."



Where is Coober Pedy?

Coober Pedy is an inhospitable speck on the map in Southern Australia. Founded in 1915, Coober Pedy had long been the home to 1,700 people who lived in residences literally carved out in its caves.

Now another 20,000 people have suddenly flocked there, making it one of the hottest real estate markets in all of Australia.

Encompassing an area in excess of 30,000 square miles, what's buried within the Arckaringa basin is enough black gold to completely change the global oil landscape-not to mention the lives early investors.

Analysts now believe ground zero will be much like is was in Saudi Arabia in the 1950's. And according to the inner circle briefing below by Dr. Moors, there's one little company that controls the whole thing.



Death Knell for OPEC

The massive find has been likened to the Bakken and Eagle Ford shale oil projects in the US, which have created legitimate boom times in Texas and North Dakota.

The outflows from these areas have been so big they have given way to predictions that the US could overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's largest oil producer as soon as this year.

Even at the lowest estimate, the Coober Pedy fins is set to make Australia a net oil exporter; at the higher estimate, Australia would become one of the world's biggest oil exporters.

"What we're seeing up there is a very, very big deposit," says South Australia's mining minister, Tom Koutsantonis, "If the reserves and the pressure was right over millions of years and the rocks have done the things they think they've done, they think they can extract vast reserves of oil out of South Australia which would have a value of about $20 trillion."

Dependence on OPEC's crude is already slipping as the U.S. and Canada unlock unconventional oil supplies from deep underground shale deposits with new drilling techniques. And now there's more completion bubbling up from "Down Under."

Given all of the trouble in the Middle East, the Saudi's have good reason to be alarmed.

http://en.tempo.co/read/news/2013/07/16 ... to-a-Panic

[freediver]

Shale oil is messy stuff. I think there are massive reserves of it everywhere.

[Rorschach]

Ah no.
But yes it is shale oil.
More expensive to process into a viable fuel.

[Chard]

Same argument I give in favor of us tapping our massive Saudi drawfing reselves of shale oil...

If it means we can tell those goddamn two-faced bastards in the House of Saud to go pound sand then I'm all for paying that little bit extra for processing the shale.

More realistically, the reason why we haven't started massive exploitation of our shale finds is probably going to be the same reason why you guys won't do much with yours just yet. It's a prove reserve that you can sock away for when the easy to access/foreign sources dry up. Someday the Saudis and the rest of OPEC will run dry, and when that day comes these shale deposits will allow us both to keep our societies running while the entire middle east gets to become global fly-over country.

[Rorschach]

More realistically, the reason why we haven't started massive exploitation of our shale finds is probably going to be the same reason why you guys won't do much with yours just yet. It's a prove reserve that you can sock away for when the easy to access/foreign sources dry up. Someday the Saudis and the rest of OPEC will run dry, and when that day comes these shale deposits will allow us both to keep our societies running while the entire middle east gets to become global fly-over country.

I think that is more than likely exactly the reason they are not as yet developed, along with costs. Canada have extensive oil sands as well. I think everyone is keeping their powder dry until the ME is drained or way too expensive.

[freediver]

I'd say it is purely economic. We would stop buying foreign oil as soon as ours becomes cheaper. You would work the geopolitical argument either way - either hold on to our reserves for security and continue paying middle eastern countries and pushing up their prices, or over-exploit our reserves so as not to give the middle east any more money.

[Chard]

I think that is more than likely exactly the reason they are not as yet developed, along with costs. Canada have extensive oil sands as well. I think everyone is keeping their powder dry until the ME is drained or way too expensive.

Canada has been doing quite well with their exploitation of shale and tar sand oil. Hell, they keep pestering us to left them build yet larger pipelines through the US so they can get their product down to the Gulf of Mexico, so they're definitely making bank on the deal. What Canada doesn't sell to us they mostly sell to China, so the production cost difference between shale/tar sand oil and more conventional oil production methods isn't hindering them at all sales wise. In fact, we buy approximately twice as much Canadian oil than we do Saudi oil (followed by Mexican oil to round out the top three importers for us. Contrary to popular belief most of our oil is produced domestically).

I'd say it is purely economic. We would stop buying foreign oil as soon as ours becomes cheaper. You would work the geopolitical argument either way - either hold on to our reserves for security and continue paying middle eastern countries and pushing up their prices, or over-exploit our reserves so as not to give the middle east any more money.

In Australia's case it might be a purely economic consideration, but I doubt it. In our case, some of our reasoning is based on economics, but a lot of it is purely strategic military thinking. After all, if everyone else runs short/out of oil and we can still maintain our supplies it gives us a massive strategic advantage (seriously, try moving an army, much less fight a war, without a metric fuckton of oil). I'm willing to bet the same holds true to some extent for Australia as well.

[freediver]

After all, if everyone else runs short/out of oil and we can still maintain our supplies it gives us a massive strategic advantage (seriously, try moving an army, much less fight a war, without a metric fuckton of oil).

You could make a very similar economic argument.

[Chard]

After all, if everyone else runs short/out of oil and we can still maintain our supplies it gives us a massive strategic advantage (seriously, try moving an army, much less fight a war, without a metric fuckton of oil).

You could make a very similar economic argument.

Good point. Both are so inter-related that strategical military goals and long term economic goals are one and the same. Glad we agree.

[freediver]

Speculating on the price of oil is not the same as hording it for military use. It is very risky. There are already electric cars on the market. A few more improvements in technology and oil could be obsolete.