Israel cracks the code on extracting shale oil

IMRA/UPI:

The Israeli process for producing energy from
oil shale will cut its oil imports by one-third, and will serve as a guide
for other countries with oil shale deposits, according to one company.

A.F.S.K. Hom Tov presented its oil shale processing method on Tuesday,
outside Haifa and just down the street from one of the country's two oil
refinery facilities.

"Because the patents for this process belong to (the company), Israel is the
most advanced in the world in the effort to create energy from oil shale,"
Moshe Shahal, a Hom Tov legal representative and a former Israeli energy
minister, told United Press International.

Shahal estimated that the company's Negev Desert facility would begin
full-scale production in three to four years, while other countries with oil
shale deposits will need five to six years to reach production.

Oil shale is limestone rock that contains hydrocarbons, or fossil fuels --
about 20 percent of the amount of energy found in coal. Using the rock as a
raw material and coating it with bitumen, a residue of the crude oil
refining process, the company can produce natural gas, fuel, electricity, or
a combination of the three.

...

It would cost about $17 to produce a barrel of synthetic oil at the Hom Tov
facility, meaning giant profit margins in a world of $45 to $60 per barrel
crude. Yearly earnings are forecasted to be between $159 million and $350
million, Shahal said.

Israel has 15 billion tons of oil shale reserves. Jordan, on the other hand,
has about 25 billion tons, and the oil shale in Jordan is of higher quality.
Shahal met with Jordanian Energy Minister Azmi Khreisat earlier this year,
to discuss setting up a plant there.

The United States also has a giant reserve, mostly in Colorado, and Hom Tov
sees potential for its patented process there.

...

The Houston Chronicle reports:

Companies hoping to tap an estimated 100-year supply of shale oil locked in rock formations under Colorado, Utah, and southwest Wyoming have won federal approval for experimental extraction projects.

Not since the 1980s have companies been as interested as they are now in extracting oil from the rock, which has historically been a laborious and expensive process.

The Interior Department authorized 10-year leases for Shell Frontier Oil & Gas Co., Chevron USA and EGL Resources Inc. for 160-acre parcels for research and development projects in northwest Colorado.

...

I am sure the Democrats will be eager to suppress this energy source when they take control of Congress in January. Environmentalism is about restricting the supply of energy. Anything that might increase the supply of energy will be opposed by the environmental wackos. Hat tip to Gateway Pundit.