Frack It.
1/3/2023
Fossil fuels, what a name... When I was a boy, the Sinclair Dino was everywhere. The theory at the time was that when the dinosaurs died out, they provided the base product that became oil. Even back then I wondered why they all walked to Saudi Arabia to die. As time went on, the theory was that the basis was the lush plant life of prehistory. Still, I wondered how all of those plants got a few miles underground, in those big pools we could just tap into. It just didn't make sense.
In the 70's, when the Arabs cut us off, twice, and the environmental movement started to flex its muscle, the "fossil fuels" started to be called into question. It was both a pollutant, and because of the embargo, going to run out. Those of you from NYC or L.A. would have to agree with agree with the environmentalists' assessment. The smog was insane.
Of course, the car engines were painfully inefficient, and up to that point no one had thought much about the smoke emanating from the exhaust pipe, just the noise. Eventually catalytic converters caught up to mufflers. Lo and behold, with a hundredfold (perhaps a thousandfold) increase in cars, the L.A. basin has a few "unhealthy" smog days as opposed to everyday being one in the hot summer months. That is the joy of a prosperous society. We didn't like living in filth, so we figured out a way to do what we did, but cleaner.
Still, oil is the villain. It is destroying the environment, and it is running out. In a few sentences we covered that technology can be created to address environmental concerns. Now to the myth that oil is in short supply.
If you accept that oil came from dinosaurs, then limited supply would seem logical - there were only so many of them around. The current theory is that oil regenerates itself. Wells that had run dry were gone back to for a second look when the price started spiking in the late 80's and were found to have oil in them again. The answer lies in the origins of the use of a material that is the basis of the modern oil industry - shale oil.
Shale oil is a mineral that has been in use since 13th century France. It is in solid form - a rock, of sorts. When it is crushed, heated, and hydrogenated (application of solvents) a thermal dissolution (breakup of organic matter) occurs. The result is, in essence, crude oil which can then be refined into any number of petroleum products. This is a process that has been known for centuries. It was a lot of trouble though - especially with an abundance of cheap whale oil. Then the whale oil was in short supply.
John D Rockefeller made his fortune in oil, as we all know. What many fail to realize is that initially he was refining his petroleum products from shale oil. Loading the shale oil onto trains, bringing them to extraction (retorting) facilities, and then refining the petroleum products. Rockefeller, and his company Standard Oil, developed over 300 petroleum products (tar, paint, Vaseline, lubricating grease, as examples), and in 1893, with the creation of the Diesel engine, demand only increased.
The same process that Rockefeller used occurs naturally. The oil shale breaks down within the earth and the liquefied petroleum gathers into pools deep underground. this is what we call crude oil. Oil was known and drilled for since the 1840s in America, with the first commercial well going into operation in Titusville, PA in 1849. As it works out, it was more economical to look for the lakes of oil than to process oil shale, so that what we've been doing ever since - looking for oil deposits.
The science for locating these oil deposits has improved dramatically, so the supply of oil has increased to meet demand. Still, much of the oil is in difficult places to get. Deep water offshore drilling gave us the BP disaster. Or it is in places that spoil the view of the shoreline, which is part of the objection to coastal shallow water drilling. Much of our perceived shortage of oil the reluctance of some to drill for it - the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) mindset.
We have become dependent on the Arabs, and a host of other countries that are either unstable or hostile to us. It is a potential economic crisis (What's gas going for this week?), and a potential national security crisis, should those hostile countries decide to cut us off again. Depending on whose numbers you use, we currently import between 49 -59% of our crude oil. This is a disaster in the making.
The argument is constantly made that the USA only has 2% of the world’s oil and uses 20%. It is a great, but false argument. That 2% accounts for known and active wells. It does not count known oil that is not being drilled. Beyond that it forgets our roots in oil - shale oil.
The United States sits on top of one of the largest supplies of shale oil in the world. Estimates hold that if we make use of the shale oil, and not just the puddles of oil dripping from it, we could meet the energy needs of the United States for over a century without importing a single drop of oil.
We can do this because of great strides made in underground thermal dissolution of the shale oil - what they call fracking. It is pretty much the same process as used by Rockefeller in the 1800s, but on a scale that makes it as economical if not cheaper than locating crude oil deposits. We currently have large scale operations going on in North Dakota and west Texas (on privately held land). This would be the source of the oil from Canada flowing through many pipelines as well.
Some call the practice dangerous. There have been reports of solvents and petroleum found in ground water. One of my friends at Caltech, who specializes in mining and geology has looked into it. The chemicals found may or may not be fracking related. The amounts are trace - on the same levels as lead or arsenic naturally occur in drinking water. The petroleum is most likely the seepage coming off of the shale oil into the water table as naturally happens.
Of course, the naysayers trumpet, there is only a hundred-year supply. Many of these are the environmentalists who believe global warming will have destroyed us in 50 years - so what's to lose? It is a hundred-year supply if we import no oil at all. There is still other oil, and shale oil on the planet. Lots of it. Centuries worth.
But still, it's only centuries. Not that it matters to anyone alive now, but we will play along and worry about our children's, children's, children's, children's, children. Not that those concerned about fracking even care about the debt being saddled on the next generation. Let's say we have 500 years. That would place us in the 2500s. Doesn't Star Trek happen then? Warp drive and Dilithium crystals?
Yes, I am being deliberately absurd. As are many of the opponents, though not deliberately. Let us just say we go with the hundred-year supply in the United States. We have consistently argued that all of the "alternative energy" being touted by the current administration is either not market ready or lacks the potential to feed the upcoming energy needs of America. This is not opinion, it is fact. The most optimistic minds advocating alternative energy are saying that the technologies we are presently looking at will take 20 years to make market ready, which does not mean the market will buy.
One hundred years of breathing room is a good thing. One hundred years buys us the time to find not only "a" replacement technology, but the "right" technology. Think of the advances between the years 1900 and 2000 - or even 1990 to 2010. There may be simple things that we haven't even dreamed of yet that could not only solve this vexing problem but contribute to the advancement of all of us everywhere. That is the genius behind humanity, and particularly of America. Practicality and Innovation are our lifeblood. Let's use those talents. The practice for fulfilling TODAY’s energy needs should be "Frack it".