| Submit your comments on this article |
| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Oil Shale in Valley Where David Slew Goliath |
| 2011-11-07 |
| A proposed effort to extract oil from shale deposits in Israel's Valley of Elah (where David slew Goliath) has the potential to turn tiny Israel into one of the world's largest producers of oil, rivaling Saudi Arabia. According to Dr. Harold Vinegar, Chief Scientist of Israel Energy Initiatives ("IEI"), the company in charge of the project, Israel may possess as much as 250 billion barrels of oil, nearly equaling the 260 billion barrel Saudi reserves. "This could be a game-changer in the geopolitical balance of power in the Middle East," argued Jack Halpern, head of the The Israel Energy Partnership. "Until now, OPEC oil has funded the Middle East arms race, financed terrorism, enabled Iran to pursue development of a nuclear bomb, and convinced oil purchasing nations in Europe and Asia to support Israel's enemies in the hope that they could then get access to Middle East oil. If Israel were the world's largest producer of oil, instead, all of that would change." |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #9 D *** NG IT, USDOD, TOLD YA SO. And to think it only took almost 20 years for the Fed to relearn why Madonna rules. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-11-07 19:42 |
| #8 Golda Meir once said that God has a sense of humor - he found the only place in the Mid East without a drop of oil, and told the Jews that this was the Promised Land, a land of milk and honey. Looks like Meir was wrong. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2011-11-07 19:41 |
| #7 There are environmentalists in Israel too and they are fighting tooth and nail to prevent any demo project. |
| Posted by: Lord Garth 2011-11-07 15:36 |
| #6 They are using in situ heating to extract the oil. Tried already in the Green River shale, but hobbled by so many enviro regs that it wasn't clear whether it was viable or not. Heating shale oil in situ is one of the few applications where solar/wind power makes sense. I hope they take that route, just to piss off the Greenies. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2011-11-07 14:59 |
| #5 Actually fracking is generally environmentally friendly, only the greens think otherwise. I believe that most oil shale has to be mined and processed. The spoils to be stockpiled to be returned to the spent mine and landscaped. Still environmentally sound if done properly according to the individual situation. From Wikipedia: "Shale oil extraction is usually performed above ground (ex situ processing) by mining the oil shale and then treating it in processing facilities. Other modern technologies perform the processing underground (on-site or in situ processing) by applying heat and extracting the oil via oil wells." Wiki Article: http://tinyurl.com/5kuwfk |
| Posted by: tipover 2011-11-07 10:41 |
| #4 Doesn't use Fracturing. More environmentally friendly process. |
| Posted by: Dale 2011-11-07 10:20 |
| #3 Gas now oil things are looking good. I assume they will use a fracturing process. That takes allot of water. |
| Posted by: Dale 2011-11-07 10:15 |
| #2 Just don't try and build a pipeline through the Ogallala. |
| Posted by: bman 2011-11-07 10:03 |
| #1 Amen and Amen! |
| Posted by: ana 2011-11-07 10:03 |