Oil discovery in Australia’s outback could ‘transform world’s oil industry’

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Source: Calgary Herald

SYDNEY - Up to 233 billion barrels of oil has been discovered in the Australian outback which could be worth trillions of dollars, in a discovery that could turn the region into a new Saudi Arabia.

The discovery in central Australia was reported to the stock exchange by Linc Energy, an energy company and was based on two consultants’ reports, though it is not yet known how commercially viable it will be to access the oil.

The reports estimated that the company’s 16 million acres of land in the Arckaringa Basin in South Australia contain between 133 billion and 233 billion barrels of shale oil trapped in rocks. It is likely that only 3.5 billion barrels, worth almost $359 billion at today’s oil price, could be recovered.

The find was likened to the Bakken and Eagle Ford shale oil projects in the US, which have resulted in massive outflows and led to predictions that the US could overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer as soon as this year. Peter Bond, Linc Energy’s chief executive, said the find could transform the world’s oil industry, but noted that it would cost about pounds 200million to enable production in the area.

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/discovery+Australia+outback+could+transform+world+industry/7867469/story.html