Oil Sands Project in Utah?

[amborin]

Company Seeks First US Oil Sands Project, in Utah

by Paul Foy

Salt Lake City - An energy company with government approvals to launch the first significant U.S. oil sands project is trying to raise money to build a plant in eastern Utah that would turn out 2,000 barrels of oil a day.

Earth Energy Resources Inc. has a state lease to work a 62-acre pit in Uintah County, where it has demonstrated technology that can extract oil out of sands using a proprietary solvent it calls environmentally friendly.

But first, the Calgary, Alberta-based company says it needs to raise $35 million, and it acknowledged that could be tough because private equity groups turned skittish after the 2008 economic meltdown.

Earth Energy said it is "de-risking" the project to lure investors.

"Until we raise our capital, we are unable to proceed with the project in any major way, but the minute we do, we are fully prepared and committed to advance," D. Glen Snarr, president and chief financial officer, told The Associated Press by e-mail.

Regulators say the company has obtained all permits necessary to open the first U.S. oil sands surface mine designed for producing bitumen, a tar-like form of petroleum. For decades other Utah operators have used oil sands as a poor-man's asphalt.

Snarr offered no timetable, but the company has demonstrated for officials, researchers and regulators that it has equipment capable of producing bitumen from the oil sands.

With oil hovering around $80 a barrel - it bottomed out around $32 a year ago - unconventional fuels are looking more practical. Still, political, economic and environmental hurdles remain.

The Obama administration has been slow to lease large tracts of federal land for oil shale or tar sands development.

Utah is more willing to lease its state lands, however, and Earth Energy joins a neighbor on state lands, Salt Lake City-based Red Leaf Resources Inc., which is working on a small scale to develop the region's oil-shale reserves. Red Leaf also is looking for investors to ramp up production.

Wringing oil from hard rock or oil sands is technically possible, but nobody has proven it economical on a large scale yet, University of Utah chemical engineering professor Philip Smith said.

"Companies have to run on the dollar, so if it's not worth doing, no one will do it," Smith said in an interview. "Is there a future for this? There's a lot of hurdles to overcome yet."

Earth Energy Resources, he said, "wants to be the first to do it."

Smith said Utah's oil sands contain as much energy as those of Canada's massive reserves, but Utah's contain more nitrogen that can give off smog-forming nitrous oxides when processed. Earth Energy says refining removes the nitrogen before it becomes ...

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/29-3

[kristopher]

1. We need to (no pun intended) draw a line in the sand on this - right now...

...while we have the power. The price of petroleum is forecast to rise to $200/barrel by 2020, so the pressure is going to be huge to tap into resources like this.

[louis-t]

2. Very expensive to mine.

When you hear freepers claim "massive oil reserves found right in here in the good ole us of a" they are talking about tar sands. No one has told them it's not Arabian light sweet crude.

[kristopher]

3. When oil is at $200/bbl it is a very attractive economic proposition.

We need to get rules in place to nip this disaster in the bud.

[Statistical]

4. The problem is that even at $80, $90, $100 a barrel to extract....

if oil gets >$100 then it is profitable.

Long term we are looking at $150-$200 a barrel for oil.

If economics is the only barrier eventually they will pull out every single drop of the foulest, thickest, sludgiest tar sands because it will still be profitable.

[Vincardog]

5. The cost is not just in $$$ How much Water and air does it pollute? A LOT

[Statistical]

6. Oh I agree. Tar sands is horrible stuff.

I was just pointing out if the only barrier is economic eventually oil will be expensive enough that it is no longer a barrier at all.

[joshcryer]

7. Heh, the fossil industry knows what it's doing. Crack oil shale for gas...

...and use in-situ extraction, just as prices are hitting $150-200 a barrel. It's perfectly timed and planned. And the US has the largest reserves of this stuff so, well, you can expect huge industrial parks in the western United States exploiting the shit out of it.