Non-conventional reserves (excluding gas and coal) Produced (gone) Proved Reserves Undiscovered(?) EOR Extra Heavy Oil & Tar Sands Shale Oil Trillions of Barrels Recoverable Years Supply at 2005 Production Unconventional petroleum resources: (more difficult & dirty, and therefore expen$ive) Conventional (“easy”) (Courtesy of Joe Stefani)

World’s unconventional production N.B. World’s annual oil consumption 2006 is 85 million barrels/day Source: Energy Information Administration, 2007

Non-conventional oil from National Geographic, June 2004 Tar Sand Heavy Oil shale 2 tons of tar sands produce 1 barrel of bitumen (~asphalt)

Resource Triangle Conventional Reservoirs Small volumes that are easy to develop Unconventional Large volumes difficult to develop Improved technology Increased pricing

Shale Gas

Oil Sands - reservoirs of partially biodegraded oil still in the process of escaping. The lighter fractions of the crude oil are gone, resulting in reservoirs containing an extremely heavy form of crude oil, called crude bitumen in Canada, or extra-heavy crude oil in Venezuela. (These two countries have the world's largest deposits of oil sands.)

Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada Low efficiency (can require 1 joule of energy to get back joule)

Bitumen – tar-like highly condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

Oil Shales - source rocks that have not been exposed to heat or pressure long enough to convert their trapped hydrocarbons into crude oil. Not really shales and do not contain oil. Contain a waxy substance called kerogen (general term for buried organic matter), which can be converted into crude oil using heat and pressure to simulate natural processes. (Oil shale, Estonia)

Oil Shale Resources (NOT the same as reserves, which are only a small part of this) (Green River fossils)

Oil Shales – (Oil shale mine in Alberta, Canada)

“Fracking”- Hydraulic Fracturing – a way of retrieving natural gas from shale layers

“Fracking”- Hydraulic Fracturing: Environmental Concerns

“Fracking” Earthquakes: Wastewater injected into the Ozark aquifer of Arkansas leaked into a deeper unknown fault (roughly outlined by the rectangle in this side view). The heightened water pressure in the fault relieved just enough of the squeeze on the fault to allow earthquakes (gray and orange circles).