SOUTH Australia is sitting on oil potentially worth more than $20 trillion, independent reports claim - enough to turn Australia into a self-sufficient fuel producer.

Brisbane company Linc Energy yesterday released two reports, based on drilling and seismic exploration, estimating the amount of oil in the as yet untapped Arckaringa Basin surrounding Coober Pedy ranging from 3.5 billion to 233 billion barrels of oil.

At the higher end, this would be "several times bigger than all of the oil in Australia", Linc managing director Peter Bond said.

This has the potential to turn Australia from an oil importer to an oil exporter.

"If it comes in the way the reports are suggesting, it could well and truly bring Australia back to (oil) self-sufficiency," Mr Bond said.

State Mineral Resources Development Minister Tom Koutsantonis said there were exciting times ahead for SA's resources industry.

A Linc Energy drilling rig in the Arckaringa Basin surrounding Coober Pedy

"Shale gas and shale oil will be a key part to securing Australia's energy security now and into the future," he said.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/trillion-shale-oil-find-surrounding-coober-pedy-can-fuel-australia/story-e6freuy9-1226560401043

My understanding is that Australia has always had large known quantities of shale oil but it is more expensive energy wise to mine it than the oil is worth. Maybe we are getting desperate.

Fuck society is self centred and lazy on anthropogenic climate change

](*,) Do not know wherer to begin with this.

Try science

The greenies will have their nickers in a bunch over the Endangered sand

The greenies will have their nickers in a bunch over the Endangered sand

Damage to the environment that current mining and material production doesn't already do, bugger all.

Ever actually worked inside a mine mate?

Nope. Ever tried critical thinking?

Nope. Ever tried critical thinking?

I refuse to believe that you actually have cognitive process.

inb4 notorganic replies to this.

Of course, critical thinking is a component of my job.

Working on a mine is another. Working in regional areas where we regularly drilling into shale oil (south west Brisbane comes to mind) is common.

Are you pro environmental protection and anti mining?

Does the world need to rid itself of a coal and oil addiction? Fucking oath

Finally, some barrels they can be proud of...

I will play along with naivety and ask the question. How?

How can we escape the need for coal without economic ruin?

good news as a chemical engineer undergrad, probably bad news for the local environment

Major $20 trillion shale oil deposit found in Australia

Australian resources firm Linc Energy said it had uncovered a huge oil deposit in the nation's vast outback in a discovery hailed on Thursday by officials as worth some Aus$20 trillion (US$21 trillion).

Linc said two independent reviews of its three deposits in central Australia's Arckaringa Basin had estimated there was up to 233 billion barrels of shale oil trapped within its rocks.

However, officials cautioned that it was too early to say whether the oil could be profitably tapped.

"Analysis presented in these reports indicates that the Stuart Range formation and the underlying Boorthanna and Pre-Permian formations are rich in oil and gas prone kerogen that may form the basis of a new liquids-rich shale play," Linc said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange.

Linc said it had appointed Barclay's Bank to find a joint venture partner with shale oil expertise to help develop the deposit which it described as "world class" and comparable to the Bakken and Eagle Ford projects in the US.

Tom Koutsantonis, mining minister in South Australia state, where the deposit is located, said the sheer amount of oil would be enough to see Australia become a self-sufficient net exporter.

"If the reserves and the pressure was right over millions of years and the rocks have done the things they think they've done, they think they can extract vast reserves of oil out of South Australia which would have a value of about $20 trillion," said Koutsantonis.

He warned that it was not yet known "whether it was economic to recover or not", with the oil trapped in "low-permeability, clay-rich rocks" that needed to be fractured to release the fuel.

Crude oil, condensate and naturally-occurring liquefied petroleum gas accounts for six percent of Australia's total energy production, but represents 40 percent of consumption, according to the latest data.

Australia's bureau of resource economics estimates that imports of oil will increase by an average 2.1 percent per year in the decades to 2050.

The International Energy Agency has forecast that the United States will become the world's biggest oil producer by 2017 due to an explosion in hard-to-reach energy trapped in shale, or sedimentary rock.

http://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/major-20-trillion-shale-oil-180750228.html

If you like money Gladstone working for APLNG is where its at ;)