25012013

Shale Oil in South Australia, problem or opportunity?

According to this article it looks like up to 233 billion barrels of oil might be sitting in shale deposits under South Australia...

Now if that is so, and it looks like it could indeed be, it amounts to a heck of a lot of oil, something to rival the oil rich Middle East. Which in turn equates to billions upon trillions of money to be made from extracting this.

So given the many zeroes sums of money to be made from this - I doubt even the political Green movement will be able to 'bury' this. Sometimes the rewards can be so great to 'leap' over any obstacles, and I think this clearly qualifies on that regard.

Now, of course, if this is going to happen, one wants to see the best outcome for the environment and given the monetary return it should indeed be possible to extract the oil whilst doing proper environmental protection.

As regards the Co2 produced, etc; to be honest the whole Carbon trading and Carbon tax carbuncle defies rational understanding. The IPCC has repeatedly been over estimating the rise in temperature for all reports so far. The real temperature has sailed right under their lowest estimates. Koyoto is all but dead and Co2 is keeping on increasing with no apparent drop in rate of increase given all this money thrown at the 'problem'. Combine that with the fact we could be going into a bit of cold spell (quiet Sun) and finding a large amount of oil looks like an absolute god send.

I know some people hate what I write, well hard cheese and tough luck baby. I've been around long enough to realize that people who hold back progress and try to drown out the opinions of others are the ones who do the most harm in this world.

Just think, if that money was utilized in the correct way, we could make Australia one of the knowledge and educational 'hubs' of the world. We already have innovative R&D being done in Australia, with this sort of money available it could result in a massive explosion in innovation. Imagine the equivalent of Silicon Valley in Australia (admittedly with better architecture, less concrete, more pavements and green spaces) ...This could very well result in proven technologies that could drastically reduce our energy needs and our 'weight' on the environment in general. If spent correctly the monies from this oil could well change the whole world for the better.

Of course, to make this innovation 'wave' happen in Australia, we would need more than just the money. The whole 'start-up' and taxation regime around new businesses would have to be 'sorted' to match that available in places like Silicon Valley and Singapore. This should not be too hard to do, given the rewards to government that could occur with all the new revenue these businesses would generate (either directly or through increased income tax collected).

Now, if you are just against this because it is 'fracking' and that is just evil; think again, you will have a very hard time indeed stopping this from happening given the massive pile of money involved. Why not instead focus on ensuring the best outcome for the environment and for the people? Surely that is in everyone's best interest?