Oil Shale Economics - Water Usage

Water Usage

Development of oil shale resources will require significant quantities of water for mine and plant operations, reclamation, supporting infrastructure, and associated economic growth. Above-ground retorting typically consumes between one and five barrels of water per barrel of produced shale oil, depending on technology. For an oil shale industry producing 2.5 million barrels per day (400×10^3 m3/d), this equates to 105,000,000–315,000,000 US gallons per day (400,000–1,190,000 m3/d) of water. These numbers include water requirements for power generation for in-situ heating processes, retorting, refining, reclamation, dust control and on-site worker demands. Municipal and other water requirements related to population growth associated with industry development will require an additional 58 million US gallons (220,000 m3) per day. Hence, a 2.5 million barrels per day (400×10^3 m3/d) oil shale industry would require 180,000 to 420,000 acre feet (220,000,000 to 520,000,000 m3) of water per year, depending on location and processes used.

The largest deposit of oil shale in the United States is in the Green River basin. Though scarce, water in the western United States is treated as a commodity which can be bought and sold in a competitive market. Royal Dutch Shell has been reported to be buying groundwater rights in Colorado as it prepares to drill for oil in the shale deposits there. In the Colorado Big-Thompson project, average prices per share (0.7 acre feet (860 m3)/share) increased from some $2,000 in 1990 to more than $12,000 in mid-2003 (constant 2001 dollars). CBT Prices from 2001 to 2006 has had a range of $10,000 to $14,000 per share, or $14,000 to $20,000 per acre foot. At $10,000 per acre foot, capital costs for water rights to produce 2.5 million barrels per day (400×10^3 m3/d) would range between $1.8-4.2 billion.