WEBVTT - How Oil Shale Works

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<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know

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<v Speaker 1>from how Stuff Works dot Com? Brought to you by

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<v Speaker 1>consumer Guy at Automotive we make carbine easier. Hi, and

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<v Speaker 1>welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, the staff writer

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<v Speaker 1>here at how Stuff Works dot Com. With me is

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<v Speaker 1>the lovely and effervescent Charles Bryant, fellow staff writer. Are

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<v Speaker 1>you Chuck? I'm great, I'm effervescent and it feels good. Good.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm glad you're feeling good, Chuck? So Chucker's Uh? Have

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<v Speaker 1>you heard of peak oil? I have? Josh? You know,

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<v Speaker 1>how can you not working here? Are you just? You're

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<v Speaker 1>always run around the office screaming about it? Well, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>I feel pretty passionate. You should tell everyone. Okay, well,

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<v Speaker 1>let me tell you again what peak oil is. It's

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<v Speaker 1>basically the point in time where we stop finding oil

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<v Speaker 1>and start running out and the inevitable decline begins because

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<v Speaker 1>oil is, after all, a non renewable resource. Contrary to

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<v Speaker 1>some of the heated opinions of a few of our

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<v Speaker 1>readers who believe that it actually is renewable. I haven't

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<v Speaker 1>figured out how But most people believe that petroleum is finite,

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<v Speaker 1>so we're eventually going to run out. And what happens

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<v Speaker 1>then is a mass chaos exactly exactly. We're all in big,

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<v Speaker 1>big trouble our Our global economy runs on oil, quite literally,

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<v Speaker 1>and we need it to function. Luckily, there's all sorts

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<v Speaker 1>of people who are working on alternative energy, where it

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<v Speaker 1>be biofuels, wind power, solar power, hydrogen. Who cares? We

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<v Speaker 1>need to get off oil, even Bush, the Texas oil man,

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<v Speaker 1>thinks America is addicted to oil. America exactly, so chuck.

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<v Speaker 1>While we're looking for new forms of energy in the meantime,

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<v Speaker 1>the conventional oil reserves, which are like, um, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>the stuff we pump out of the ground, think Jeg

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<v Speaker 1>clamp It shooting at the rabbit and missing in doubt.

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<v Speaker 1>I will eat your ice cream, right, it's not ice cream. Actually,

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<v Speaker 1>it's he'll drink your milkshake. I haven't seen it again. Yeah, okay,

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<v Speaker 1>So but that's conventional oil, right, yeah, all right. So

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<v Speaker 1>there's also unconventional forms of oil, which is you know,

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<v Speaker 1>pretty much anything but just conventionally pumped petroleum. Um. One

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<v Speaker 1>of them is oil shale. Yeah, um oil shell is

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<v Speaker 1>actually it's kind of a cool cool thing. It's really um.

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<v Speaker 1>The best way to most the simplest way to describe

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<v Speaker 1>it is that it's oil in uh that's trapped in

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<v Speaker 1>rock and it never had the chance really to become

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<v Speaker 1>liquid petroleum. It's sort of cut short before that last

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<v Speaker 1>step and uh, it was stripped of its potential. It was, sadly,

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<v Speaker 1>and so it lies underneath the earth, um, just waiting

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<v Speaker 1>for someone to go down and find a way to

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<v Speaker 1>extract it, which is actually possible. Um, there's uh, there's

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<v Speaker 1>people that are working on that now. One of the

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<v Speaker 1>big problems with extracting oil shale, though, is is you

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<v Speaker 1>have to bring up this rock uh from the earth,

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<v Speaker 1>and the rock is the byproducts. So you're left with

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<v Speaker 1>you know, I don't know what was statistic how many

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<v Speaker 1>tons of rock? Seven yeah, seven tons of rock to

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<v Speaker 1>make one gallon of patrol petroleum And I'm not sure

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<v Speaker 1>that's the actual statistic, but there is a significant amount

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<v Speaker 1>of rock left. I was exaggerating, but it's a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of rock and they don't know what to do with it,

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<v Speaker 1>and that's one of the issues. I Mean, the best

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<v Speaker 1>you can do is use it under overpasses to discourage

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<v Speaker 1>homeless people from setting up camp there, which is really

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<v Speaker 1>about as cruel use of rock as there is. It is.

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<v Speaker 1>But I think you know about um, the the Shell

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<v Speaker 1>Oil Company's got a different methods. Were onto something it's

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<v Speaker 1>called institution retorting. Retorting is basically the process of extracting

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<v Speaker 1>the oil from the shale through heat. They figured out

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<v Speaker 1>that they can stick these rods down there and heat

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<v Speaker 1>up these oil shell deposits in the ground, right, so

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<v Speaker 1>they don't have the rock byproduct, right, the rocks never moved. Um,

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<v Speaker 1>so the carriage in which is the oil that's found

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<v Speaker 1>inside uh is extracted and pumped out and the rock

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<v Speaker 1>is left situated. It's just so no mining. They don't

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<v Speaker 1>have to mind the rock. And that's another step to

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<v Speaker 1>the process. And that is it is it cuts out

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<v Speaker 1>like a really really big expensive step. And and so

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<v Speaker 1>if Shell can crack this code, which it looks like

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<v Speaker 1>they're going to be able to do this, they have

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<v Speaker 1>projects under way. Um, it would make America the new

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<v Speaker 1>Saudi Arabia as far as oil shal went. That's right.

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<v Speaker 1>Because of the Green River formation, which no one's probably

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<v Speaker 1>heard it heard it that it sounds like some sort

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<v Speaker 1>of you know, neo Nazi environmental group, But what it

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<v Speaker 1>actually is is it's seventeen thousand, thousands square miles of

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<v Speaker 1>oil shale that's under the United States. Yeah, it's out west,

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<v Speaker 1>it's uh, it's near the four Corner States, just waiting

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<v Speaker 1>to be tapped. Yeah. And and we've known all about

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<v Speaker 1>it for a while. Um, but interest really began around

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen seventy three with the oil embargo against the US

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<v Speaker 1>by OPEC, when we realize how dependent we are in

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<v Speaker 1>fur and oil. So um, with this interest in oil

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<v Speaker 1>shell generated and then it waned because oil prices went

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<v Speaker 1>back down. And now with oil prices up as high

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<v Speaker 1>as they are, interests is getting getting up again. So yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>there's plenty more to talk about as far as oil

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<v Speaker 1>shale goes, and you can find out more by reading

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<v Speaker 1>what's oil shale on how stuff works dot com for

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<v Speaker 1>more on this and thousands of other topics. Does it

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