New energy opportunities:

“Oil shale”, an “unconventional” oil source, presents opportunities to supply some of the fossil energy needs of the world in the years ahead. Most oil shales are fine-grained sedimentary rocks that yield substantial quantities of oil by heating and distillation. One tonne of oil shale contains more than 200 litres of oil. Total world resources of oil shale are conservatively estimated at 2.6 trillion barrels.

Australia has significantly large deposits of “proved oil shale in place”. In 1802, a French world scientific expedition discovered oil shale in New South Wales near the Blue Mountains. In 2005 it was estimated that there were 29 million barrels of oil shale economic demonstrated resources in Australia.

For more information, go to:
www.australianminesatlas.gov.au
http://emd.aapg.org/technical_areas/oil_shale.cfm

Also, there are other solutions to Australia’s problem of depleting transport fuels such as diesel oil. Importantly, international energy companies are exploring options to directly convert Australia’s abundant natural gas reserves into clean, non-polluting liquids, in the form of diesel or aviation fuels. This process is known as “Gas to Liquid”, or GTL.

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