ESTIMATING WATER RESOURCE DEMANDS AND AVAILABILITY FOR OIL SHALE DEVELOPMENT

The Green River Formation in the Western U.S. contains the largest oil shale deposits in the world. Colorado's Piceance Basin alone contains approximately 500 billion barrels of recoverable shale oil, equivalent to half the world's proven oil reserves. It is conceivable that this region could eventually produce a quarter of the US daily demand, or up to 5 million barrels per day (Mmbbl/d). With the development of oil shale in the Piceance Basin, the Upper Colorado River and its tributaries would become an important source of water for operations. This talk aims to assess the potential impact of oil shale development on basin water resources, and in particular, the White River, CO. In-situ oil shale operations may require between 1 and 3 barrels of water per barrel of oil produced, including water requirements associated with power generation for in-situ heating processes, refining, retorting, cooling, dust control and reclamation. If water for industry related population growth is also counted then a 2.5 Mmbbl/d oil shale operation in the Green River Basin (Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado) could require between 0.2 and 0.4 million acre feet per year (acre-ft/yr) of water1,2,3. This is 3.5% to 8% of the 5.3 million acre-ft/yr 3 of water allocated to these Upper Colorado River States. This is based on average annual flows for the Colorado River and does not account for climate variability. We performed a water availability analysis for an oil shale production rate of 500,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) focused in the Piceance basin. This analysis suggests that the White River should be able to support new water demands for oil shale if extractions from the river are limited to about 70,000 acre-ft/yr, and an additional 16,000 acre-ft of reservoir capacity is built in the river basin to accommodate drought. 1 Bartis, J. T., T. LaTourrette, L. Dixon, D. J. Peteson, and G. Cecchine. 2005. Oil Shale Development in the United States; Prospects and Policy Issues. RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA. 2 Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). 1980. An Assessment of Oil Shale Technologies. Washington, D.C. 3 DOE/NETL. 2006. Emerging Issues for Fossil Energy and Water; Investigation of Water Issues Related to Coal Mining, Coal to Liquids, Oil Shale, and Carbon Capture and Sequestration. National Energy Technology Laboratory.