Advanced Fossil Fuel Technology

In the US, the estimated fossil-fuel resource base is smallest for natural gas, next for conventional petroleum, followed by oil shale and then coal, which is larger than all the hydrocarbon liquid or gas producing resources combined. The conventional petroleum resources base will be large than the projected there because enhance methods will make it possible to recover some fraction of the over 400 billion barrels of petroleum left in place after conventional primary and secondary oil recovery. Similarly, improvement in offshore technology plus increased offshore exploration will probably prove the petroleum estimates to be conservative. Similarly, natural gas drilling to greater depth and offshore will cause the eventual recovery of this resource to be larger than projected. These conditions notwithstanding, the very large hydrocarbon resources in place in the oil shale and coal of all form combined with the large demand for fossil fuels and major driving force for developing viable and economic technology to bring the resources to commercial use in an acceptable liquid or gasses form. Developmental and even limited commercial technology exists for both oil shale and conversion of coal to liquid and gaseous fuels. A fully mature commercial US supply system based on these resources is in the early stage of development..