Exporting oil

The Obama administration today paved the way for the US to begin exporting oil, something that has been illegal since the 1970’s. This may open the door to more oil production. First it will come from private lands but as the government sees increased revenues and jobs it will see the advantages of opening government lands to drilling. In the government owned Green River formation there is 1.5 trillion barrels of recoverable oil which is over 200 years supply based on current usage. Long before this runs out the United States and other countries around the world will have figured out how to extract methane hydrate from the ocean floor where it is found at about 3,000 feet. Recent experiments have shown that the methane which is tied up in water can be replaced with carbon dioxide which means there will be no net increase in CO2 emissions. Replacement of CH4 in hydrate form with CO2 is a candidate for recovering CH4 gas from its hydrates and storing CO2