Queensland Energy Resources

Queensland Energy Resources' Limited (QERL) is an oil shale mining company.

"The company purchased the shale oil interests of Southern Pacific Petroleum NL and Central Pacific Minerals NL in 2004." [1]

"Greenpeace has been campaigning to stop the development of shale oil, the most greenhouse intensive of all fossil fuels, since 1998. We weren't alone. In a year 2000 editorial, New Scientist opined "We face a switch either to clean energy sources or to fuels even dirtier than today's, such as shale oil. It beggars belief that anyone would choose the latter."

"The Stuart Shale oil project in Australia has been controversial since its inception over two decades ago. It has cost more than AU$ 360 million, including tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers' money. Even so, QER CEO Ross Dunning tried to make the best of the closure by declaring the project a success: "Over the past several years Stage 1 has produced over 1.5 million barrels of oil." Eureka! It's feasible to produce oil from rocks at great environmental expense and with devastating toxic side effects and not be able to make a profit even with huge government subsidies.

"Shale oil should not be developed at any price. Oil from Stuart would have had four times the greenhouse emission impact of oil extracted from the ground.

"In 2001, former partner Suncor pulled out of the Stuart project amid concerns about its commercial viability and environmental impacts.

"Queensland Energy Resources, a company that grew out of that failure, said the project would wind down over the next few months, a major victory for the tens of thousands of people who took action with Greenpeace in opposing the Stuart Shale project, from our global cyberactivists to the local residents who opposed it." [2]

External links

• Victory: shale oil project collapses, Greenpeace, 21 July 2004.