A massive oil find has put the Australian Outback on the energy map. The oil in the Southern Australia oil shale resource is estimated at maximum of 233 billion barrels, topping all of Australia's reserves put together and nearly equivalent to all the oil in Saudi Arabia.

According to Tempo, the Australian oil deposit dwarfs those known deposits in the U.S., outsizing the Bakken formation six times, Marcellus shale 17 times, and the Eagle Ford deposit 80 times over. Australia now has more oil than does Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, or Canada.

The oil yet to be extracted is valued at $20 trillion, putting Australia on the energy map among the big-money players. The play also put the small town of Coober Pedy on the map. Its 1,700 inhabitants swelled by 20,000 people on news of the find, as jobs are to be had with such a big discovery.

Some oil experts believe the deposit may eventually yield as much as 400 billion barrels, up from the initial maximum estimate. The valuable resource resides in shale rock and must be extracted using fracking. Australians must meet the challenge of environmental backlash while developing the technology to extract the resource efficiently.
http://voices.yahoo.com/huge-oil-shale-deposit-coober-pedy-australia-12240185.html