Too Good to be True

A novel Israeli technique to produce synthetic oilwill start production in 3-4 years. Apparently, oil shale becomes an economically viable resource when oil prices fall below $40/barrel. The catch is that because of the investment in infrastructure, nobody is going to invest in this technology unless its clear that the hike in oil prices is permanent. The exciting thing about the Israeli technology, is that it lowers that threshold. At some point, oil shale becomes competitive with regular supplies - preventing OPEC from bankrupting the emerging industry. And oil shale reserves are supposedly enormous, dwarfing currently exploited oil fields.