Oil from Shale

Oil shale is a sedimentary rock rich in kerogen which is a fossil fuel. Kerogen is an immature form of hydrocarbon that has been trapped in the oil shale. Solid oil shale is transformed into synthetic crude oil. Synthetic crude is a liquid fuel that can be refined into diesel and gasoline.

There are hundreds of patents from different companies trying to come up with cost efficient ways to extract the oil from the oil shale. Nothing made sense cost wise until oil started getting up over $70 a barrel. Now with oil hovering above $90 a barrel extracting oil from oil shale is starting to look promising.

Right here in the U.S. is one of the largest potential reserves of oil shale in the world. It lies in the Green River Formation which is an underground lakebed that spans some 17,000 square miles in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. It is said to hold at a minimum 800 billion barrels of oil that can be recovered. A Department of Energy study says that the Formation can sustain two million barrels a day by 2020 and three million a day by 2040.

Shell Oil has developed the most promising technology which they call the In Situ Conversion Process. How it works is this: 1800 foot wells are drilled and then heating rods are inserted in the wells. The heating rods heat the oil shale to 650 degrees Fahrenheit. They surround the wells with freeze walls which keep the oil from escaping into the ground water. The freeze walls are created by piping coolant deep into the ground around the wells. This freezes the rock and water around the drill site. The heat from the heating rods transforms the oil in the shale into oil and natural gas. The natural gas is separated from the oil and then will be used to produce the power to heat the rods. Of course a lot of water and energy is used to extract the oil from the oil shale. Most oil companies, like Triple Diamond Energy Corporation, will generate their own power from the natural gas extracted right at the drilling site. The oil will be piped to a refinery to be converted into gasoline.

Surface mining of oil shale deposits is just like strip mining for coal and has numerous effects on the environment. This new In Situ Conversion process will significantly reduce the damage to the environment caused by extracting oil from oil shale deposits.