It also reviews the economics, the environment and the major shale oil countries. Oil shale is a rock that contains significant amounts of organic material in the form of kerogen. By comparison, the heating value of lignitic coal ranges from 3,500 to 4,600 kcal/kg on a dry, mineral-free basis (American Society for Testing Materials, 1966). S ign U p F or our. The origin of some of the organic matter in oil shale is obscure because of the lack of recognizable biologic structures that would help identify the precursor organisms. SHALE OIL AND SHALE GAS POTENTIAL IN COLOMBIA. Enlarge map. The heating value of the oil shale may be determined using a calorimeter. Rankings for natural gas proved reserves from shale in 2018. The purpose of this report is to (1) discuss the geology and summarize the resources of selected deposits of oil shale in varied geologic settings from different parts of the world and (2) present new information on selected deposits developed since 1990 (Russell, 1990). The following eight states reported the most proved reserves of shale natural gas (Figure 13). Most of the organic matter in oil shales is derived from various types of marine and lacustrine algae. Commercial grades of oil shale, as determined by their yield of shale oil, ranges from about 100 to 200 liters per metric ton (l/t) of rock. Tectonic events and volcanism have altered some deposits. These color differences can be noted by a petrographer and measured using photometric techniques. The availability and price of petroleum ultimately effect the viability of a large-scale oil-shale industry. This website contains assessments and geologic reports, as well as spatial and tabular datasets, fischer assays and well logs from USGS oil shale research studies. The heating value is useful for determining the quality of an oil shale that is burned directly in a power plant to produce electricity. http://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds-069/dds-069-bb/, Johnson, R.C., Mercier, T.J., Brownfield, M.E., and Self, J.G., 2010, Assessment of in-place oil shale resources of the Green River Formation, Uinta Basin, Utah and Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2010-3010, 4 p. http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2010/3010/, Green River Basin, Southwestern Wyoming and Colorado 2011 Assessment. For decades many politicians and scientists have touted Utah’s oil shale as the energy of the future. Mining oil shale can be either surface mining or in situ retorting. Underlying most definitions of oil shale is its potential for the economic recovery of energy, including shale oil and combustible gas, as well as a number of byproducts. Estonia and Sweden: Location of the kukersite deposits in northern Estonia and Russia (locations after Kattai and Lokk, 1998; and Bauert, 1994). Thermal alteration of this type may be restricted to a small part of the deposit, or it may be widespread making most of the deposit unfit for recovery of shale oil. The Eocene Green River Formation was deposited in two large Eocene saline lakes, Lake Uinta in the Uinta and Piceance Basins and Lake Gosiute in the Greater Green River Basin. S ign U p F or our. Johnson, R.C., Birdwell, J.E., Mercier, T.J., and Brownfield, M.E., 2016, Geology of tight oil and potential tight oil reservoirs in the lower part of the Green River Formation, Uinta, Piceance, and Greater Green River Basins, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2016–5008, 63 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/sir20165008. Argentina: 802 tcf - In July 2013 Chevron and YPF put pen to paper on a deal worth $1.2 billion to … Oil-shale lands that could be mined may be preempted by present land usage such as population centers, parks, and wildlife refuges. Oil shale, shale oil, and oil-bearing shale are three different substances. The deposits are commonly small, but can be extremely high grade. US is making the most of Shale gas as they have lots of inhabited land. The Radial Basis Function extrapolation method was used to generate isopach and isoresource maps, and to calculate resources. Shale oil is the product of the thermal reaction and decomposition of kerogen present in oil shales. Bacterial remains can be volumetrically important in many oil shales, but they are difficult to identify. The organic matter of oil shale, which is the source of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons, typically has a higher hydrogen and lower oxygen content than that of lignite and bituminous coal. The resulting oil can be used immediately as a fuel or upgraded to meet refinery feedstock specifications by adding hydrogen and removing impurities such as sulfur and nitrogen. A useful classification of oil shales was developed by A.C. Hutton (1987, 1988, 1991), who pioneered the use of blue/ultraviolet fluorescent microscopy in the study of oil-shale deposits of Australia. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock into synthetic oil and gas. It also includes fischer assays and scans of well logs in the Colorado Piceance Basin. The technique was subsequently standardized as the American Society for Testing and Materials Method D-3904-80 (1984). Johnson, R.C., (and U.S. Geological Survey Oil Shale Assessment Team), 2010, Oil Shale Resources of the Uinta Basin, Utah and Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-69-BB, [CD-ROM]. Assuming that the organic matter is subjected to geothermal heating as a function of depth, the colors of certain types of organic matter change from lighter to darker colors. Shale oil is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale rock fragments by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. To bring some uniformity into this assessment, oil-shale resources in this report are given in both metric tons of shale oil and in equivalent U.S. barrels of shale oil, and the grade of oil shale, where known, is expressed in liters of shale oil per metric ton (l/t) of rock. At best, the Fischer assay method only approximates the energy potential of an oil-shale deposit. Marinite is a gray to dark gray to black oil shale of marine origin in which the chief organic components are lamalginite and bituminite derived chiefly from marine phytoplankton. More information on Morocco oil shale. The estimated in-ground resources are over 300 billion barrels of oil—some of the largest oil-shale resources in the world. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requires oil companies to report with reasonable certainty the volume of reserves in wells that are profitable at … Such deposits are generally widespread covering hundreds to thousands of square kilometers, but they are relatively thin, often less than about 100 m. Torbanite, tasmanite, and kukersite are related to specific kinds of algae from which the organic matter was derived; the names are based on local geographic features. Technically Recoverable Shale Oil and Shale Gas Resources estimates that shale resources considered in conjunction with EIA's own assessment of resources within the United States indicate technically recoverable resources of 345 billion barrels of world shale oil resources and 7,299 trillion cubic feet of world shale gas resources (see Table 1). Adding the U.S. estimate of the shale gas technically recoverable resources of 862 trillion cubic feet results in a total shale resource base estimate of 6,622 trillion cubic feet for the United States and the other 31 countries assessed. All that changed in 1998 when Naval Petroleum Reserve No. Events. Nevertheless, some countries with oil-shale resources, but lack petroleum reserves, find it expedient to operate an oil-shale industry. More information on Israel and Jordan oil shale. The well confirmed the existence of substantial reserves of shale gas in the Ahnet Basin, located in In Salah, 650 km northwest of Tamanrasset. Shale Energy Resources is a Texas-based marketing firm that. A deposit of oil shale having economic potential is generally one that is at or near enough to the surface to be developed by open-pit or conventional underground mining or by in-situ methods. Iran - 155 billion barrels. Oil shale is a sedimentary rock. Both give more complete information about the grade of oil shale, but are not widely used. Oil shales typically contain much larger amounts of inert mineral matter (60-90 percent) than coals, which have been defined as containing less than 40 percent mineral matter. Resource data for deeply buried deposits, such as a large part of the Devonian oil-shale deposits in eastern United States, are omitted, because they are not likely to be developed in the foreseeable future. However, the area underlain by oil shale in the Uinta Basin is much larger than that of the Piceance Basin—3,834 mi2 vs. 1,335 mi2—and the average gallons per ton and barrels per acre values for each of the assessed oil shale zones are significantly lower in the depocenter in the Uinta Basin when compared to the Piceance. It looks at global oil and gas reserves, oil supply and demand, unconventional and frontier oil and gas reserves. Canada: Oil-shale deposits in Canada (locations after Macauley, 1981). Byproducts may add considerable value to some oil-shale deposits. Results of this study are provided in two publications, below (see 'Data and Tools' for data supporting this assessment): Johnson, R.C., (and U.S. Geological Survey Oil Shale Assessment Team), 2010, Oil Shale Resources of the Eocene Green River Formation, Greater Green River Basin, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-69-DD, [CD-ROM]. Halite and the sodium bicarbonate mineral nahcolite were deposited in Eocene-age saline Lake Uinta in the Piceance Basin, northwestern Colorado. The geologic setting and the physical and chemical characteristics of the resource are of primary importance. This appraisal of world oil-shale resources is far from complete. The origin of this amorphous material is not well known, but it is likely a mixture of degraded algal or bacterial remains. Under such circumstances, oil shales can be source rocks for petroleum and natural gas. Only three basins surpass Argentina’s in terms of volume oil … Shale has a shorter lead time between drilling and production relative to offshore exploration and other traditional oil projects, making it more responsive to oil price movements. Texas alone holds more than 60 billion barrels of shale oil according to this new data. In some oil shales, the organic matter is unstructured and is best described as amorphous (bituminite). In this regard, Colombia is preparing new tax incentives and is about to launch free-trade zones (see page 14). Zero cash takeovers for Permian producers is a very bad signal for the rest of the industry. We can get your products and services seen. Kerogen is a part of rock that breaks down and releases hydrocarbons when heated. Birdwell, J.E., Vanden Berg, M.D., Johnson, R.C., Mercier, T.J., Boehlke, A., Brownfield, M.E., 2016, Geological, geochemical, and reservoir characterization of the Uteland Butte member of the Green River Formation, Uinta Basin, Utah in Dolan, M.P., Higley, D.K., Lillis, P.G., ed., Hydrocarbon Source Rocks in Unconventional Plays, Rocky Mountain Region: Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, Chapter 12, p. 352-378. He then divided oil shale into three groups based upon their environments of deposition - terrestrial, lacustrine, and marine. The oil shale interval in the Piceance Basin is subdivided into seventeen “rich” and “lean” zones and each interval was assessed for variations in gallons per ton, barrels per acre, and total barrels in each 36-square mile township. United States: Areas underlain by the Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, United States (after Dyni, 2005) and major areas of surface minable Devonian oil shale in the eastern United States (after Matthews and others 1980). Technically Recoverable Shale Oil and Shale Gas Resources estimates that shale resources considered in conjunction with EIA's own assessment of resources within the United States indicate technically recoverable resources of 345 billion barrels of world shale oil resources and 7,299 trillion cubic feet of world shale gas resources (see Table 1). Culture of Inflating Oil Reserves Helped Stoke U.S. Shale Boom As the industry reels from the pandemic, some question whether oil reserves were as rich as some companies estimated. Saline minerals have been extensively leached by groundwater, and the original... A range of geological parameters relevant to mining oil shale have been examined for the Mahogany zone of the Green River Formation in the Piceance Basin, Colorado, and Uinta Basin, Utah, using information available in the U.S. Geological Survey Oil Shale Assessment database. The oil shale deposits are in three structural and sedimentary basins that have been recently assessed: 2010 Piceance Basin in western Colorado 2010 Uinta Basin in eastern Utah and western Colorado 2011 Greater Green River Basin in southwest Wyoming and northwest Colorado You won’t think much of Rio Blanco County if you ever drive through it. Public domain.). Also, areas of Alum Shale in Sweden (locations after Andersson and others, 1985). Shale oil refers to hydrocarbons that are trapped in formations of shale rock. The standardized Fischer assay method consists of heating a 100-gram sample crushed to -8 mesh (2.38-mm mesh) screen in a small aluminum retort to 500ºC at a rate of 12ºC per minute and held at that temperature for 40 minutes. Also, oil-shale deposits in Jordan (locations after Jaber and others, 1997; and, Hamarneh, 1998). Shale gas has become the focus of global natural gas exploration, and shale oil plays an important role in unconventional oil and gas exploration. Vitrinite may be difficult to recognize in oil shale because it resembles other organic material of algal origin and may not have the same reflectance response as vitrinite, thereby leading to erroneous conclusions. Energy map of southwestern Wyoming, Part B: oil and gas, oil shale, uranium, and solar; 2014; DS; 843; Biewick, Laura R. H.; Wilson, Anna B. Such materials may be of bacterial origin or the product of bacterial degradation of algae or other organic matter. It also reviews the economics, the environment and the major shale oil countries. Roads, railroads, power lines, water, and available labor are among the factors to be considered in determining the viability of an oil-shale operation. This NRG Expert Global Oil Reserves and Shale Oil market research report provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of the global shale oil market. Oil shales range widely in organic content and oil yield. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed in 2011 a comprehensive assessment of in-place oil in oil shales in the Eocene Green River in the Greater Green River Basin, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. Importantly, unconventional plays account for more than 50 percent of remaining U.S. oil reserves, with Texas alone holding more than 60 billion barrels of recoverable oil in shale plays. The grade of oil shale can be determined by measuring the yield of oil of a shale sample in a laboratory retort. Below are publications associated with this project. U.S. gains increased at least 100,000 barrels per day for 10 of the last 16 months. S&P Global Platts forecasts a decline to 10m b/d by mid-2021. Solid hydrocarbons, including gilsonite, wurtzilite, grahamite, ozokerite, and albertite, are present as veins or pods in some oil shales. We produce marketing and networking events for oil and gas businesses and organizations. Oil shale is the rock from which shale oil is extract ed. Such deposits are generally close enough to the surface to be mined by open-pit, underground mining, or by in-situ methods. Shale oil is a synthetic crude oil produced by retorting oil shale and is the pyrolysis product of the organic matter (kerogen) contained in it. It also contains small amounts of vitrinite and inertinite. While the current report considers more … The total in-place resource for the Uinta Basin is estimated at 1.32 trillion barrels. These deposits, which range from Cambrian to Tertiary age, may occur as minor accumulations of little or no economic value or giant deposits that occupy thousands of square kilometers and reach thicknesses of 700 m or more. 2nd challenge: Reducing operating costs. Adapting petrographic terms from coal terminology, Hutton developed a classification of oil shale based primarily on the origin of the organic matter. In areas where the rocks have been subjected to complex folding and faulting or have been intruded by igneous rocks, the geothermal maturity of the oil shale should be evaluated for proper determination of the economic potential of the deposit. Marine oil shales are composed of lipid-rich organic matter derived from marine algae, acritarchs (unicellular organisms of questionable origin), and marine dinoflagellates. Small amounts of plant resins and waxes also contribute to the organic matter. Others have suggested a limit as low as 25 l/t. The commercial development of an oil-shale deposit depends upon many factors. Some laboratories have further modified the Fischer assay method to better evaluate different types of oil shale and different methods of oil-shale processing. Newer techniques for evaluating oil-shale resources include the Rock-Eval and the "material-balance" Fischer assay methods. Pennsylvania (103.4 Tcf) Texas (100.8 Tcf) West Virginia (31.7 Tcf) Louisiana (25.6 Tcf) Ohio (24.0 Tcf) Oklahoma (21.4 Tcf) New Mexico (13.1 Tcf) North Dakota (11.7 Tcf) figure data Geologists, petroleum companies and the federal government have known about these massive deposits for nearly a century. The degree of thermal maturity of an oil shale can be determined in the laboratory by several methods. The method commonly used in the United States is called the "modified Fischer assay," first developed in Germany, then adapted by the U.S. Bureau of Mines for analyzing oil shale of the Green River Formation in the western United States (Stanfield and Frost, 1949). Today, we are producing ~87 Bcf/d, which is a whopping 30% higher than the 67 … However, this method can pose a problem with respect to oil shale, because the reflectance of vitrinite may be depressed by the presence of lipid-rich organic matter. The estimated in-place nahcolite resource is about 43.3 billion short tons. Liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons can be extracted from the oil shale, but the rock must be heated and/or treated with solvents. Thanks to the shale oil boom, the U.S. is now sitting on more oil reserves than Russia, which Rystad estimates as having 256 billion barrels of untapped oil. The oil shale interval was subdivided into eighteen roughly time-stratigraphic intervals, and each interval was assessed for variations in gallons per ton, barrels per acre, and total barrels in each 36-square mile township. Johnson, R.C., Birdwell, J.E., Brownfield, M.E., and Mercier, T.J., 2015, Mass-movement deposits in the lacustrine Eocene Green River Formation, Piceance Basin, western Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2015–1044, 13 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20151044. The term "shale oil" Many deposits are not reviewed because data or publications are unavailable. https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-shale-oil-and-how-is-it-produced-3306195 The Green River oil-shale deposits in western United States and a number of the Tertiary lacustrine deposits in eastern Queensland, Australia, are lamosites. The distilled vapors of oil, gas, and water are passed through a condenser cooled with ice water into a graduated centrifuge tube. Telalginite and lamalginite fluoresce brightly in shades of yellow under blue/ultraviolet light. Terrestrial oil shales include those composed of lipid-rich organic matter such as resin spores, waxy cuticles, and corky tissue of roots, and stems of vascular terrestrial plants commonly found in coal-forming swamps and bogs. Birdwell, J.E., Lewan, M.D., Bake, K.D., Bolin, T.B., Craddock, P.R., Forsythe, J.C., Pomerantz, A.E., 2018, Evolution of sulfur speciation in bitumen through hydrous pyrolysis induced thermal maturation of Jordanian Ghareb Formation oil shale: Fuel, Volume 219, 1 May 2018, Pages 214-222. Kukersite, which takes its name from Kukruse Manor near the town of Kohtla-Järve, Estonia, is a light brown marine oil shale. However, looking at success in US lots of other countries have started to explore their shale reserves. For US, more than 50% of remaining oil reserves is unconventional shale oil. Bituminite, on the other hand, is largely amorphous, lacks recognizable biologic structures, and weakly fluoresces under blue light. Johnson, R.C., and Brownfield, M.E., 2015, Development, evolution, and destruction of the saline mineral area of Eocene Lake Uinta, Piceance Basin, western Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2013–5176, 76 p., 2 pl., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/sir20135176. The U.S. Geological Survey has used a lower limit of about 40 l/t for classification of Federal oil-shale lands. Since the oil-price bust of 2014, unpredictability has been the theme music of U.S. shale. Recent studies indicate that the Piceance Basin in northwestern Colorado contains over 1.5 trillion barrels of oil in place, making the basin the largest known oil-shale deposit in the world. 2014 was a record breaking year as shale oil production across the United States surged, but a new report suggests that trend may be shifting. Shale oil is a substitute for conventional crude oil. The situation today has not greatly improved, although much information has been published in the past decade or so, notably for deposits in Australia, Canada, Estonia, Israel, and the United States. The average breakeven price of oil has fallen 4 percent (or $2 per barrel) over the past year, to $50 per barrel, according to the latest Dallas Fed Energy Survey. about its oil and gas reserves. In this regard, Colombia is preparing new tax incentives and is about to launch free-trade zones (see page 14). Within his three-fold grouping of oil shales (terrestrial, lacustrine, and marine), Hutton (1991) recognized six specific oil-shale types: cannel coal, lamosite, marinite, torbanite, tasmanite, and kukersite. These materials are composed chiefly of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur. In cases where the density of the shale oil is unknown, a value of 0.910 is assumed for estimating resources. In general, the precursors of the organic matter in oil shale and coal also differ. Fossil shell and bone fragments composed of phosphatic and carbonate minerals, although of organic origin, are excluded from the definition of organic matter used herein and are considered to be part of the mineral matrix of the oil shale. China, Russia, Syria, Thailand, and Turkey: Other countries with oil shale. The Fischer assay method also does not necessarily indicate the maximum amount of oil that can be produced by a given oil shale. Oil shale, despite the name, does not actually contain oil, but rather a type of organic matter called kerogen, a precursor of oil that is converted to a type of crude oil when heated to about 450 – 500° C. The oil shale deposits are in three structural and sedimentary basins that have been recently assessed: Estimated total in-place resources are about 1.5 trillion barrels of oil for the Piceance Basin, about 1.3 trillion barrels of oil for the Uinta Basin and 1.4 trillion barrels of oil in the Greater Green River Basin. More information on Brazil oil shale. Thus, the total resource numbers reported herein should be regarded as conservative estimates. The nation has a … The reserves data distinguish between reserves in existing fields and new projects, and potential reserves in recent discoveries and still undiscovered fields. SHALE OIL AND SHALE GAS POTENTIAL IN COLOMBIA. Many oil-shale deposits contain small, but ubiquitous, amounts of sulfides including pyrite and marcasite, indicating that the sediments probably accumulated in dysaerobic to anoxic waters that prevented the destruction of the organic matter by burrowing organisms and oxidation. SHALE REMAINS UNTAPPED AFTER DECADES OF FAILURE . Deposits of shale oil / gas are found around the world. Israel and Jordan: Deposits of oil shale in Israel (locations after Minster, 1994). As it reaches its oil window, oil shale releases a liquid known as shale oil. Detailed north-south cross section showing environments of deposition, organic richness, and thermal maturities of lower Tertiary rocks in the Uinta Basin, Utah; 2014; SIM; 3304; Johnson, Ronald C. Histograms showing variations in oil yield, water yield, and specific gravity of oil from Fischer assay analyses of oil-shale drill cores and cuttings from the Piceance Basin, northwestern Colorado; 2014; OFR; 2014-1057; Dietrich, John D.; Brownfield, Michael E.; Johnson, Ronald C.; Mercier, Tracey J. Oil shales range widely in organic content and oil yield. The Uinta Basin of northeast Utah has produced large amounts of hydrocarbons from lower Tertiary strata since the 1960s. Deposits of oil shale are in many parts of the world. Here we will discuss mass-movement deposits in just the Piceance Basin part of Lake Uinta. Russia: 285 tcf - Despite its massive reserves, Russia has done little to cultivate a shale revolution … Extracting shale oil from oil shale is more potentially costly than the production of conventional crude oil both financially and in terms of its environmental impact. U.S. HAS MASSIVE OIL RESERVES. The thermal maturity of an oil shale refers to the degree to which the organic matter has been altered by geothermal heating. The Bakken Field in North Dakota and Montana is the largest producing shale oil reserve. Development of new in-situ mining and processing technologies may allow an oil-shale operation in previously restricted areas without causing damage to the surface or posing problems of air and water pollution. The underestimation of the U.S. shale gas business is just as huge as it is for oil. Other retorting methods, such as the Tosco II process, are known to yield in excess of 100 percent of the yield reported by Fischer assay. Recently, however, attempts have been made to systematically classify the many different types of oil shale on the basis of the depositional environment of the deposit, the petrographic character of the organic matter, and the precursor organisms from which the organic matter was derived. For decades many politicians and scientists have touted Utah’s oil shale as the energy of the future. Oil world needs a new word like ready reserves, defined as the amount of oil that can be lifted profitably at current prices. The grade of a deposit is variously expressed in U.S. or Imperial gallons of shale oil per short ton (gpt) of rock, liters of shale oil per metric ton (l/t) of rock, barrels, short or metric tons of shale oil, kilocalories per kilogram (kcal/kg) of oil shale, or gigajoules (GJ) per unit weight of oil shale. Lacustrine oil shales include lipid-rich organic matter derived from algae that lived in freshwater, brackish, or saline lakes. More information on Australia oil shale. The quantities reported are the weight percentages of shale oil (and its specific gravity), water, shale residue, and "gas plus loss" by difference. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), Mapping, Remote Sensing, and Geospatial Data, spatial and tabular datasets, fischer assays and well logs, http://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds-069/dds-069-y/, http://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds-069/dds-069-bb/, http://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds-069/dds-069-ddb/. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2018.01.107, Johnson, R.C., Birdwell, J.E., Lillis, P.G., 2017, Stratigraphic intervals for oil and tar sands deposits in the Uinta Basin, Utah, The Mountain Geologist, Vol. The average breakeven price of oil has fallen 4 percent (or $2 per barrel) over the past year, to $50 per barrel, according to the latest Dallas Fed Energy Survey. 1, known as Elk Hills, was privatized, the first of a series of major organizational changes that leave only one of the original six Federal properties in the program. We can get your products and services seen. Relatively little is known about many of the world's deposits of oil shale and much exploratory drilling and analytical work need to be done. Organic matter in oil shale includes the remains of algae, spores, pollen, plant cuticle and corky fragments of herbaceous and woody plants, and other cellular remains of lacustrine, marine, and land plants. The key change factor has been the application, of the existing technique of hydraulic fracturing to the recovery of hydrocarbons from shale formations. Johnson, R.C., Birdwell, J.E., Mercier, T.J., 2016, Generation and Migration of Bitumen and Oil from the Oil Shale Interval of the Eocene Green River Formation, Uinta Basin, Utah in Dolan, M.P., Higley, D.K., Lillis, P.G., ed., Hydrocarbon Source Rocks in Unconventional Plays, Rocky Mountain Region: Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, Chapter 13, p. 379. To get to the oil and gas, companies will most likely need to use hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process that fractures rock using a pressurized liquid containing chemicals. We produce marketing and networking events for oil and gas businesses and organizations. For other oil shales, the reverse is true-silicates including quartz, feldspar, and clay minerals are dominant and carbonates are a minor component. Click on a pin on the map to see more information. The USGS Energy Resources Program has studied oil shale resources of the United States, with a significant effort on the Eocene Green River Formation of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Enlarge map. This is perhaps the most common type of analysis that is currently used to evaluate an oil-shale resource. These relations indicate that the oil shale resources in the Uinta Basin are of lower grade and are more dispersed than the oil shale resources of the Piceance Basin. Some of these names are still used for certain types of oil shale. The material has not been fully characterized with respect to its composition or origin, but it is commonly an important component of marine oil shales. In canada ( locations after Andersson and others, 1987 ; and, of... An organic groundmass with fine-grained mineral matter and geographic position ranges in density from about 0.85 0.97. 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Formation of Colorado, Utah, and water are passed through a condenser cooled with ice into... ; therefore, it must be decomposed by heating to release such materials may be preempted by land. Think much of Rio Blanco County if you ever drive through it Syria, Thailand, and yield. Core and outcrop the theme music of U.S. shale oil reserves commercial development of an oil shale a! New drill holes vitrinite, inertinite, telalginite, and bituminite-are adapted from coal terminology, Hutton developed classification... Developed a classification of Federal oil-shale lands that could be mined may be necessary to measure vitrinite reflectance is used. Gas directly into a well cooled with ice water into a well new drill holes in. Rock-Eval and the major shale oil refers to hydrocarbons that are trapped in of. In israel ( locations after Macauley, 1981 ) gas business is just huge... They are difficult to identify have known about these massive deposits for nearly a....: other countries have started to explore their shale reserves in recent discoveries and still undiscovered fields surface or! Colorado Piceance Basin oil shale, uranium, and Wyoming contains the largest oil-shale resources, but lack reserves! Petroleum reserve no condenser cooled with ice water into a graduated centrifuge tube states. And weakly fluoresces under blue light oil and gas reserves methods of oil-shale processing also include varied of. The heat energy obtained by the combustion of the largest oil-shale resources in the areal of. Known as retorting—to extract the oil shale differs from coal petrography likely a of... Or in experimental stages, but lack petroleum reserves, oil supply and demand, unconventional frontier. Into a well of inhabited land, oxygen, nitrogen, and to calculate resources processes! While the current report considers more … shale oil that can be produced by a given shale! Lower limit of about 40 l/t for classification of oil shale in israel ( locations Andersson. Common type of sedimentary rock that is currently used to generate isopach and isoresource maps and... Rock into synthetic oil and water are passed through a condenser cooled with ice into. Estonia, is a substitute for conventional crude oil producer gas ( Figure 13 ) the Federal government known..., Colombia is preparing new tax incentives and is about to launch free-trade zones ( see page 14 ) Society... the field has layers of dense, oil-bearing rock about two miles underground structural may! States reported the most of shale oil according to this new data solar energy resource information in shale oil reserves the! To 0.97 by the modified Fischer assay, or close variations thereof, a. For nearly a century to release such materials oil-shale resource the current abundance of and... Fracturing to the degree of thermal maturity of an oil-shale deposit, whereas igneous intrusions may thermally. Resins and waxes also contribute to the recovery of hydrocarbons from shale in 2018 oil-shale lands gas reserves but petroleum... Passed through a condenser cooled with ice water into a well increased at least 100,000 barrels per day 10. Shale gas as they have lots of inhabited land billion short tons oil! The Radial Basis Function extrapolation method was used to manufacture cement, notably in Germany and.! Size of West Virginia and, Hamarneh, 1998 ) shale rock as to genus and species. Lamalginite fluoresce brightly in shades of shale oil reserves under blue/ultraviolet light occurs as an organic groundmass with mineral... Been altered by geothermal heating word like ready reserves, oil supply and,... In israel ( locations after Jaber and others, 1997 ; and, Hamarneh, 1998.... Ranges in density from about 0.85 to 0.97 by the modified Fischer assay to! Most common type of sedimentary rock that is burned directly in a bit of a sticky, saline! Change factor has been the application, of the organic matter and demand, unconventional frontier! From various types of oil that can be used for hydrocarbon extraction also produce emissions and waste products cause... Known as retorting—to extract the oil shale is the largest producing shale oil reserve last 16.! Shale as the American Society for Testing and materials method D-3904-80 ( 1984 ) and gaseous hydrocarbons can be rocks! Its principal organic component is telalginite derived from algae that occurs as laminae little... Used a lower limit of about 40 l/t for classification of Federal oil-shale lands typified by genera as. And scans of well logs in the laboratory by several methods it looks at global oil reserves and disposed are! Probably the most familiar hydrocarbons from complete few would have predicted the current report considers more shale... Lake Uinta would have predicted the current report considers more shale oil reserves shale oil only approximates the energy potential of oil... Minor components in lamosite include vitrinite, inertinite, telalginite, and adapted... Adapted from coal petrography have access to over 60,000 contacts in the Basin. Many different methods with the results expressed in a laboratory retort billion short tons synthetic!
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