Shale oil extraction is usually performed above ground ( ex situ processing) by mining the oil shale and then treating it in processing facilities. Other modern technologies perform the processing underground (on-site or in situ processing) by applying heat and extracting the oil via oil wells .
How much does it cost to produce shale oil?
Most of the decent shale producers have a capex cost of about 45-65% of revenue assuming an oil price of $60. Add to that interest costs, and operating cash costs and the average cash cost actually comes out to about $50/barrel for the more decent shale producers. That chart most likely excludes capital costs from the cash costs.
What is "shale oil" and where does it come from?
Shale oil is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale rock fragments by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock ( kerogen) into synthetic oil and gas.
Is shale oil and oil shale the same thing?
The oil shale may also be called black shale. Oil shale and shale oil must not be confused as they do not mean the same thing since shale oil designates tight oil or tight shale oil.
What are advantages of shale oil?
The Pros of Oil Shale
- It eliminates foreign dependence on oil. OPEC products are easily manipulated to create pricing gains on the world market for oil products. ...
- It could be cheaper to produce. Because there is less drilling involved in most instances, oil shale is generally going to be cheaper to produce per barrel than regular ...
- It has less of an impact on the world.
What are the three processes for shale oil extraction?
Shale oil extraction is an industrial process for unconventional oil production. This process converts kerogen in oil shale into shale oil by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution.
How is shale extracted from natural gas?
Shale gas or unconventional gas is extracted from the impermeable shale through a process called hydraulic fracturing (also known as hydrofracking or fracking). A crude form of this technique, involving nitroglycerine, was used for the first time around the 1860s to explore for oil and gas.
What is the difference between oil shale and shale oil?
What Is the Difference Between Shale Oil and Oil Shale? Shale oil is hydrocarbons that are present in the formation of shale rock while oil shale is solid rock that contains kerogen. Kerogen is a petroleum product that is eventually converted into oil by mining and heating.
Can you extract oil without fracking?
Non-hydraulic fracturing is an alternative to hydraulic fracturing that is seen as a cheaper and more environmentally sustainable method of oil extraction. Unlike hydraulic fracturing, non-hydraulic fracturing is a method of oil and gas extraction that does not rely on injections of water into the oil well.
Which country has the most shale gas?
China has the biggest shale gas reserve in the world. China has 1.5 times of global shale gas reserves of the United States. America comes second in terms of shale gas reserves.
How long will US shale oil last?
The Oil Shale Resource Base Present U.S. demand for petroleum products is about 20 million barrels per day, so 800 billion barrels would last for more than 400 years if oil shale could be used to meet a quarter of that demand.
Who is the number 1 oil producer in the world?
Saudi Arabia Like most Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) nations, Saudi Arabia's economy is heavily centered around oil. The oil and gas industry makes up roughly 50% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and 70% of its export earnings.
Can shale oil replace crude oil?
Shale oil is a substitute for conventional crude oil; however, extracting shale oil is costlier than the production of conventional crude oil both financially and in terms of its environmental impact.
Is fracking a safe way to extract natural gas?
Fracking is a proven drilling technology used for extracting oil, natural gas, geothermal energy, or water from deep underground. Fracking has been safely used in the United States since 1947.
What is the difference between shale gas and natural gas?
Shale gas has the same composition as natural gas. Every shale gas is a natural gas, the difference between the types of gases are the locations of the reservoirs. Natural gas can be found in big amounts, while shale gas is trapped inside the microcracks of a rock.
How long does a shale gas well produce?
How long do gas wells produce? The life expectancy of a natural gas well in shale is 30 to 50 years, with 30 years being the most common.
Is shale gas environmentally friendly?
Shale gas is one of the least sustainable ways to produce electricity. Shale gas is one of least sustainable options for producing electricity, according to new research from The University of Manchester.
How to extract shale oil?
Extracting Shale Oil. Obtaining shale oil from oil shale involves heating kerogen in a process called pyrolysis. Pyrolysis is a form of heating without the use of oxygen. At about 60-160 degrees Celsius (140-320 degrees Fahrenheit), kerogen reaches its natural “oil window.”.
What is oil shale made of?
Oil shale is a type of sedimentary rock that is rich in kerogen. Kerogen is a part of rock that breaks down and releases hydrocarbons when heated. Hydrocarbon s are substances made entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Petroleum and natural gas are probably the most familiar hydrocarbons.
How are oil shale deposits classified?
Oil shales are often classified by their depositional history and mineral content. A sedimentary rock’s depositional history is the history of the type of environment in which the rock developed. The depositional history of an oil shale includes the organisms and sediments that were deposited, as well as how those deposits interacted with pressure and heat.
How much oil is in the Green River?
states of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, the Green River formation is an underground oil shale formation that contains as much as 1.8 trillion barrels of shale oil. Although not all of this can be extracted, it is more than three times the proven petroleum reserves of Saudi Arabia.
What is cannel coal?
Cannel shale, also called cannel coal or “candle coal,” is probably the most familiar type of terrestrial oil shale. Cannel coal was used primarily as fuel for streetlights and other illumination in the 19th century.
Why is the United States a good source of oil?
The United States has enormous proven deposits of oil shale. A source of oil in the United States would reduce the need for importing oil from other countries. This would put people to work and make the U.S. less dependent on foreign trade and fluctuating oil prices.
Where are oil shales deposited?
The diagram divides oil shales according to where they were deposited: in lakes ( lacustrine ), in the ocean ( marine ), or on land ( terrestrial ). Oil shales from lacustrine environments formed mostly from algae living in freshwater, saltwater, or brackish water.
How is oil extracted from shale?
Shale oil extraction is usually performed above ground ( ex situ processing) by mining the oil shale and then treating it in processing facilities. Other modern technologies perform the processing underground (on-site or in situ processing) by applying heat and extracting the oil via oil wells .
What is the process of extracting oil from shale?
The oldest and the most common extraction method involves pyrolysis (also known as retorting or destructive distillation ). In this process, oil shale is heated in the absence of oxygen until its kerogen decomposes into condensable shale oil vapors and non-condensable combustible oil shale gas.
How is kerogen converted into shale oil?
This process converts kerogen in oil shale into shale oil by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. The resultant shale oil is used as fuel oil or upgraded to meet refinery feedstock specifications by adding hydrogen and removing sulfur and nitrogen impurities.
What is tight oil?
For production of crude oil trapped in oil-bearing shales (tight oil), see tight oil. Shale oil extraction is an industrial process for unconventional oil production. This process converts kerogen in oil shale into shale oil by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution.
What is the history of the oil shale industry?
Main article: History of the oil shale industry. Alexander C. Kirk's retort, used in the mid-to-late 19th century, was one of the first vertical oil shale retorts. Its design is typical of retorts used in the end of 19th and beginning of 20th century.
Why is oil shale not diluted?
Because the hot recycle solids are heated in a separate furnace, the oil shale gas from these technologies is not diluted with combustion exhaust gas. Another advantage is that there is no limit on the smallest particles that the retort can process, thus allowing all the crushed feed to be used. One disadvantage is that more water is used to handle the resulting finer shale ash.
What is shale ash used for?
Spent shale and shale ash can be used as ingredients in cement or brick manufacture. The composition of the oil shale may lend added value to the extraction process through the recovery of by-products, including ammonia, sulfur, aromatic compounds, pitch, asphalt, and waxes.
Where does oil shale come from?
Oil shale that originated in saline lake environments, such as the GRF shales of the western United States, tends to be nitrogen-rich, whereas marine oil shales such as those found in Morocco, Egypt, Israel, and Jordan are sulfur-rich.
What is oil shale?
(Show more) Oil shale, any sedimentary rock containing various amounts of solid organic material that yields petroleum products, along with a variety of solid by-products, when subjected to pyrolysis —a treatment that consists of heating the rock to above 300 °C (about 575 °F) in the absence of oxygen.
How does oil shale affect the environment?
At the same time, oil shale production has a potentially significant impact on the natural environment, including carbon emission, water consumption, groundwater contamination, and disturbance of land surface s. Some confusion has arisen over the terms oil shale and shale oil.
What are the by-products of oil shale?
Some of the solid by-products of oil shale processing are unusable wastes, but others have commercial value. These include sulfur, ammonia, alumina, soda ash, and nahcolite (a mineral form of sodium bicarbonate). In addition, spent shale has been used in the production of cement, where the carbon-rich material can enhance the energy balance ...
What type of rock is oil shale?
All are relatively fine-grained sedimentary rocks, as deposits of coarse sediment such as sand are not compatible with the preservation of organic material.
Where are oil shale deposits found?
Mineralogically, the deposits are composed of marlstone or argillaceous mudstone, possibly associated with volcanic tuff and evaporite mineral deposits. Major oil shale deposits of this type are the huge Green River Formation (GRF) in the western United States, dating from the Eocene Epoch; oil shales found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that were laid down in the Triassic Period; and the Albert shale in New Brunswick, Canada, of Mississippian origin.
What is the chemical composition of oil shales?
Chemical composition. Oil shales consist of solid organic matter entrained in an inorganic mineral matrix. Chemically, the mineral content consists primarily of silicon, calcium, aluminum, magnesium, iron, sodium, and potassium found in silicate, carbonate, oxide, and sulfide minerals. The chemical composition of the organic matter is variable.
Overview
In situ technologies
In situ technologies heat oil shale underground by injecting hot fluids into the rock formation, or by using linear or planar heating sources followed by thermal conduction and convection to distribute heat through the target area. Shale oil is then recovered through vertical wells drilled into the formation. These technologies are potentially able to extract more shale oil from a given area of …
History
In the 10th century, the Assyrian physician Masawaih al-Mardini (Mesue the Younger) wrote of his experiments in extracting oil from "some kind of bituminous shale". The first shale oil extraction patent was granted by the British Crown in 1684 to three people who had "found a way to extract and make great quantities of pitch, tarr, and oyle out of a sort of stone". Modern industrial extra…
Processing principles
Shale oil extraction process decomposes oil shale and converts its kerogen into shale oil—a petroleum-like synthetic crude oil. The process is conducted by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. The efficiencies of extraction processes are often evaluated by comparing their yields to the results of a Fischer Assay performed on a sample of the shale.
Classification of extraction technologies
Industry analysts have created several classifications of the technologies used to extract shale oil from oil shale.
By process principles: Based on the treatment of raw oil shale by heat and solvents the methods are classified as pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution.
By location: A frequently used distinction considers whether processing is done above or below …
Ex situ technologies
Internal combustion technologies burn materials (typically char and oil shale gas) within a vertical shaft retort to supply heat for pyrolysis. Typically raw oil shale particles between 12 millimetres (0.5 in) and 75 millimetres (3.0 in) in size are fed into the top of the retort and are heated by the rising hot gases, which pass through the descending oil shale, thereby causing decomposition of the k…
Shale oil
The properties of raw shale oil vary depending on the composition of the parent oil shale and the extraction technology used. Like conventional oil, shale oil is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons, and it is characterized using bulk properties of the oil. Shale oil usually contains large quantities of olefinic and aromatic hydrocarbons. Shale oil can also contain significant quantities of heteroatoms. A typical shale oil composition includes 0.5–1% of oxygen, 1.5–2% of nitrogen and 0.15–1% of s…
Economics
The dominant question for shale oil production is under what conditions shale oil is economically viable. According to the United States Department of Energy, the capital costs of a 100,000 barrels per day (16,000 m /d) ex-situ processing complex are $3–10 billion. The various attempts to develop oil shale deposits have succeeded only when the shale-oil production cost in a given region is lo…