Many countries in the world look towards oil shale as a source for future energy needs. Oil shale is an abundant resource that can satisfy a part of the world’s expected long-term growth in energy demand.
Estimates place the world’s oil shale resource base as being at least 2.6 trillion bbl, of which 2 trillion bbl are in the US.
A recent symposium at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colo., provided a look at projects and technologies for exploiting these resources in various countries.
Estonia, China, and Brazil have commercial-sized oil shale projects that have operated for many years. Countries that have planned projects include Jordan, Morocco, and Australia.
In the US, several research and demonstration projects are underway in Western Colorado and Eastern Utah. An OGJ article (OGJ, Oct. 20, 2008, p. 22) describes this US activity.
Commercial operations
Estonia has processed oil shale since the 1920s. Currently most of its oil shale goes to fuel pulverized combustion and circulating fluidized-bed boilers for generating electric power, but because of Estonia’s need for liquid fuels, companies have plans to convert more oil shale to liquid fuel and gas.
For instance, Eesti Energia plans to build a new shale oil plant and increase the sale of shale oil to 500,000 tonnes/year by 2010. All Estonian shale oil producers have expansion projects under way.
Currently Estonia has three retorts producing shale oil, and the output of Eesti Energia’s two plants is about 2,500 b/d of shale oil.
China has several active oil shale projects. In 2007, Fushun Mining Group Co. in Liaoning province produced 300,000 tpy of shale oil with 180 Fushun-type retorts each processing 100 tonnes/day of oil shale. The oil shale is a by-product of coal mining.
The company plans to add 40 more retorts by yearend. It also will add a 6,000 tpd Alberta-Taciuk Processor (ATP) rotary retort by yearend 2009.
Other ongoing or planned oil shale projects in China are in Jilin, Guangdong, Heilongjiang, and Gansu provinces.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) has produced about 20 million bbl of shale oil from its commercial-sized Petrosix vertical shaft gas combustion retort in Brazil. The retort is the world’s largest surface oil shale pyrolysis reactor. It processes mined oil shale at Sao Mateus do Sul into products such as fuel oil, shale naphtha, fuel gas, and sulfur.
Potential projects
Jordan, Morocco, and Australia are three countries with possible projects. Both Jordan and Morocco import most of their energy needs. Even Australia has a deficit in oil production. Its oil production is about 565,000 b/d, while its oil demand is 908,000 b/d.
Central Jordan possesses more than 65 billion tonnes of oil shale that is at shallow depth and suitable for mining and surface retorting. Although Jordan had actively sought companies for developing these resources, in August it placed an 18-month freeze on all oil shale activities within central Jordan, including the Attarat Um Ghudran and Wadi Maghar regions, so that the government could explore for and exploit uranium deposits.
But several companies have completed feasibility studies on developing oil shale in Jordan. For instance Eesti Energia’s feasibility study, released in May, indicated that just one of Jordan’s 20 locations containing oil shale could produce 36,000 b/d of shale oil.
Morocco again is seeking to start oil shale exploitation. It had a pilot plant operating in the 1980s in the Timahdit area, but shut it down because of the low oil price at that time. Recently it signed an agreement with Petrobras and Total SA to evaluate a shale oil producing facility in Timahdit that uses Petrosix technology.
In Australia, QER Pty. Ltd. has acquired an oil shale resource base in Queensland that it estimates holds almost 16 billion bbl of oil in place. The area includes the Stuart site that for a few years produced shale oil through an ATP retort. QER has decommissioned the ATP retort, and its plans are to use a Paraho process to retort the Queensland shale.
The company plans first to have a pilot plant sized to produce about 5,000 b/d of shale oil followed by a commercial plant, in the next 10 years, that produces about 100,000 b/d of shale oil. Timing also depends on what regulations Queensland enacts.
