Oil shale

Introduction To extract shale oil from up to 750 meters below the surface of a location on the Western slope in Colorado, the trapped organic matter (kerogen) must be slowly heated over a period of several years. Heater(s) will be placed throughout the rock shale to increase the temperature to as close to 400 C as possible without going over. As the organic matter is cooked, it needs to be contained by setting up a freeze wall consisting of a closed-loop piping system with cooled liquid. This will freeze the ground water around the piping containing the area. Before approval is granted for this project, this concept is to be tested on a smaller field approximately the size of a football field. Initial calculations and simulations for various heater configurations are depicted and discussed in this report. 1-D Estimates Two 1-dimensional temperature profiles were estimated through the middle of the field using one heater in the center. The temperature profiles were derived analytically from the Cartesian general heat conduction equation which simplifies to T=c1x+c2. There are three boundary conditions for each direction, so there are two equations for each direction. For the x-direction the…

The shale oil introduction in the oil market has made a gigantic impact in terms of the supply, demand and prices. This evolution might affect the major players in the market for the short and long run. However, there are a number of crucial factors that affect this advance process in extracting shale oil. First, the break-even price for United States’ shale oil is from 30$ per barrel to 90$ per barrel. In contrast, Saudi Arabia crude oil break-even price is 10$ per barrel according to…

This informative article by Lutz Kilian discusses shale oil and its effect on oil prices in the United States. Shale oil is a term used by the oil industry for oil that is obtained from low-permeability rock, and it has caused a resurgence of oil production in the United States. This type of oil production was not available until quite recently, because of several technological advances in the industry. Currently, shale oil production, mostly from western states, accounts for a sizeable amount…

In the United States, feasibility of extracting shale oil has always been a challenge for the producers. In case, if the price of a barrel of fossil oil is less than the cost price of a barrel of shale oil extraction, that means the production process of shale oil and sell it uneconomical. Production costs vary depending on the oil wells location, ranging from $ 23 to $ 60 and the average is estimated at $ 36. The difference is due to the quality of the rock, the depth of the well, and the cost…

Shale of the Appalachian Basin With various depositional environments and the understanding of sea level change, the Appalachian Basin formed by the collision of tectonic plates and sediment accumulation under the Earth’s surface. The Appalachian Mountains reveal subsidence belts, faulted marine sedimentary rocks and other geologic rocks in these tectonic settings. The Basin exists in the northeastern states of North America. This large rock formation exhibits collisional tectonics with modern…

SAMPLE PREPARATION: Wilcox shale and Pottsville shale samples are tested with the indentation method in this experiment. Both samples are quartz rich and silty shales which contain about 45 to 50% of quartz, 40 to 45% of clays and about 5% of plagioclase. Wilcox shale sample is from Louisiana and formed in upper Cretaceous while Pottsville shale samples are from Alabama and formed in upper Pennsylvanian. These two type of shale rocks are chosen because they are “local” rocks which was abundant…

thickest formation of surface bedrock in this area at about two hundred and fifty meters thick. This formation is a layer of shale ranging in color, mainly a…

November the 21st, I visited the Gypsum mine with my lab group: Luke Petro, Liz Morehead, and Kylie Hoef, along with several other groups. After procuring the necessary tools from the geology lab like a meter stick, rock hammer, flashlight, bottle of acid, and helmet, we set off to the mine. Located roughly 100 feet below the surface near Grand Rapids, the mine is now a storage facility owned by Michigan Natural Storage. In the mine, we measured the various rock columns to find how large the…

The Marcellus Shale Play is a black shale formation lying under the Appalachian Basin running from Tennessee to New York. The U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) estimates that 1,953 billion cubic feet of recoverable reserves lie beneath the shale sediment. (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2012) The EIA estimates that shale basins in the United States have a potential to produce from 500-1,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2012). Natural Gas…

marine shale environment and in an alluvial fan. Sea level regression happened. The size of grain for this rock is around the size of clay. Our next stop is the most exciting as is in the time of the dinosaurs. We have travelled to the Morrison formation which is dated to be 150 million years old and the rocks have grain of sizes between clay-sized and 1mm. The Morrison formation has inconsistent lateral thickness as it has thick layers and goes down to thin layers and has tightly compressed…