What is Oil shale and Shale Oil ?: Oil Shale is an organic-rich, fine-grained sedimentary rock that contains a solid organic compound known as kerogen. Oil shale generally contains enough oil that it will burn, earning it the nickname, “the rock that burns”. Kerogen is one of the first stages of organic matter processing into petroleum, and all oil and gas are ultimately derived from kerogen. Oil shale contains the remains of algae and plankton(Plankton are microscopic organisms that float freely with oceanic currents and in other bodies of water. Plankton is made up of tiny plants (called phytoplankton) deposited millions of years ago that have not been buried deep enough to become hot enough to break down into the hydrocarbons targeted in conventional oil projects. To generate oil, the kerogen-rich rock is heated in the absence of oxygen. This process is called retorting. At high temperatures, kerogen undergoes a complex set of chemical reactions, which result in producing a vapour containing a mix of hydrocarbons and other organic compounds. When it then condenses, it becomes oil (with some natural gas) that can be refined to make liquid fuels and lubricants. Shale Oil is more accurately termed as oil-bearing shale. Unlike oil shale, oil-bearing shale contains oil (and some gas), trapped in relatively low porosity and permeability rock, commonly shale or tight siltstone limestone or dolomite, that typically resides a mile below the earth’s surface. These rocks have been buried deeply enough to convert part of their kerogen into oil and gas. Because the hydrocarbons are locked in place so tightly that they cannot be released in economic quantities simply by drilling, shale-hosted oil fields are considered unconventional. Producers have refined two developed and historically used technologies to unlock shale resources: horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing..(Exploiting Future Generation resource by Oil addicted today itself)
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 21:31:11 +0000
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