Vendaval
Posts: 10297
Joined: 1/15/2005 Status: offline
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Knowing where the deposits are located and being able to extract the oil efficiently and cleanly are two different issues. Here is the quick and dirty low-down on the process complete with nifty diagrams and cross-sectional representations of geological strata. JPT Online Official Publication of The Society of Petroleum Engineers "Oil-shale extraction technology has a new owner" 1 February 2008 in Facilities (PFC), HSE, Production (PO), US/Canada "Oil shale is a type of sedimentary rock that contains solid bituminous material, known as kerogen, that releases oil or gas when heated. While oil-shale deposits are found in many places around the world, the largest deposits by far reside in the Rocky Mountain region of the U.S. Oil-shale reserves are estimated at nearly 2 trillion bbl in the states of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming alone, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. This quantity would be sufficient to meet U.S. demand at current levels for the next 250 years. However, successfully harvesting this vast resource has been technically, economically, and environmentally challenging. The most common methods of recovering oil shale include a mining step, in which the shale is mined from the surface or underground and then transported to a facility for further processing. The waxy, solid nature of the shale necessitates a heating process, known as retorting, to release the trapped oil and allow it to flow out of the rock matrix. The large environmental and processing costs associated with this method of oil-shale extraction have prevented it from becoming a major petroleum source. According to an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) prepared by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, the environmental impacts include emission of greenhouse gases during mining and processing, disturbance of mined lands, need for disposal of the spent shale, use of water resources, and impacts on air and water quality. These factors contribute to the relatively high cost of producing oil from shale, which the EIS estimates at greater than USD60/bbl." http://updates.spe.org/index.php/2008/02/01/oil-shale-extraction-technology-has-a-new-owner/
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"Beware, the woods at night, beware the lunar light. So in this gray haze we'll be meating again, and on that great day, I will tease you all the same." "WOLF MOON", OCTOBER RUST, TYPE O NEGATIVE http://KinkMeet.co.uk
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