Stop the Hogs!

Canada (oil shale) (map)

[ http://www.tarsandsworld.com/canada-oil-shale ]

Production (current): 0 barrels per day
Production (projected): 20,000 barrels per day
Deposits (in place): 15.00 billion barrels

The plot:

Dwarfed by tar sands bitumen reserves, Canada has significant oil shale deposits in many locales across the country. Some areas of oil shale have seen previous attempts at mining for commercial purposes. The Pasquia Hills deposit in Northeast Saskatchewan is being core-drilled and readied for commercial development of kerogen-based oil by Xtra Energy corp. (based in Calgary). Canadian oil shale companies are attempting global developments as well. In Canada, discussion around the possibility of oil shale being burned for energy directly in a fashion similar to coal continues.

The details:

Multiple deposits scattered around the nation-state.
Estimates of over 15 bn bbl in place, recoverable undetermined.
Currently no deposits are operational for extraction, mining for research and exploration has taken place most significantly in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario.

Xtra Energy of Calgary is planning an oil shale mining operation in Northeast Saskatchewan, in an area called Pasquia Hills. This area had previously been explored by Sun Oil (today known as Suncor).
Petrobras of Brazil has helped with R&D in New Brunswick, using Brazilian "Petrosix" technology.

Possibility remains of mining to burn alongside coal to provide electricity generation at power plants, particularly in the Maritimes. Several exploration and core drilling operations have begun and finished at the Albert formation in New Brunswick. Currently no commercial development planned.

Projected bpd/energy output: Currently n/a.

Canadian corporations are expanding into shale developments in other countries, such as Jordan.

Global Oil Shale Holdings is focused on two deposits in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for the possible development of oil from shale rock extraction.



Articles about Canada (oil shale)

Startup Company looking into oil shale mining in Saskatchewan
[ http://www.tarsandsworld.com/canada-oil ... skatchewan ]
Apr 9, 2013
Questerre Testing Oil Shale in Saskatchewan Wed, 9 May, 2012 Questerre Energy Corporation ("Questerre" or the "Company") reported today that it has recently...


Xtra Energy closing in on going commercial with Saskatchewan oil shale project
[ http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases ... 67541.html ]
Apr 24, 2013
Xtra Energy Announces Completion Of Pasquia Hills Oil Shale Core Hole Drilling Program FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Feb. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ Xtra Energy Corp. (OTCPINK: XTPT), is pleased to...


Just the Beginning of Canada’s Filthy Tar Sands
[ http://www.tarsandsworld.com/cnpc-china ... -tar-sands ]
May 7, 2013
Just the Beginning of Canada’s Filthy Tar Sands A Qualitative Jump Down a Black Hole May 07, 2013 Counterpunch by MACDONALD STAINSBY The breakneck pace of tar sands development in Canada is...


Core program indicates Saskatchewan oil shale potential
[ http://www.ogj.com/articles/2013/11/cor ... ntial.html ]
Nov 20, 2013
Core program indicates Saskatchewan oil shale potential HOUSTON, Nov. 19 11/19/2013 By OGJ editors Questerre Energy Corp., Calgary, said results from the second core hole...

What is Shale Oil?

[ http://www.sultanioil.com/shale-oil.php ]

Shale Oil, known also as kerogen oil or oil-shale oil, is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock (kerogen) into synthetic oil and gas. The resulting oil can be used immediately as a fuel or upgraded to meet refinery feedstock specifications by adding hydrogen and removing impurities such as sulfur and nitrogen. The refined products can be used for the same purposes as those derived from crude oil.

History

Oil shale was one of the first sources of mineral oil used by humans. Its earliest recorded use was in Switzerland and Austria in the early 14th century. In 1596, the personal physician of Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg wrote of its healing properties. Shale oil was used to light the streets of Modena, Italy at the turn of the 17th century. The British Crown granted a patent in 1694 to three persons who had "found a way to extract and make great quantities of pitch, tarr, and oyle out of a sort of stone." Later sold as Betton's British Oil, the distilled product was said to have been "tried by divers persons in Aches and Pains with much benefit." Modern shale oil extraction industries were established in France during the 1830s and in Scotland during the 1840s. The oil was used as fuel, as a lubricant, and as lamp oil; the Industrial Revolution had created additional demand for lighting. It served as a substitute for the increasingly scarce and expensive whale oil.

During the late 19th century, shale oil extraction plants were built in Australia, Brazil and the United States. China (Manchuria), Estonia, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland produced shale oil in the early 20th century. The discovery of crude oil in the Middle East during mid-century brought most of these industries to a halt, although Estonia and Manchuria maintained their extraction industries into the early 21st century. In response to rising petroleum costs at the turn of the 21st century, extraction operations have commenced, been explored, or been renewed in the United States, China, Australia, and Jordan

Extraction Process

Shale oil is extracted by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution of oil shale. The pyrolysis of the rock is performed in a retort, situated either above ground or within the rock formation itself. As of 2008, most oil shale industries perform the shale oil extraction process after the rock is mined, crushed, and transported to a retorting facility, although several experimental technologies perform the process in place (in-situ). The temperature at which the kerogen decomposes into usable hydrocarbons varies with the time-scale of the process; in the above-ground retorting process decomposition begins at 300 °C (570 °F), but proceeds more rapidly and completely at higher temperatures. Decomposition takes place most quickly at a temperature between 480 and 520 °C (900 and 970 °F).

Hydrogenation and thermal dissolution (reactive fluid processes) extract the oil using hydrogen donors, solvents, or a combination of these. Thermal dissolution involves the application of solvents at elevated temperatures and pressures, increasing oil output by cracking the dissolved organic matter. Different methods produce shale oil with different properties.

A critical measure of the viability of extraction of shale oil lies in the ratio of the energy produced by the oil shale to the energy used in its mining and processing, a ratio known as "Energy Returned on Energy Invested" (EROEI). A 1984 study estimated the EROEI of the various known oil-shale deposits as varying between 0.7–13.3 More recent studies estimates the EROEI of oil shales to be 1–2:1 or 2–16:1 – depending when self-energy is counted as a cost or internal energy is exclude and only purchased energy is counted as input. Royal Dutch Shell has reported an EROEI of three to four on its in situ development, Mahogany Research Project.

The amount of oil that can be recovered during retorting varies with the oil shale and the technology used. About one sixth of the oil shales in the Green River Formation have a relatively high yield of 25 to 100 US gallons (95 to 380 l; 21 to 83 imp gal) of shale oil per ton of oil shale; about one third yield from 10 to 25 US gallons (38 to 95 l; 8.3 to 21 imp gal) per ton. (Ten US gal/ton is approximately 3.4 tons of oil per 100 tons of shale.) About half of the oil shales in the Green River Formation yield less than 10 US gal/ton.

The major global shale oil producers have published their yields for their commercial operations. Fushun Mining Group reports producing 300,000 tons per year of shale oil from 6.6 million tons of shale, a yield of 4.5% by weight. VKG Oil claims to produce 250,000 tons of oil per year from 2 million tons of shale, a yield of 13%. Petrobras produces in their Petrosix plant 550 tons of oil per day from 6,200 tons of shale, a yield of 9%.

Properties

The properties of raw shale oil vary with the shale's composition and the extraction technology from aromatic to aliphatic. Typically it contains 0.5 to 1% oxygen, 1.5 to 2% nitrogen, and 0.15 to 1% sulfur. Mineral particles are often present as well. The oil is less fluid than crude oil, becoming pourable at temperatures between 24 and 27 °C (75 and 81 °F), while conventional crude oil is pourable at temperatures between -60 to 30 °C (-76 to 86 °F); this property affects shale oil's ability to be transported in existing pipelines.

Upgrading

Although raw shale oil can be immediately burnt as a fuel oil, many of its applications require that it be upgraded. The differing properties of the raw oils call for correspondingly various pre-treatments before it can be sent to a conventional oil refinery.

Particulates in the raw oil clog downstream processes; sulfur and nitrogen create air pollution. Sulfur and nitrogen, along with the arsenic and iron that may be present, also destroy the catalysts used in refining. Olefins form insoluble sediments and cause instability. The oxygen within the oil, present at higher levels than in crude oil, lends itself to the formation of destructive free radicals. Hydrodesulfurization and hydrodenitrogenation can address these problems and result in a product comparable to benchmark crude oil. Phenols can be first be removed by water extraction. Upgrading shale oil into transport fuels requires adjusting hydrogen–carbon ratios by adding hydrogen (hydrocracking) or removing carbon (coking).

Shale oil produced by some technologies, such as the Kiviter process, can be used without further upgrading as an oil constituent and as a phenolic compound. Distillate oils from the Kiviter process can also be used as diluents for petroleum-originated heavy oils and as an adhesive-enhancing additive in bituminous materials such as asphalt.

Usage

Before World War II, most shale oil was upgraded for use as transport fuels. Afterwards, it was used as a raw material for chemical intermediates, pure chemicals and industrial resins, and as a railroad wood preservative. As of 2008, it is primarily used as a heating oil and marine fuel, and to a lesser extent in the production of various chemicals.

Shale oil's concentration of high-boiling point compounds is suited for the production of middle distillates such as kerosene, jet fuel, and diesel fuel. Additional cracking can create the lighter hydrocarbons used in gasoline.

Reserves and production

Global technically-recoverable oil shale reserves have recently been estimated at about 2.8 to 3.3 trillion barrels (450×109 to 520×109 m3) of shale oil, with the largest reserves in the United States, which is thought to have 1.5–2.6 trillion barrels (240×109–410×109 m3). Worldwide production of shale oil was estimated at 11,600 barrels per day (1,840 m3/d) in 2002. The leading producers were Estonia (5,500 barrels per day (870 m3/d)), Brazil (3,100 barrels per day (490 m3/d)), and China (2,000 barrels per day (320 m3/d)). In 2008, China led production with 470 million liters (ML), followed by Estonia (445 ML) and Brazil (250 ML).