Publications

Survey of Energy Resources 2007

Oil Shale Resources

Although information about many oil shale deposits is rudimentary and much exploratory drilling and analytical work needs to be done, the potential resources of oil shale in the world are enormous. An evaluation of world oil shale resources is made difficult because of the numerous ways by which the resources are assessed. Gravimetric, volumetric, and heating values have all been used to determine the oil shale grade. For example, oil shale grade is expressed in litres per tonne or gallons per short ton, weight percent shale oil, kilocalories of energy per kilogram of oil shale or Btu, and others. If the grade of oil shale is given in volumetric measure (litres of shale oil per tonne), the density of the oil must be known to convert litres to tonnes of shale oil.

By-products can add considerable value to some oil shale deposits. Uranium, vanadium, zinc, alumina, phosphate, sodium carbonate minerals, ammonium sulphate, and sulphur add potential value to some deposits. The spent shale obtained from retorting may also find use in the construction industry as cement. Germany and China have used oil shale as a source of cement. Other potential by-products from oil shale include specialty carbon fibres, adsorbent carbons, carbon black, bricks, construction and decorative building blocks, soil additives, fertilisers, rock wool insulating materials, and glass. Many of these by-products are still in the experimental stage, but the economic potential for their manufacture seems large.
Many oil shale resources have been little explored and much exploratory drilling needs to be done to determine their potential. Some deposits have been fairly well explored by drilling and analyses. These include the Green River oil shale in western United States, the Tertiary deposits in Queensland, Australia, the deposits in Sweden and Estonia, the El-Lajjun deposit in Jordan, perhaps those in France, Germany and Brazil, and possibly several in Russia. It can be assumed that the deposits will yield at least 40 litres of shale oil per tonne of shale by Fischer assay. The remaining deposits are poorly known and further study and analysis are needed to adequately determine their resource potential.

By far the largest known deposit is the Green River oil shale in the western United States, which contains a total estimated resource of nearly 1.5 trillion barrels. In Colorado alone, the total resource reaches 1 trillion barrels of oil. The Devonian black shales of the eastern United States are estimated at 189 billion barrels. Other important deposits include those of Australia, Brazil, China, Estonia, Jordan, and Morocco.

The total world resource of shale oil is estimated at 2.8 trillion barrels. This figure is considered to be conservative in view of the fact that oil shale resources of some countries are not reported and other deposits have not been fully investigated. On the other hand, several deposits, such as those of the Heath and Phosphoria Formations and portions of the Swedish alum oil shale, have been degraded by geothermal heating. Therefore, the resources reported for such deposits are probably too high and somewhat misleading.