Publications

Survey of Energy Resources 2007

Oil Shale Country Notes

Canada

Oil shales occur throughout the country, with as many as 19 deposits having been identified. However, the majority of the in-place shale oil resources remain poorly known. The most explored deposits are those in the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Of the areas in Nova Scotia known to contain oil shales, development has been attempted at two - Stellarton and Antigonish. Mining took place at Stellarton from 1852 to 1859 and 1929 to 1930 and at Antigonish around 1865. The Stellarton Basin is estimated to hold some 825 million tonnes of oil shale, with an in-situ oil content of 168 million barrels. The Antigonish Basin has the second largest oil shale resource in Nova Scotia, with an estimated 738 million tonnes of shale and 76 million barrels of oil in situ.

Investigations into retorting and co-combustion (with coal for power generation) of Albert Mines shale (New Brunswick) have been conducted, including some experimental processing in 1988 at the Petrobras plant in Brazil. Interest has been shown in the New Brunswick deposits for the potential they might offer to reduce sulphur emissions by co-combustion of carbonate-rich shale residue with high-sulphur coal in power stations.