Publications

Survey of Energy Resources 2007

Oil Shale Country Notes

Sweden

The huge shale resources underlying mainland Sweden are more correctly referred to as alum shale; black shale is found on two islands lying off the coast of south-eastern Sweden. The in-place shale oil resource is estimated to be 6.1 billion barrels.

The exploitation of alum shale began as early as 1637 when potassium aluminium sulphate (alum) was extracted for industrial purposes. By the end of the 19th century the alum shale was also being retorted in an effort to produce a hydrocarbon oil. Before and during World War II, Sweden derived oil from its alum shale, but this process had ceased by 1966, when alternative supplies of lower-priced petroleum were available; during the period 50 million tonnes of shale had been mined.

The Swedish alum shale has a high content of various metals including uranium, which was mined between 1950 and 1961. At that time the available uranium ore was of low grade but later higher-grade ore was found and 50 tonnes of uranium were produced per year between 1965 and 1969. Although the uranium resource is substantial, production ceased in 1989 when world prices fell and made the exploitation uneconomic.