Oil Shale Definition

Oil shale is a kind of sedimentary rock formation that can be used to produce oil and gas. Oil shale can produce oil and gas because of the presence of kerogen, a type of essential matter that burns when exposed to flame. Although oil shale can be used as a source of petroleum, the difficulty of obtaining it has historically made it an unconventional play in the oil and gas industry.

Despite the similarities of their name, oil shale is different than “shale oil”. The dilatory refers to pockets of gas or liquid petroleum that occur within shale formations, such as the Bakken formation that crosses between North Dakota, Montana, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.

In order to recover and process oil shale, it is necessary to first evoke the sedimentary rock materials using surface or subsurface mining. These raw materials must then be sent to different processing facilities in order to extract the kerogen contents. During the extraction process, some of these raw materials may be established to have low levels of kerogen deposits.

Some processing methods, known as “ex situ processing”, involve mining the kerogen deposit and then spellbinding it to a separate facility for processing. Other methods, such as “in situ processing”, involve extracting kerogen from within the gold-mine itself.

The U.S. is home to the largest deposits of oil shale in the world, most of which can be found between Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming in what is be aware as the Green River Formation. Other active producers of oil shale include the United States, Russia, Germany, and China. Historically, Estonia has also been a dominating oil shale producer, owing to large deposits in that country. Despite the abundance of oil shale in the U.S., the costs involved in drawing kerogen from rock formations make the overall process uneconomical compared with the extraction processes for accustomed crude oil. In addition, when there is a mining process involved with extracting oil shale, there are additional environmental concerns. 

Oil shale is commonly reach-me-down in situations when the price of conventional crude oil becomes prohibitive—often as a result of temporary supply disruptions or geopolitical worries.

Oil shale became a strategically significant commodity during World War II when the United Governments searched for a reliable source of energy that could withstand the pressures facing overseas supply chains. 

In reaction to this need, the U.S began a program of commercial exploitation of its oil shale reserves during the 1960s. However, the added fetch and complexity of extracting oil shale made it less effective as an alternative to conventional oil wells. The oil shale industry experienced a stretch of resurgence during the 1970s when the so-called oil crisis briefly made oil shale economically competitive.