The reserves data distinguish between reserves in existing fields and new projects, and potential reserves in recent discoveries and still undiscovered fields. Estimated in-place oil is about 1.5 trillion barrels, based on Fischer assay results from boreholes drilled to evaluate oil shale, making it the largest oil shale deposit in the world. Oil shales typically contain much larger amounts of inert mineral matter (60-90 percent) than coals, which have been defined as containing less than 40 percent mineral matter. More information on Morocco oil shale. 6.2 Shale Oil Properties. US is making the most of Shale gas as they have lots of inhabited land. Roads, railroads, power lines, water, and available labor are among the factors to be considered in determining the viability of an oil-shale operation. The USGS Energy Resources Program has studied oil shale resources of the United States, with a significant effort on the Eocene Green River Formation of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Although the heating value of a given oil shale is a useful and fundamental property of the rock, it does not provide information on the amounts of shale oil or combustible gas that would be yielded by retorting (destructive distillation). Some oil-shale deposits contain minerals and metals that add byproduct value such as alum [KAl(SO4)2.12H2O], nahcolite (NaHCO3), dawsonite [NaAl(OH)2CO3], sulfur, ammonium sulfate, vanadium, zinc, copper, and uranium. This website contains assessments and geologic reports, as well as spatial and tabular datasets, fischer assays and well logs from USGS oil shale research studies. Importantly, unconventional plays account for more than 50 percent of remaining U.S. oil reserves, with Texas alone holding more than 60 billion barrels of recoverable oil in shale plays. The Radial Basis Function extrapolation method was used to generate isopach and isoresource maps, and to calculate resources. Fossil shell and bone fragments composed of phosphatic and carbonate minerals, although of organic origin, are excluded from the definition of organic matter used herein and are considered to be part of the mineral matrix of the oil shale. Shale Energy Resources is a Texas-based marketing firm that. Much of the organic matter in oil shale is of algal origin, but may also include remains of vascular land plants that more commonly compose much of the organic matter in coal. Results of this assessment are available in the following publications (see 'Data and Tools' for data supporting this assessment): Johnson, R.C., Brownfield, M.E., and Mercier, T.J., (U.S. Geological Survey Oil Shale Assessment Team), 2010a, Oil Shale and Nahcolite Resources of the Piceance Basin, Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-69-Y [CD-ROM]. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has compiled Part B of the Energy Map of Southwestern Wyoming for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI). For this reason, it may be necessary to measure vitrinite reflectance from laterally equivalent vitrinite-bearing rocks that lack the algal material. http://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds-069/dds-069-y/, Mercier, T.J., Johnson, R.C., Brownfield, M.E., and Self, J.G., 2010, In-Place Oil Shale Resources Underlying Federal Lands in the Piceance Basin, Western Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet FS-2010-3041, 4 p. http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2010/3041/, Johnson, R.C., Mercier, T.J., Brownfield, M.E., Pantea, M.P., and Self, J.G., 2009, Assessment of in-place oil shale resources of the Green River Formation, Piceance Basin, western Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2009–3012, 6 p. http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2009/3012/, Uinta Basin, Colorado and Utah 2010 Assessment. Technically Recoverable Shale Oil and Shale Gas Resources estimates that shale resources considered in conjunction with EIA's own assessment of resources within the United States indicate technically recoverable resources of 345 billion barrels of world shale oil resources and 7,299 trillion cubic feet of world shale gas resources (see Table 1). Shale oil is a synthetic crude oil produced by retorting oil shale and is the pyrolysis product of the organic matter (kerogen) contained in it. Events. The U.S. Geological Survey has used a lower limit of about 40 l/t for classification of Federal oil-shale lands. It also includes fischer assays and scans of well logs in the Colorado Piceance Basin. The Green River oil shale, for example, is presumed to be the source of the oil in the Red Wash field in northeastern Utah. More information on Israel and Jordan oil shale. It commonly occurs as an organic groundmass with fine-grained mineral matter. Birdwell, J.E., Vanden Berg, M.D., Johnson, R.C., Mercier, T.J., Boehlke, A., Brownfield, M.E., 2016, Geological, geochemical, and reservoir characterization of the Uteland Butte member of the Green River Formation, Uinta Basin, Utah in Dolan, M.P., Higley, D.K., Lillis, P.G., ed., Hydrocarbon Source Rocks in Unconventional Plays, Rocky Mountain Region: Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, Chapter 12, p. 352-378. The average breakeven price of oil has fallen 4 percent (or $2 per barrel) over the past year, to $50 per barrel, according to the latest Dallas Fed Energy Survey. Oil shale is the rock from which shale oil is extract ed. The method commonly used in the United States is called the "modified Fischer assay," first developed in Germany, then adapted by the U.S. Bureau of Mines for analyzing oil shale of the Green River Formation in the western United States (Stanfield and Frost, 1949). The crude oil ranking is led by the U.S. (78.2 billion barrels), Russia (74.5 billion) and China (32.2 billion). If the size of the resource is expressed only in volumetric units (barrels, liters, cubic meters, and so on), the density of the shale oil must be known or estimated to convert these values to metric tons. The oil shale interval in the Piceance Basin is subdivided into seventeen “rich” and “lean” zones and each interval was assessed for variations in gallons per ton, barrels per acre, and total barrels in each 36-square mile township. Values obtained by this method are reported in English or metric units, such as British thermal units (Btu) per pound of oil shale, calories per gram (cal/gm) of rock, kilocalories per kilogram (kcal/kg) of rock, megajoules per kilogram (MJ/kg) of rock, and other units. Cannel coals originate in oxygen-deficient ponds or shallow lakes in peat-forming swamps and bogs (Stach and others, 1975, p. 236-237). U.S. gains increased at least 100,000 barrels per day for 10 of the last 16 months. Telalginite and lamalginite fluoresce brightly in shades of yellow under blue/ultraviolet light. Oil shale, despite the name, does not actually contain oil, but is a precursor of oil that is converted to crude oil when heated. This appraisal of world oil-shale resources is far from complete. SHALE REMAINS UNTAPPED AFTER DECADES OF FAILURE . Organic matter in oil shale includes the remains of algae, spores, pollen, plant cuticle and corky fragments of herbaceous and woody plants, and other cellular remains of lacustrine, marine, and land plants. Today, few, if any deposits can be economically mined and processed for shale oil in competition with petroleum. Shale has a shorter lead time between drilling and production relative to offshore exploration and other traditional oil projects, making it more responsive to oil price movements. Relatively little is known about many of the world's deposits of oil shale and much exploratory drilling and analytical work need to be done. Johnson, R.C., Dietrich, J.D., and Mercier, T.J., 2015: Updated tops file for Cretaceous and lower Tertiary units, Piceance Basin, northwest Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2015–1036, 16 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20151036. Deposits of shale oil / gas are found around the world. Depths to selected Cretaceous and lower Tertiary stratigraphic units in the Piceance Basin, northwestern Colorado are presented here for 1,563 wells. The heat energy obtained by the combustion of the organic matter in oil shale can be used in the cement-making process. Solid hydrocarbons, including gilsonite, wurtzilite, grahamite, ozokerite, and albertite, are present as veins or pods in some oil shales. China, Russia, Syria, Thailand, and Turkey: Other countries with oil shale. United States: Areas underlain by the Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, United States (after Dyni, 2005) and major areas of surface minable Devonian oil shale in the eastern United States (after Matthews and others 1980). This is usually much less efficient than drilling rocks that will yield oil or gas directly into a well. Johnson, R.C., and Brownfield, M.E., 2015, Development, evolution, and destruction of the saline mineral area of Eocene Lake Uinta, Piceance Basin, western Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2013–5176, 76 p., 2 pl., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/sir20135176. Results of this study are provided in two publications, below (see 'Data and Tools' for data supporting this assessment): Johnson, R.C., (and U.S. Geological Survey Oil Shale Assessment Team), 2010, Oil Shale Resources of the Eocene Green River Formation, Greater Green River Basin, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-69-DD, [CD-ROM]. We produce marketing and networking events for oil and gas businesses and organizations. Byproducts may add considerable value to some oil-shale deposits. A new independent estimate of world oil reserves has been released by Rystad Energy, showing that the US now holds more recoverable oil reserves than both Saudi Arabia and Russia. Some of these names are still used for certain types of oil shale. Under such circumstances, oil shales can be source rocks for petroleum and natural gas. This is only slightly lower than the estimated 1.53 trillion barrels for the adjacent Piceance Basin, Colorado, to the east, which is thought to be the richest oil shale deposit in the world. Oil shale, despite the name, does not actually contain oil, but rather a type of organic matter called kerogen, a precursor of oil that is converted to a type of crude oil when heated to about 450 – 500° C. The oil shale deposits are in three structural and sedimentary basins that have been recently assessed: Estimated total in-place resources are about 1.5 trillion barrels of oil for the Piceance Basin, about 1.3 trillion barrels of oil for the Uinta Basin and 1.4 trillion barrels of oil in the Greater Green River Basin. As of 2019, OPEC controlled roughly 75% of the world's total crude oil reserves and produced 42% of the world's total crude oil output. The origin of some of the organic matter in oil shale is obscure because of the lack of recognizable biologic structures that would help identify the precursor organisms. S&P Global Platts forecasts a decline to 10m b/d by mid-2021. The organic matter consists of telalginite derived chiefly from unicellular tasmanitid algae of marine origin and lesser amounts of vitrinite, lamalginite, and inertinite. http://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds-069/dds-069-bb/, Johnson, R.C., Mercier, T.J., Brownfield, M.E., and Self, J.G., 2010, Assessment of in-place oil shale resources of the Green River Formation, Uinta Basin, Utah and Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2010-3010, 4 p. http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2010/3010/, Green River Basin, Southwestern Wyoming and Colorado 2011 Assessment. U.S. HAS MASSIVE OIL RESERVES. Shale has huge competition to fill remaining oil demand. The oil shale deposits are in three structural and sedimentary basins that have been recently assessed: 2010 Piceance Basin in western Colorado 2010 Uinta Basin in eastern Utah and western Colorado 2011 Greater Green River Basin in southwest Wyoming and northwest Colorado There is an estimated 2 trillion barrels of oil buried beneath parts of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. On the other hand, oil-shale deposits that have economic potential for their shale-oil and gas yields are geothermally immature and have not been subjected to excessive heating. We can get your products and services seen. Shale oil is the product of the thermal reaction and decomposition of kerogen present in oil shales. The material has not been fully characterized with respect to its composition or origin, but it is commonly an important component of marine oil shales. However, the U.S. was the world's largest oil … In fact, special methods of retorting, such as the Hytort process, can increase oil yields of some oil shales by as much as three to four times the yield obtained by the Fischer assay method (Schora and others, 1983; Dyni and others, 1990). Pennsylvania (103.4 Tcf) Texas (100.8 Tcf) West Virginia (31.7 Tcf) Louisiana (25.6 Tcf) Ohio (24.0 Tcf) Oklahoma (21.4 Tcf) New Mexico (13.1 Tcf) North Dakota (11.7 Tcf) figure data These materials are composed chiefly of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur. However, looking at success in US lots of other countries have started to explore their shale reserves. ... We have access to over 60,000 contacts in the oil & gas industry. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock into synthetic oil and gas. Torbanite, named after Torbane Hill in Scotland, is a black oil shale whose organic matter is composed mainly of telalginite derived largely from lipid-rich Botryococcus and related algal forms found in fresh- to brackish-water lakes. Within his three-fold grouping of oil shales (terrestrial, lacustrine, and marine), Hutton (1991) recognized six specific oil-shale types: cannel coal, lamosite, marinite, torbanite, tasmanite, and kukersite. Both give more complete information about the grade of oil shale, but are not widely used. Some oil shales may have a greater energy potential than that reported by the Fischer assay method depending on the components of the "gas plus loss.". Structural deformation may impair the mining of an oil-shale deposit, whereas igneous intrusions may have thermally degraded the organic matter. The Bakken Field in North Dakota and Montana is the largest producing shale oil reserve. Oil shales range widely in organic content and oil yield. Australia: Deposits of oil shale in Australia (locations after Crisp and others, 1987; and, Cook and Sherwood 1989). Most of the organic matter in oil shales is derived from various types of marine and lacustrine algae. The underestimation of the U.S. shale gas business is just as huge as it is for oil. Lamalginite includes thin-walled colonial or unicellular algae that occurs as laminae with little or no recognizable biologic structures. Johnson, R.C., (and U.S. Geological Survey Oil Shale Assessment Team), 2010, Oil Shale Resources of the Uinta Basin, Utah and Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-69-BB, [CD-ROM]. For much of the 20th century, the Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves served as a contingency source of fuel for the Nation's military. Deposits of oil shale are in many parts of the world. Estimated U.S. oil shale reserves total an astonishing 1.5 trillion barrels of oil – or more than five times the stated reserves of Saudi Arabia. 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