Shale oil

This article is about synthetic petroleum produced from oil shale. For crude oil occurring in shale reservoirs, see Tight oil.

Shale oil is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale rock fragments by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock (kerogen) into synthetic oil and gas. The resulting oil can be used immediately as a fuel or upgraded to meet refinery feedstock specifications by adding hydrogen and removing impurities such as sulfur and nitrogen. The refined products can be used for the same purposes as those derived from crude oil.

The term "shale oil" is also used for crude oil produced from shales of other unconventional, very low permeability formations. However, to reduce the risk of confusion of shale oil produced from oil shale with crude oil in oil-bearing shales, the term "tight oil" is preferred for the latter.[1] The International Energy Agency recommends to use the term "light tight oil" and World Energy Resources 2013 report by the World Energy Council uses the term "tight oil" for crude oil in oil-bearing shales.[2][3]

  1. ^ Reinsalu, Enno; Aarna, Indrek (2015). "About technical terms of oil shale and shale oil" (PDF). Oil Shale. A Scientific-Technical Journal. 32 (4): 291–292. doi:10.3176/oil.2015.4.01. ISSN 0208-189X. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  2. ^ World Energy Outlook 2013. OECD. 2013. p. 424. ISBN 978-92-64-20130-9. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  3. ^ World Energy Resources 2013 Survey (PDF). 2013. p. 2.46. ISBN 9780946121298. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 February 2014. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)