4. What is Oil Shale?
• is defined as is an organic-rich, fine-grained sedimentary rock that
contains a solid organic compound known as kerogen.
• Deposits of oil shale range from cambrian to tertiary age.
• Countries like Estonia ,China , Brazil and Germany have well
established oil shale industries.
• Also known as “THE ROCK THAT BURNS” .
8. Oil shale
reserves
World reserves of oil shale are estimated to be around 660
billion TOE (tons of oil equivalent) content of shale oil.
30% of these are technically extractable; they are therefore
superior to the 175 billion TOE of proven reserves of
conventional oil.
About 2/3 of the reserves are in the United States.
Russia and Brazil,which together have a share of 20%.
The largest known deposit is in the Green River Formation in
the western United States; it contains an estimated 213
billion tons of in-situ shale oil.
17. Impact on environment
• Oil shale production is also considered to be quite harmful to the environment.
• Both mining and processing of oil shale involve a variety of environmental impact,
such as global warming and greenhouse gas emissions, disturbance of mined
land, impacts on wildlife and air and water quality.
• These include acid drainage induced by the sudden rapid exposure and
subsequent oxidation of formerly buried materials, the introduction of metals
including mercury into surface-water and groundwater, increased erosion, sulfur-
gas emissions, and air pollution caused by the production of particulates during
processing, transport, and support activities.
• In 2002, about 97% of air pollution, 86% of total waste and 23% of water
pollution in Estonia came from the power industry, which uses oil shale as the
main resource for its power production.
• It uses vast quantities of water (which are not always available where the shale
is).
