Energy requirements for the production of synthetic crude oil from Colorado oil shales

Hemming, D. F. (1976). Energy requirements for the production of synthetic crude oil from Colorado oil shales. ERG Report 12; Energy Research Group, The Open University, Milton Keynes.

Abstract

For some years studies have been made of the possibility of exploiting the vast quantities of oil shale in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. IT has been estimated that shales in these areas contain potential oil reserves greater than the known oil reserves of the Middle East, and it is not surprising that longing eyes have been cast in their direction, particularly as US becomes more dependent on imported oil. The problem with many studies of the economic viability of an oil shale complex is illustrated by recent reports of escalating costs of oil shale production – ‘In the past each time the price of oil went up, shale oil companies promptly declared that their time had come… Now companies which once said shale oil would be profitable at £5, then £7.50, then £11 a barrel are hard pressed to name any figure at all.’ Part of the problem has been that price rises of Middle East oil eventually produce price rises in steel, other materials, machinery, and transport which are all inputs to an oil shale complex. By evaluating the total fuel component of the cost of producing oil from oil shales, energy analysis can be of use in such a situation. Because it seems unreasonable that expensive sources of oil should be subsidised by goods and services produced using less expensive sources of oil, it will be assumed here that all diesel fuel used by the shale oil complex originates at the complex and that electrical requirements will be met by on-site electricity generation using gas produced in retorting.

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