Oil shale programs. Seventh quarterly report, July 1977--September 1977

Technical Report · Wed Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1978

OSTI ID:5247030

Boade, R R ^[1]

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1. ed.

In work on diagnostics and rock mechanics all activities of the quarter were directly related to the oil shale rubblization experiment which is in progress at Site 12 of the LERC field laboratory near Rock Springs, Wyoming. This experiment is being performed to assess the merits of a hydraulic/explosive concept for preparing an underground oil shale bed for in situ processing. The concept under examination involves the formation of three (nearly) equally spaced horizontal hydrofractures in an underground oil shale bed, the insertion of explosive slurry into the lower two hydrofractures from intersecting wellbores, and finally the detonation of the explosive to produce stress waves which, if the concept is viable, will result in considerable dynamic fracturing of the shale. In work on advanced instrumentation, instruments to measure downhole resistivity, temperature and pressure have been installed in two wells. The primary function of these instruments is to detect changes in formation conditions causec by retort burns in nearby wells or by efforts to initiate such burns. Work on in-situ oil shale bed preparation included analytical and experimental efforts to improve data acquisition and interpretation procedures, incorporation of previously obtained information regarding the dynamic fracture of oil shale into a computation code, and numerical calculations to examine several variations of the borehole springing method for preparing an oil shale for retorting. (JRD)

• Research Organization: Sandia Labs., Albuquerque, N.Mex. (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-04-0789
• OSTI ID: 5247030
• Report Number(s): SAND-78-0045
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040401* -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- In Situ Methods
True & Modified
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
COMMINUTION
DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMS
DEMONSTRATION PROGRAMS
ENERGY SOURCES
EXPLOSIVE FRACTURING
FOSSIL FUELS
FRACTURE PROPERTIES
FRACTURING
FUELS
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
HYDRAULIC FRACTURING
IN-SITU PROCESSING
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
MICHIGAN
NORTH AMERICA
OIL SHALE DEPOSITS
OIL SHALES
PROCESSING
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
RESOURCES
ROCK MECHANICS
USA
UTAH
WYOMING