Oil shale and tar sands as substitute fuels

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1974

OSTI ID:7329165

Ball, J S

From the sheer magnitude of the resources available, coal takes a strong position as the alternate source of fuel supplies when petroleum is unavailable. However oil shale and tar sands are also possibilities, and, indeed, have some advantages over coal. Although Oklahoma has no oil shale deposits, it does have appreciable amounts of tar sands. Oil shale deposits in the tri-state area of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming contain more than 2 trillion barrels of oil. Oil shale is neither shale nor does it contain oil; it is a marlstone containing organic material which when heated to about 900/sup 0/F produces oil. As the oil contains more hydrogen than pyrolysis products of coal, it is more easily refined than oil from coal. Shale oil can be produced by mining-retorting methods or by in-situ combustion. The oil contains nitrogen and sulfur in amounts requiring additional refining steps. Oil from tar sands closely resembles petroleum except that the oils from tar sands are so viscous and the reservoirs contain so little energy that the oil cannot be produced by conventional petroleum-producing methods. Oklahoma contains the largest number of outcrop tar sand deposits and shallow oilfields of any state, 142, according to a 1965 survey by the Bureau of Mines.

• Research Organization: Bureau of Mines, Bartlesville, OK (USA). Bartlesville Energy Research Center
• OSTI ID: 7329165
• Report Number(s): CONF-740390-2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040000* -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
DOCUMENT TYPES
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
MINERAL OILS
NORTH AMERICA
OIL SANDS
OIL SHALES
OILS
OKLAHOMA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PRODUCTION
REVIEWS
SHALE OIL
SOUTHWEST REGION
SYNTHETIC FUELS
SYNTHETIC PETROLEUM
USA