A feasibility study on in-situ heating of oil shale with injection fluid in China

Abstract

The reserves of oil shale are over 5 times as many as the current natural proven recoverable oil reserves in the world. It has huge potential but it is hard to obtain economic efficiency because of its low oil length and exploration difficulty. This research combines theory and experiment, evaluates the exploitation of in-situ heating of oil shale with injection fluid, which have the characteristics of high oil length, large productivity and short production cycle. For the oil shale layer with high oil length (>18%), the oil price shall at least reach 105 $/bbl (18% oil length) to maintain 10% of the internal rate of return; for the oil shale with low oil length (3.5–18%), the oil price shall at least reach 377 $/bbl (5% oil length) to maintain 10% of the internal rate of return. At present, only the oil shale with high oil length (>18%) can be exploited for in-situ heating of oil shale with injection fluid in China.