What is shale oil?
Shale oil (after extraction) is exactly the same as any other crude oil. It can be put in a refinery to create gasoline or diesel exactly the same as what you are using now. However, the oil reserves we are familiar with are conveniently packaged for us in nice, easy pockets in the Earth. Oil is collected in underground caverns, so that if we poke a hole in the cavern, we can simply slurp out the oil. This is incredibly convenient, but perhaps the exception, the rare case. Shale oil is mixed in with rock (shale). The oil is trapped in pores and layers and tiny pockets within the porous rock. It may be that shale oil is the early version of the crude oil deposits we are familiar with. If so, shale oil may be far more abundant than traditional oil wells as the early stage of traditional oil pockets. The nation of Estonia has been commercially extracting shale oil for more than a decade. Estonia has no natural energy resources, except some hydroelectric. Therefore, they must use shale oil
The oil reserves we are familiar with are conveniently packaged for us in nice, easy pockets in the Earth. Oil is collected in underground caverns, so that if we poke a hole in the cavern, we can simply slurp out the oil. This is incredibly convenient, but perhaps the exception, the rare case. Shale oil is essentially the same crude oil we know (after the extraction process). But shale oil is mixed in with rock (shale). The oil is trapped in pores and layers and tiny pockets within the porous rock. It may be that shale oil is the early version of the crude oil deposits we are familiar with. [S]hale oil may be far more abundant than traditional oil wells… (Excerpt) Read more at shaleoilnow.com …
