The utah portion of the green river basin oil shale field is located in the uinta basin which is between cities price and vernal. The organic material present in the green river formation is of biological origin. The organic matter is from blue green algae cyanobacteria. People have been trying to economically produce oil from this rock for more than a century. The inset top shows a hand specimen from that region, with dark layers of rich oil shale interbedded with pale layers of lean shale. Petroleum and natural gas are probably the most familiar hydrocarbons. Deep shale oil and gas download ebook pdf, epub, tuebl, mobi. May 15, 2012 the green river formation an assemblage of over 1,000 feet of sedimentary rocks that lie beneath parts of colorado, utah, and wyoming contains the worlds largest deposits of oil shale. Basinwide evaluation of the uppermost green river formation. The resulting oil can be used immediately as a fuel or upgraded to meet refinery feedstock specifications by adding hydrogen and removing impurities such as sulfur. A collection of chemical, mineralogical, and stable isotopic. The green river formation was deposited in a series of saline, alkaline lake basins in. Shale oil can also contain significant quantities of heteroatoms. Oil shale is a type of sedimentary rock that is rich in kerogen.
Like conventional oil, shale oil is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons, and it is characterized using bulk properties of the oil. The green river formation is the largest oil reserve on the planet. These widespread data were used to map oil shale thickness and richness and create isopach maps delineating oil yields of 15, 25, 35, and 50 gallons of shale oil per ton gpt of rock. Oil shale, tar sands, and related materials book, 1981. Origin and microfossils of the oil shale of the green.
It consists principally of organic marlstone oil shale, marlstone, siltstone, sandstone, and intercalated tuff beds that were deposited in freshwater, salinelacustrine, and associated deltaic and fluviatile environments. Origin and microfossils of the oil shale of the green river. The analysis of the kerogen of green river oil shale by controlled potential oxidation with perchloric acid chris wyatte mcgowan iowa state university follow this and additional works at. Jul 03, 2015 the green river formation an assemblage of over 1,000 feet of sedimentary rocks that lie beneath parts of colorado, utah, and wyoming contains the worlds largest deposits of oil shale. Oil shale is actually the rock marlstone which contains kerogen, a precursor to oil. Speck relation between fuel properties and chemical composition. However, despite its astounding potential, experts argue that economically viable technology necessary to extract oil from the area beneath colorado, wyoming and utah. Sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy of this interval in the. Lastly, the colorado portion of the green river basin oil formation is located in the piceance creek basin between cities grand junction and rifle. One oil shale is a green river formation, parachute creek member, mahogany zone colorado oil shale from the exxon colony mine and the other is a clegg creek member, new albany shale from kentucky. Worlds largest shale oil reserve the green river formation. The tight oil found in the two texas basins is fluid oil trapped in the pores of the shale rock that pervades the extraction sites. The green river drilling is beginning as shale mining is booming in the u. Although not all of this can be extracted, it is more than three times the proven petroleum reserves of saudi arabia.
Oil shale is an organicrich finegrained sedimentary rock containing kerogen a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced, called shale oil not to be confused with tight oilcrude oil occurring naturally in shales. In eastern germany and poland the kupferschiefer, a bituminous shale, is mined for copper, lead, and zinc. The composition of the produced oil is generally uniform over the course of artificial maturation. The green river formation is the site at which the fossil of the oldest known flying mammal was found. The unusual chemistry of the lakes in which it was deposited makes the green river formation a major source of sodium carbonate. Oil shale, despite the name, does not actually contain oil, but rather a type of organic matter called kerogen, a precursor of oil that is converted to a type of crude oil when heated to about 450 500 c. Oil shale gains attention as a potential abundant source of oil whenever the price of crude oil rises. The largest oil shale deposits in the world occur in the green river formation of colorado, utah and wyoming 32. Hamarneh, yousef, 1998, oil shale resources development in jordan.
The classic type i oil shales in the upper green river formation correlate well. All petroleum engineers have to do is break the rock to get the oil to flow, and then bring the product to the surface. Measurements have been made on the chemical and physical properties of two oil shales designated as reference oil shales by the department of energy. This site is like a library, use search box in the widget to get ebook that you want. Oil shales consist of solid organic matter entrained in an. Log interpretation parameters determined by analysis of. Source rock characterization of the green river oil shale, piceance. The kerogen must be heated to more than 750 degrees to convert it into oil because it was never buried deeply enough for nature to convert the kerogen to oil. Shale oil usually contains large quantities of olefinic and aromatic hydrocarbons.
In nearly all parts of the basin there are many thousands of net feet of typel and typell kerogenrich calcareous mudstones, many intervals of which have average total organic carbon toc. Book of astm standards, part 25, designation d 390480, p. Shale oil resource play potential of the green river. Geological survey digital data series dds69dd, 6 chapters, pages variable. Guoquan, shi, 1988, shale oil industry in maoming, in proceedings international conference on oil shale and shale oil. The green river formation an assemblage of over 1,000 feet of sedimentary rocks that lie beneath parts of colorado, utah, and wyoming contains the worlds largest deposits of oil shale.
Click download or read online button to get deep shale oil and gas book now. Geological survey oil shale assessment team, 2011, oil shale resources of the eocene green river formation, greater green river basin, wyoming, colorado, and utah. The green river formation in piceance creek basin is estimated to have the largest oil. Hydrocarbons are substances made entirely of hydrogen and carbon. The eocene green river formation of colorado, utah, and wyoming contains the largest oil shale deposits in the world. Kerogen is a part of rock that breaks down and releases hydrocarbons when heated. Part of the casebooks in earth sciences book series casebooks. Geology of the nahcolite deposits and associated oil by. The properties of raw shale oil vary depending on the composition of the parent oil shale and the extraction technology used.
Dane picard abstract in the six decades or so of oilshale studies on the green river formation paleoceneeocene in northeast utah, northwest colorado, and southwest wyoming, two alternative hypotheses for the. Stratigraphic cross sections of the eocene green river. Mineral particles and metals are often present as well. During oil shale pyrolysis at high temperature, the conversion of kerogen to oil and gas proceeds dominantly through a mechanism involving. The eocene green river formation underlies an area of about 15,000 sq miles in colorado, utah, and wyoming. Bradley wh 1931 origin and microfossils of the oil shale of the green river formation of colorado and utah. It was from these areas that data were collected and preserved. Oil the hydrocarbon fraction volatile at pyrolysis.
The analysis of the kerogen of green river oil shale by. Most of these have focused on the richest interval, the mahogany r7 zone and have been performed in either open atmospheric pressure or closed bomb apparatus. The green river oil shales are up to 2,000 feet thick and cover an area of 23,000 square miles 63. The oil shale of the green river formation in the piceance creek basin in colorado covers about 3,100 km2 1,200 mi2. An estimated three trillion barrels of oil lay buried underneath the green river formation shared by colorado, utah and wyoming. Apr 01, 2001 the stratigraphic basins in the western united states, that contain the green river formation figure 1, right, are world famous for their wellpreserved fossil fish figure 2, below, trona mineral deposits 1 and oil shale. Optical analysis of pyrolysis products of green river oil. The stratigraphic distributions for nahcolite, dawsonite, halite, analcime, illite, and exotic minerals including northupite, searlesite, shortite, and wegscheiderite are shown. The other two are the piceance basin in western colorado and the uinta basin in eastern utah and western colorado fig. Oil shale deposited in small lakes, bogs, and lagoons is found associated with coal seams.
Apr, 20 the green river formation is the largest oil reserve on the planet. Production of oil shale from the green river formation in utah. The green river formation in the uinta basin has may characteristics typical of an ideal shale oil resource play. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock into synthetic oil and gas.
Green river oil shale formation green river shale map. The green river oil shales were deposited from large lakes during the eocene period. The green river formation contains the largest oil shale deposit in the world. Numerous deposits of oil shale, ranging from precambrian to tertiary age, are present in the united states. Oil shale research in the united states 5 september 2011 third edition foreword significant research efforts continue in the united states to address some of the technical, economic, and policy uncertainties that constrain the development of americas enormous oil shale resource. Ultimate composition of organic material in green river oil shale. Oilshale samples selected from a core of the green river basin wyoming were studied to ascertain differences in the composition andor chemical structure of the organic material in the samples relative to stratigraphic position within the green river formation. The green river formation, an oilshale formation in colorado, utah, and wyoming, is a potentially valuable source of synthetic crude oil.
The chemical composition of hydrocarbon fractions of artificially matured pyrolyzed green river oil shale were studied by optical visiblenearinfrared, visnir spectroscopy. Fracking is a process that oil companies use to drill down into the layers of shale and open up the rock formations so that oil can be extracted. Green river basin is one of three basins in the western united states that contains oil shale of the green river formation. Past assessments, the first conducted in 1964 and subsequent studies continuing through the early 1980s, concentrated on the eocene. Fish preservation, fish coprolites and the green river. Part of theanalytical chemistry commons,geographic information sciences commons, geology commons, and theoil, gas, and energy. Material balance fischer assays, carbon aromaticities, thermal properties, and bulk mineralogic properties have been determined for the oil shales. Green river formation geological feature, united states. Thicknesses were centered around the extremely rich mahogany bed of the mahogany zone r7 within the parachute creek member of the green river formation. At left, a complete fossil of knightia, a small fish common in green river sedimaents. Oil shale research in the united states 2011 draft2. The paleogene green river formation in the tristate region of wyoming, utah, and colorado contains the worlds largest known reserve of oil shale. Green river shale the green river formation contains the largest oil shale deposit in the world with an estimated 3 trillion barrels of oil reserves, of which half is recoverable.
Before sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal government site. Oil shales, kukersite, and torbanite represent types of carbonaceous material. Introduction to the green river formation springerlink. Shale oil is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale rock fragments by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. Chapter 4 origin and characteristics of green river oil shale.
At right, the gar lepisosteus, a large predatory fish also common in the formation. The chemical composition of bitumen in pyrolyzed green river oil. The shale samples were pyrolyzed to several maturities, allowing the compositions of the hydrocarbon fractions to be analyzed as a function of maturity. Stanfieldoil yield and properties of green river oil shale in the uinta basin, utah. Deposits of this type occur in a sequence found in western europe dating from the permian period and in deposits of northeastern china laid down in the early cenozoic era.
It was discovered along with food still inside its body and waste not yet disposed, so some of the flora, algae, pollen and arthropods of the time can be studied. Assessment of inplace oil shale resources of the green. W ultimate composition of organic material in green river oil shale. The green river basin oil shale field is located in wyoming, utah, and colorado which extends on the western side of the rocky mountains. An introduction to oil shale and oil shale deposits by john dyni. Complete and articulated fossils such as these suggest that the lakes present at that time were fairly deep, to allow the anoxic conditions required. There have been many studies of oil shale pyrolysis, but almost all have focused on the mahogany r7 zone of the green river formation. Oil shale resources of the eocene green river formation. Ultimate composition of organic material in green river. This organism, a bat, icaronycteris index, was preserved with its skeleton, membranes and cartilage intact. Core u059 eocene green river fm was deposited in a lake environment.
At the same time, oilshale mining and processing raise a number of environmental concerns, such as land use, waste disposal, water use, wastewater management, greenhousegas emissions and air pollution. Oil shale assessment project fact sheet assessment of in. The decomposition of posidonia shale and green river shale. Due to the recent increase in crude oil prices and concerns over diminishing conventional reserves, the utah geological survey has reexamined the uinta basins oilshale resource, primarily in the mahogany zone of the green river formation. Numerous studies of green river oil shale pyrolysis have been published over the years. The two most important deposits are in the eocene green river formation in colorado, wyoming, and utah and in the devonianmississippian black shales in the eastern united states. Cook rocky flats research centre, the oil shale corporation, golden, colorado, usa received 14 july 1973 a rapid and practical test for oilshale richness is of considerable technical importance. The posidonia shale kerogen has a type ii elemental composition and generates mixed base low wax crude oil 2325 whereas the green river shale has a type i elemental composition and generates paraffinic high wax crude oil 24,26. The green river formation, an oil shale formation in colorado, utah, and wyoming, is a potentially valuable source of synthetic crude oil.
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