American Shale Oil - Technology

Technology

American Shale Oil is developing a process called "Conduction, Convection, Reflux" (CCR) oil shale conversion. The process combines horizontal wells, which are heated by a downhole burner or other means, and other horizontal or vertical wells, which provide both heat transfer through refluxing of generated oil and a means to collect and produce the oil. At the start of the heating process, oil is injected to improve heat transfer. AMSO has proposed that permeability of the formation sufficient for convection will be achieved by thermomechanical fracturing. The original technology proposed by EGL was based on hydraulic fracturing.)

AMSO believes that by heating the rock more quickly than in the Shell in situ conversion process - 3 to 12 months as opposed to several years - the CCR process will consume less energy and require fewer wells. Researchers at Petrochina who reviewed AMSOs proposed technology in 2008 noted that the output of oil and gas could be faster, but felt that the technical complexity and costs of the proposed technology were shortcomings, and also noted that the fluid flow would be difficult to control and easy to "short-circuit."