Colony Shale Oil Project - Technical Description

Technical Description

The pilot stage of the project consisted of underground room-and-pillar type oil shale mine and aboveground shale oil pilot plant with input capacity of 1,000 ton of oil shale per day which used TOSCO II retort a horizontal rotating kiln-type retort classified as a hot recycled solids technology. Mining was conducted in a 60 ft (18 m)-thick portion of the Mahogany Zone in the Parachute Creek Member of the Green River Formation at depths of 860 ft (260 m) and 600 ft (180 m) by a one-bench system. Pillar dimensions were 58 ft (18 m) by 58 ft (18 m) and rooms were 55 ft (17 m) wide.

The planned commercial scale plant was to contain six TOSCO II retorts with total input capacity of 66,000 ton of oil shale per day. The proposed plant was to produce about 46,000 bbl (7,300 m3) of shale oil per day. The project was also to consists of shale oil upgrading plant for hydrogen treating to remove nitrogen and sulfur compounds. This plant was scheduled to produce about 17 million barrels (2,700 t) of premium petroleum products, 52,000 long ton of sulfur, and 41,000 long tons of ammonia per year. At the moment of cancellation the estimated costs would exceed $5.5 billion in then-year dollars or about $10 billion in 2005 dollars.