History of The Oil Shale Industry - First Half of The 20th Century

First Half of The 20th Century

The oil shale industry expanded immediately before World War I because of limited access to conventional petroleum resources and the mass production of automobiles and trucks, which accompanied an increase in gasoline consumption. The Office of Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves of the United States was established in 1912. The reserves were seen as a possible emergency source of fuel for the military, particularly the Navy. In 1915 an oil shale industry was established in Switzerland.

The year 1916 is considered the beginning of the Estonian oil shale industry. In 1917, Russian paleontologist Mikhail Zalessky named kukersite oil shale after the Kukruse settlement. Continuous mining activities started shortly after. Initially, oil shale was used primarily in the cement industry, for firing in locomotive furnaces, and as a household fuel, followed by shale oil and power production. The first experimental oil shale processing retorts were built in 1921. In 1924, the Tallinn Power Plant was the first power plant in the world to employ oil shale as its primary fuel.

Between the World Wars oil shale projects were begun in Spain, China, Russia and South Africa; they restarted in Brazil and, for a short time, in Canada. In China, the extraction of oil shale began in 1926 under the Japanese rule. The commercial-scale production of shale oil began in 1930 in Fushun, Manchuria, with the construction of the "Refinery No. 1" operating Fushun-type retorts. In Russia, Leningradslanets opened the Kirov oil shale mine in 1934 in Slantsy, Leningrad Oblast, and during World War II the oil shale mining started at Kashpirskoye field near Syzran in the Volga region. In 1939–1945, a shale oil pilot plant operated in Morocco.

During World War II a modified in situ extraction process was used in Germany by digging tunnels into oil shale deposits and then collapsing their walls into the void volume to ignitate. This process had extremely low oil recovery and it was hard to control. In Sweden, the Swedish Shale Oil Company was formed in 1940. It exploited one of the earliest in-situ processes–underground gasification by electrical energy (Ljungström method)–between 1940 and 1966 at Kvarntorp. In 1940–1952, three NTU retorts were operated at Marangaroo, New South Wales, Australia.