Oil Shale in China - Reserves

Reserves

From 2004 to 2006 China undertook the national oil shale evaluation. According to the evaluation, it has been estimated that a total Chinese oil shale resource amounts of 720 billion tonnes, located in 80 deposits of 47 oil shale basins. This is equal to 48 billion tonnes of shale oil. The proven oil shale reserves comprise about 36 billion tonnes.

Oil shale resources in China
Province In-place oil shale resources (billion tonnes) Oil yield (Fischer Assay)
Fushun, Liaoning 3.6 6.5%
Maoming, Guangdong 4.1 7%
Huadian, Jilin 0.3 10%
Longkou, Shandong 0.1 14%
Nong’an, Jilin 16 4.5%

The principle Chinese reserves with commercial importance lie in Fushun (Liaoning), Maoming (Guangdong), Huadian and Nong’an (Jilin), and Longkou (Shandong). The Longkou deposit has the highest oil content (about 14%).

The Fushun oil-shale and coal deposit of Eocene age is located in north-eastern China, south of Fushun, Liaoning. Coal and oil shale are in a small outlier of Mesozoic and Tertiary sedimentary and volcanic rocks underlain by Precambrian granitic gneiss. The thickness of the layer of oil shale varies from 48 metres (157 ft) to 190 metres (620 ft) with the average of 80 metres (260 ft). The lacustrine origin oil shale is presented in the Jijuntun Formation, overlying the Guchengzi Formation consisting coal and underlying of green mudstone of the Xilutian Formation.

The Tertiary age Maoming oil-shale deposit is 50 kilometres (31 mi) long, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) wide, and 20 metres (66 ft) to 25 metres (82 ft) thick. The ore is yellow brown and the bulk density is about 1.85. The oil shale contains 72.1% ash, 10.8% moisture, 1.2% sulfur, with a heating value of 1,745 kcal/kg (dry basis). It is not suitable for above-ground retorting, but it could be used for a power generation by a fluidized bed combustion.

Professor Alan R. Carroll of University of Wisconsin–Madison estimates that Upper Permian lacustrine oil shale deposits of the Junggar-Turpan-Hami basins in northwest China, absent from previous global oil shale assessments, are comparable to the Green River Formation.

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