The majority of this research was on shale oil geology, geochemistry, and retorting in surface facilities.

Most research on oil shale production has been carried out in the latter half of the 1900's. While research projects have been conducted in this area from time to time, no serious commercial development has been undertaken. In the United States, the existence of oil shale deposits in northwestern Colorado has been known since the early 1900's. 292.) Further, surface retorting requires mining of the oil shale, which limits application to very shallow formations. Chilingarian, вЂњOil Shale,вЂќ Amsterdam, Elsevier, p. However, the practice has been mostly discontinued in recent years because it proved to be uneconomical or because of environmental constraints on spent shale disposal. Commercial oil shale retorting through surface mining has been conducted in other countries as well such as Australia, Brazil, China, Estonia, France, Russia, South Africa, Spain, and Sweden. In 1862, James Young began processing Scottish oil shales. Near-surface oil shales have been mined and retorted at the surface for over a century. The thermal conversion process is referred to as pyrolysis or retorting.ДЄttempts have been made for many years to extract oil from oil shale formations. When kerogen is heated, chemical reactions break the larger molecules forming the solid kerogen into smaller molecules of oil and gas. At higher temperatures substantial conversion may occur within shorter times. (518В° F.) over the course of many months may be required for substantial conversion.

Temperatures generally in excess of 270В° C. The decomposition rate of kerogen to produce mobile hydrocarbons is temperature dependent. Some consider oil shale formations to be hydrocarbon deposits which have not yet experienced the years of heat and pressure thought to be required to create conventional oil and gas reserves. These formations are often characterized by limited permeability. In the United States, oil shale is most notably found in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. Oil shale formations tend to reside at relatively shallow depths. Oil shale formations are found in various areas world-wide, including the United States.

The oil, gas and water fluids are mobile within the rock matrix, while the carbonaceous coke remains essentially immobile. Small amounts of water may also be generated. Upon heating, kerogen molecularly decomposes to produce oil, gas, and carbonaceous coke. Kerogen is subject to decomposing upon exposure to heat over a period of time. This is true whether or not the mineral is, in fact, technically shale, that is, a rock formed from compacted clay.

When kerogen is imbedded in rock formations, the mixture is referred to as oil shale. More specifically, the present invention relates to in situ recovery of hydrocarbon fluids from organic-rich rock formations, including, for example, oil shale formations, coal formations and tar sands formations.Д¬ertain geological formations are known to contain an organic matter known as вЂњkerogen.вЂќ Kerogen is a solid, carbonaceous material. The present invention relates to the field of hydrocarbon recovery from subsurface formations. 2008/0289819 and incorporated herein by reference, which claims the benefit of U.S. 12/154,256 filed entitled вЂњUtilization of Low BTU Gas Generated During In Situ Heating of Organic-Rich Rock,вЂќ published as U.S. This application is related to co-pending, concurrently filed, and commonly assigned U.S. 2008/0290719 and incorporated herein by reference, which claims the benefit of U.S. 12/154,238 filed on now abandoned entitled, вЂњA Process For Producing Hydrocarbon Fluids Combining In Situ Heating, a Power Plant and a Gas Plant,вЂќ published as U.S.

Depriester chart simulation hexane