Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits Scientific Investigations Report 2005–5294 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Cover. Left: New Paraho Co. experimental oil shale retort in the Piceance Creek Basin a few miles west of Rifle, Colorado. Top right: Photo of large specimen of Green River oil shale interbedded with gray layers of volcanic tuff from the Mahogany zone in the Piceance Creek Basin, Colorado. This specimen is on display at the museum of the Geological Survey of Japan. Bottom right: Block diagram of the oil shale resources in the Mahogany zone in about 1,100 square miles in the eastern part of the Uinta Basin, Utah. The vertical scale is in thousands of barrels of in-place shale oil per acre and the horizontal scales are in UTM coordinates. Illustration published as figure 17 in U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 91-0285. Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits By John R. Dyni Scientific Investigations Report 2005–5294 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey U.S. Department of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary U.S. Geological Survey P. Patrick Leahy, Acting Director U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2006 Posted onlline June 2006 Version 1.0 This publication is only available online at: World Wide Web: http://www.usgs.gov/sir/2006/5294 For more information on the USGS—the Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment: World Wide Web: http://www.usgs.gov Telephone: 1-888-ASK-USGS Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Although this report is in the public domain, permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted materials contained within this report. Suggested citation: Dyni, J.R., 2006, Geology and resources of some world oil-shale deposits: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2005–5294, 42 p. iii Contents Abstract ...........................................................................................................................................................1 Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................1 Recoverable Resources................................................................................................................................2 Determining Grade of Oil Shale ...................................................................................................................2 Origin of Organic Matter ...............................................................................................................................3 Thermal Maturity of Organic Matter ..........................................................................................................3 Classification of Oil Shale .............................................................................................................................3 Evaluation of Oil-Shale Resources .............................................................................................................5 Australia ..........................................................................................................................................................5 Torbanite .................................................................................................................................................5 Tasmanite ...............................................................................................................................................5 Toolebuc Oil Shale ................................................................................................................................6 Eastern Queensland .............................................................................................................................6 Brazil ................................................................................................................................................................8 Paraíba Valley ........................................................................................................................................8 Iratí Formation .......................................................................................................................................8 Canada ...........................................................................................................................................................10 New Brunswick Oil Shale ..................................................................................................................10 China ..............................................................................................................................................................13 Fushun ..................................................................................................................................................13 Maoming...............................................................................................................................................15 Estonia ...........................................................................................................................................................15 Dictyonema Shale ...............................................................................................................................17 Israel ..............................................................................................................................................................17 Jordan ............................................................................................................................................................18 Syria ...............................................................................................................................................................21 Morocco ........................................................................................................................................................21 Russia.............................................................................................................................................................21 Sweden ..........................................................................................................................................................21 Thailand .........................................................................................................................................................25 Turkey .............................................................................................................................................................25 United States ................................................................................................................................................25 Green River Formation .......................................................................................................................25 Geology ........................................................................................................................................25 Historical Developments ..........................................................................................................27 Shale-Oil Resources ..................................................................................................................29 Other Mineral Resources .........................................................................................................29 Eastern Devonian–Mississippian Oil Shale ....................................................................................29 Depositional Environment ........................................................................................................29 Resources ...................................................................................................................................31 Summary of World Resources of Shale Oil .............................................................................................33 References Cited..........................................................................................................................................38 iv Figures 1. Classification of oil shales ...........................................................................................................4 2. Deposits of oil shale in Australia ................................................................................................7 3. Deposits of oil shale in Brazil ......................................................................................................8 4. Typical lithologic log and shale-oil yield of the Iratí oil shale, Brazil ...................................9 5. Oil-shale deposits in Canada ....................................................................................................11 6. Oil-shale deposits in the Maritime Provinces, Canada ........................................................13 7. Geologic cross section (A) and stratigraphic section (B) of the Fushun oil-shale deposit, Liaoning Province, China. ...........................................................................................14 8. Location and stratigraphic section of kukersite deposits, northern Estonia and Russia ....................................................................................................................................16