Jordan Oil Shale

Oil Shale is a general term applied to a fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen which is a fossilised mixture of insoluble organic material that, when heated, breaks down into crude oil and natural gas. Chemically it consists of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulphur and forms from compacted organic material. This rock has not been geologically buried for a time sufficient to produce conventional hydrocarbons.

Oil shale began formation millions of years ago by the deposition of silt and organic debris on lakebeds and sea bottoms. Oil shale rich in organic content is dark in colour and close to black. Lean oil shale is almost caramel in colour.

The kerogen in oil shale can be converted to synthetic crude through the chemical process of pyrolysis. In other words, when it is heated to a sufficiently high temperature a vapour is driven off which can then be distilled (“retorted”) to yield a petroleum-like shale oil and combustible hydrocarbon gas.

Although there are a number of ways in which oil shale can be used to produce energy, JOSCo believes that one technology called In situ Conversion Process (“ICP”) offers significant advantages over others. Advantages include that it can potentially produce more oil from a relatively smaller surface area than previous oil shale technologies. It also produces a lighter crude oil that requires fewer steps to convert it into high quality products such as transport fuels.

Shell started researching and developing the ICP technology in 1981, and JOSCo holds a licence to use the technology in a potential future oil shale project in Jordan.

To learn more about ICP technology click here

To learn more about how oil shale can play a part in meeting Jordan’s energy challenge, click here

Oil shale in Jordan

The kerogen in Jordanian oil shale organic material that consists primarily of marine algae and marine micro-organisms deposited in vast quantities 65 million years ago, when most of Jordan was an extended, relatively shallow, tepid warm ocean plateau extending north from the paleo-shoreline (which was located roughly where Wadi Rum is now).

Normally, kerogen -rich shale is the primary source rock for conventional hydrocarbon oil and gas systems like those found in Saudi Arabia and the North Sea. So why did the oil shale in Jordan not convert into oil?
For such a conversion to happen, the kerogen-rich shale must be buried sufficiently deeply under the earth's crust, by means of plate tectonics and/or other geological phenomena, so that the ambient pressure and temperature could slowly mature the kerogen into crude oil and natural gas.

Concurrently the brecciation (thermal cracking) of the shale would create the permeability required for the matured hydrocarbons to percolate upwards into trapping, sealing formations or what we call oil- and gas-fields. This natural maturation of kerogen-rich shale into crude oil and gas generally takes place at depths from 3 to 10km below the earth's surface.

In Jordan, the oil shale is located at shallower depths of between zero and 1500m, and, over geological time, it is showing a tendency to uplift rather than sink deeper. A conventional oil well drilled into the oil shale at these depths would produce nothing because (a) the kerogen has not formed into oil and/or gas yet, and (b) the shale is porous but impermeable, meaning that oil and gas even if present cannot flow through it.

Jordanian oil shale shows the full colour spectrum from black indicating rich oil shale to caramel indicating lean oil shale. Analysed samples confirm a wide spread of kerogen content (richness). However, available data is very sparse, particularly where the oil shale is located deeper than 100m.

Although there are a number of ways in which oil shale can be used to produce energy (such as surface retorting), JOSCo believes that the technology called In situ Conversion Process (ICP) offers significant advantages compared to others. Advantages include that it can potentially produce more oil from a relatively smaller surface area than previous oil shale technologies.

It also produces a lighter crude oil that requires fewer steps to convert it into high quality products such as transport fuels. While surface retorting requires mining the oil shale, retorting above ground and then disposing of the spent shale ash, ICP pyrolyses the oil shale underground so that spent shale ash remains there and is not brought to the surface.