According to TASS on June 16, the press service of the Skoltech National Oil and Chemical Industry Technology Research Institute (affiliated with the VEB.RF Group) reported that Russian researchers have for the first time developed and conducted practical tests on a technology that can directly convert solid organic matter (kerogen) in oil shale into oil within the deposit and effectively extract these hydrocarbons from the formation.
Yelena Mukhina, chief researcher at the Center for Hydrocarbon Extraction Science and Technology at Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, explained: "We have invented and tested a method that can directly convert kerogen into oil on site and release it from the formation. To do this, supercritical liquid hot water needs to be pumped into the rock under pressure. In our experiments, almost all the kerogen was converted into liquid oil and almost completely extracted from the rock."
Mukhina and her colleagues pointed out that Russia and many other countries around the world possess rich reserves of oil shale, which is an oil-bearing rock. Extracting oil from this type of rock is difficult, partly because of its low porosity and partly because most of the hydrocarbons in these shales exist in the form of kerogen. Kerogen is a solid organic substance that takes millions of years to gradually convert into liquid oil.
Russian scientists have developed a method that, by pumping water into the shale layer under ultra-high pressure (approximately 200–300 atmospheres, temperature at least 350 degrees Celsius), can significantly accelerate the process of converting kerogen into oil. Experiments conducted by researchers on laboratory oil shale layers showed that pumping this supercritical fluid into oil-bearing rock can convert kerogen into oil within hours.
Mukhina and her colleagues introduced that if two parallel wells are drilled on a horizontal plane—one well for injecting pressurized hot water and the other for producing oil—oil can be almost completely extracted from the formation. In this way, the same water can be reused for shale processing, and compared to traditional oil extraction methods, it can also improve the efficiency of extracting hydrocarbons from the rock.
The researchers stated that the method they proposed has been recognized by partner companies of the institute. The scientists hope that collaboration with one of the leading companies in the industry will enable them to conduct on-site tests of this technology in actual oil fields in the near future, thereby creating conditions for its practical application in the petroleum industry.
