Oil Shale Technology and Efficient Utilization of Oil Shale Resources in Egypt

Abstract In The Name of God the Merciful The availability of energy resources is of paramount importance to society. The greatest challenge facing the energy sector today is how to meet the rising demand for energy and on the other hand, the depletion of crude oil resources. To solve this dilemma, greater efforts should be devoted to develop alternative energy resources such as oil shale as a supplement of conventional oil supplies. However combinations of high oil prices, improved extraction technologies and increasing energy depend have reignited interest oil shale industry. Oil shale is a rock that contains kerogen, an organic substance that breaks down when heated to yield combustible liquids, gases, and solids. The liquid product – crude shale oil can be transformed into a replacement for conventional crude. Shale oil is expensive to produce, and it has never been able to compete with conventional crude for very long time. However, crude prices have risen in the past few years and are expected to stay high which could make oil shale development practical. The quality of oil shale is either expressed by its heating value or the amount of shale oil that can derived from it liter/ton. Oil shale is considered commercial for use if its quality from 100 – 200 liter/ton. Processes for producing shale oil generally fall into one of two groups: mining followed by surface retorting and in-situ retorting. In this paper we try to study the strategic significance of oil shale development in Egypt from many aspects (economic profit – employment benefits – socioeconomic). On the other hand there are critical issues with oil shale project, I try to suggest practical solutions that can help to reduce the severity of these critical issues and improve shale oil production cost.