Worker adjusts pipes at the oil shale retorting project in Rio Blanco county, Colorado. Oil shale is a fine-grained rock known to geologists as marlst

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Worker adjusts pipes at the oil shale retorting project in Rio Blanco county, Colorado. Oil shale is a fine-grained rock known to geologists as marlstone. It contains an organic substance, kerogen, which yields synthetic oil & gas when heated or \retorted\". The true in situ method of oil shale retorting involves heating the kerogen in the ground without mining any of the rock. In the Rio Blanco project, Equity Oil Company is injecting superheated steam into the shale deposits to heat the kerogen & collect the oil in recovery wells."

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Size: 5192px × 3409px
Photo credit: © US DEPT. OF ENERGY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: energy, fossil, fuel, fuels, industry, kerogen, marlstone, oil, production, retorting, shale