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Oil Tech builds prototype oil shale retort
For decades, the oil shale deposits of eastern Utah and western Colorado have presented a tantalizing prospect for oil production. But the cost of extraction has always been higher that that for oil obtained by drilling.
Now a new Vernal, Utah-based company, Oil Tech, believes it can produce oil for $10 to $20 a barrel, and it has built an 80-foot prototype retort near Bonanza.
The system was designed by Byron G. Merrell, a former Uintah County commissioner and now the project manager for Oil Tech. $2 million vs. $400 million In the past, companies spent up to $400 million on an oil shale retort, Merrell said.
“Our unit will cost in the $2 million range and it will do 1,000 barrels per day,” he said.
It is hollow in the center, where electricity heats the shale. Vaporized hydrocarbons are released and that condense to a kerogen type oil, he said.
A cleaning process removes impurities like dust, and it’s ready to market. The prototype retort is within feet of a pipeline to a Salt Lake area refinery.
Merrell and Jack Savage, a former president of companies that manufactured sporting goods, teamed up in 2000 to form Oil Tech and raise money for the project. Savage, the president of the firm, said they came up with nearly $2.5 million and built the demonstration retort.
“We just run it periodically,” showing government officials and potential customers what it could do with a large enough supply of shale. Retort is a test model The retort is a test model. To increase capacity as a commercial venture, they would have to increase the diameter. It should be able to process 1,000 tons of rock per day. Someday it could reach 20,000 tons, he said.
An independent engineering company from Montana evaluated the site and compared it with Oil Tech’s data, “and essentially validated our representations,” Savage said.
“At this point we are ready to go into full operation,” but the company first would like help from the state in dealing with the federal government to ensure a long-term supply of shale.
If that happens, “we will be ready by the end of the year to go into commercial production of about 1,000 barrels per day,” Savage said.
—The Associated Press
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