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_.,,. ., ;~~• . '~. +~. , ~~ • II I I II1111111111 III • 999 'o~. Iva~~< U~~ectorrs ~xC..b;~ts-Pr~tS ~~~~.~~ SoIuble-Salt Processes for In-Situ Recovery of Hydrocarbons From Oil Shale M. Pno, SPE RIME, Sneu Destlopmem Co. P. ]. Closntann, SPE-ACME. Stich 4vcn.I.,ncni C.+ A. T. lraon, SPE•AIME, Snell Oil rA G. Drinkard, Sndl Dc.dop+rm C.. Introduction 77tc prcscnce of IuQe oil-shale deposits in the Green River fm-oration of Colorado. Utah. and Wyoming has been known for more than a century. It also hat been Inng known rhn the sold organic muter prucnt in that oil sha!cs. known ns kemgen, can be decomposed thermally to yield liquid and gutous furls. Large amounts of this potential resovrce can be mined using conventional tech- niques, and many types of surface rctoru besot been proposed to recover and co)lect the thermally generated oil and gaz. In~situ rctoning o(thc oil shale also has been eonsidacd for man}• years. Stnce this oil shale is ascn- tial;y impenncablc to fluids, the major problems u- stxiated with in-situ recovery processes are how to apply heat to decompose thr kerogen u well u how to collect and recover the fuel products Many methods, includ- ing the use of hydraulic fracturing,' mining,' and electricity? have been propoud to develop permubility and porosity m these oil shales. Once permobility is abuined and ntaintaincd, an} nuntbcr of thcrtnal rccav- ay protases can be used m rdort the knogen and rcmrcr the rcsultanl shalt oil anJ hydrocarbon Fasts. The approach presented in this paper for developing pa'mrability and porosity ie based on the leaching of wstcr.sotubte alts"(pritttuily nahco)ite) drat Ira vc born found to be intcspuscd in [he oil shale in ttrtain eections o(dte north-central portion of the Piceancc Ctrek Buin, Colo This paper discusses a frcld test in which hot watt and [team west used [o loch a nah:o to an In wfiirh steam wu u to rcton the oil shale to otodutt stole oil. n•ittu rotnbustion and hot-Qas pyrolysis methods for eanverting kcrogen to shalt oil are suggatrd u ^Itematives to p}col}•sis with atom and are disetsssed briefly A large variety of support work hu bttn necessary ro nunurc the con: opt embodied in dte roluble•salt pro• szsses dtsnused in this paper from an initial Ida through the development of a recovery process Ihel merited field telling. This paper only touches wpetfieially on the in-depth support work that culminated in Ihr field test and its interpretation, and could hardly do othtrwist without becoming too lengthy. Specific aeus of aup- pon whet. eonvlbulion5 were penitteot include the following. I. Identifiution of the tuturc Ysd distribution of dtc soluble salu and of dte oil•shalr richness. 2. Measurement of the subsurface properties under simulated process Conditions. 3 Esperimenlal delerminui0n of the kinetics of kerogen deeompositlon and oil production under simu- lated pr~cas conditions. 0. Solubility meuurcmcnu under simulated process cnndmons. S. Studies on the effetl of simulated process envL ronments m der spelling, cobbling, utd dssag~tgating proptrii~ of the subsutfatt oil shale 6. Engineatng aimed at imegnnng the individwl fmdings into a technically viable prsKCSS. ~. Evaluation of der economic pouttu! of ptoxss ottdidan. 8. Design of the injer~oa acrd produttion Itnts and This paper drscribes aclass of in-sltu shalrvif rccorrty pracrsses in K•hich pcrmrabiliq and porosity art do vrloped by' dirsolutiorr ojsnlub/e salts. Thrse procrssrs corns r ojrsvo steps rlta r ma}' bt conducrrd simulrancorrsly or seq++errtially: /caching of solrrblr setts and convrrsion ofkcrogcn. ItTra souaNA1 OF P'E-1ROiE1.1M TFCj1NOLOCY ;~ rY