PERMFILE71003

• Permit No: M1999002
• IBM Index Class Name: Permit File
• Doc Date: 6/18/1999
• Doc Name: SOLUBLE SALT PROCESSES FOR IN SITU RECOVERY OF HYDROCARBONS FROM OIL SHALE
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

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asosiattW surface facll4ics. •
9. Operutioo of the flctd tot.
10. Design, intplcmcnution, and Inttrprcsasion of
aptcial tests and mcasurcmcnts to dcterrnine she auras
of the (~cld teat tm current and purr facto burs.
. 1 I DirecTlon and supervision of the over-x11 effort.
(kscription of Applicable Rt~ion
The location of the Green River oil shalt [Ontaining
significant amounts of water-soluble alts hu been do-
Lathed by Beard a al.ra Fig. I, which is a north-south
traxs~stcllnn thmugh she Pittance Creel Basin, stows
dtc disvibutirm of the wascr.soluble salts. Generally, the
warcr•solublc salts lie a[ the depocentn of tht basin
about the Garden Gulch and Douglas Creek members of
the Green River formation. The watcr~tolublc salts arc
trahcolite ^nd halite, which ^re naturally occurring
sodium bicarbonate (fraHCOa) and sodium chloride
(NaCI), rt3penivcly.
The pritttary target tat the soluble-salt process is con-
tideu: to br the approzitnatrly 300-ft air shalt interval
below the lowtr halite bed. A secondary urger u the
approzinutcly 230-ft oil ~ahate column between the Aalitc
beds At the primary larger, the avmgt oil rbntent of the
oil shalt is app:ozitnately 23 gallton (gallons of or! per
ton o(oiI shalt by Frscficr Assay). The tulite beds offers
Aral between any leached volume developed below them
and the nawrally occurring overlying Inw-pressure
leached lone (aquifer). Indications arc that shr halite
beds. bt lnr more duculc than the of bshalc matfis. may
be favorable to [hc conrrol of any hydaulic fractures that
might be made inaCvenently in the course of hl¢h-

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pressure (njcction o~Gons. The anal distribution of
the thickness r,f the nuhmlitc~brarinb intvral it indiultd
in Fig. 2. The avenge nahcolite content in skis interval is
ahowninFig.3 Thenreateztenlof(hcrcpioneonsidered
to be she most amcnaDle IO tlsc toWDle•salt ptotas toin-
rides approximately with nc~ 600-ft wntovr in Fig. 2. In
this region, thtrc arc approainulely I.5 x 10a bbl of
Fisehn Assay oil per acre, and approximately 6.5 x IOt
rons Of nahcolite per acre. The potenual "oil m place"
underlying the upper halite bed and in the Luger uu is
approzimatcly SO x 101 bbl.
Most of the rsahcalne is prcccnt ^s rtodula. dark id
color and oysullinr in newre, with an avtxagc dumetu
of a few inches. Nahcoltte is also present in atratigraphi-
ully eontlatable beds in the Luger area. In addition to
halite and nahcohtt, dawsanite (NaAI(OH)1COs1 u also
present In Ne urgn region in averayc cont:mvations of
,bout 5 parrot. Dawsonitc is no[ very soluble in wafer. It
duromposu when heated, jiving oR COs, and reacts in
an aqurous tnvironmcs+t wits. silica (SiOs) to give various
Insoluble alumina sihcmc, the most common of v.~hieh is
analclte ((tiaAlSiyOt).
Permeab[Itty Deselopment
The development of pcrmcability in lht process undo
discussion is based on the rcmaval of nshtoli[e by solu-
don mining. For an average nahcolitr eontcn: of 20
weight patent in a 23-gal'ion Oil shale. the volume
txcupieC by the nahcnlur i~ approzimatcly 0.20 of the
bulk volume Since the ^vera~: nahrolite•nodule diame-
ter is a few inches, very high pcrmcabilities un bt
developr~ if the Ir~chcd por volume is (or can be made
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