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Technical Revision
<br />Exxon,Mobil Corporation seeks approval of this Technical Revision to continue the research and
<br />development field activities at the Colony Shale Oil Project in Garfield County, Colorado, that
<br />the company began under Technical Revision No. TR-11 to Permit No. M-1980-047. The field
<br />research contemplated under this application for Technical Revision will not increase the acreage
<br />of the affected land and "[will] not have more than a minor effect" on the approved reclamation
<br />plans for Permit No. M-1980-047. See 2 CCR 407-1, Rule 1, § 1.1 (52) (definition of
<br />"Technical Revision"), compare Rule 1, § 1.1 (6) (definition of "Amendment").
<br />General Project Description
<br />ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company ("URC"), a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation,
<br />has an ongoing research program into oil shale conversion technology. This research has led to
<br />the development of the ElectrofracTM process to convert oil shale to oil and gas.', 2,3 The
<br />ElectrofracTM process is designed to heat oil shale in situ by building a hydraulic fracture (a
<br />conventional oil field technology) in the oil shale and filling the fracture with an electrically
<br />conductive material. Electricity is conducted from one end of the fracture to the other, making it
<br />a resistive heating element. Heat flows from the fracture into the oil shale formation, gradually
<br />converting the oil shale's solid organic matter into oil and gas. The oil and gas are produced by
<br />conventional methods. A conceptual schematic of the commercial scale process is shown in
<br />Figure 1.
<br />1 URC holds U.S. Patent Nos. 7,331,385 and 7,631,691 for the ElectrofracTM process.
<br />2 Symington, W. A., Olgaard, D. L., Otten, G. A., Phillips, T. C., Thomas, M. M.,
<br />Yeakel, J. D., 2006, ExxonMobil's Electrofrac Process for In Situ Oil Shale Conversion, 26t1i oil
<br />Shale Symposium, Colorado School of Mines.
<br />3 Symington, W. A., Burns, J. S., El-Rabaa, A. M., Otten, G. A., Pokutylowicz, N.,
<br />Spiecker, P. M., Williamson, R. W., Yeakel, J. D., 2009, Field Testing of ElectrofracTM Process
<br />Elements at ExxonMobil's Colony Mine, 29th Oil Shale Symposium, Colorado School of Mines.
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<br />#1445022 v1 den
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