Evaluation and Analysis of Oil Shale in Quseir-Safaga and Abu-Tartur Western Desert, Egypt

Abstract

Seeking ways to diminish Egypt's dependency on foreign oil imports, we had to look for the obvious resources to exploit. Oil shale is one of Egypt's resources that are left abandoned and not used. This project is aiming at introducing both experimental analysis for oil shale in Egypt and the best production technique for it. This study is about experimentally analyzing different samples of potential oil shale fields in Egypt. Samples that are analyzed in this project are from two locations in Egypt: Quseir-Safaga and Abu-Tartur Western Desert, and they are compared to one of the best oil shale fields in the world, which is from Green River Formation Colorado. The experiments were done using AUC lab retort to experimentally determine the critical temperature that will lead to the maximum production using sudden and gradual change in temperatures, which turned out to be sudden change at 500˚C. Thereafter, the degree of API gravity was calculated for each run. Then the oil samples were determined for impurities and liquid chromatography results in the Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute. Part two of the study plan has been included to determine the ultimate ways of producing efficiently, ecologically and economically.