What do you know of shale oil reserves in the U.S.?

Question

I am interested in learning more about the shale oil reserves in the Green River Formation in Colorado and Utah. I have done some research already, but am hoping that you may provide sources I missed. Websites, books, and report sources would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

I doubt you can find much particulars on the Internet; the basics that are published go like this:

Green River formation is the largest deposit of potentially recoverable oil shale in the world. It is a 42 700 sq.km Eocene formation in north-western Colorado, north-eastern Utah and south-western Wyoming. The richest and most easily recoverable deposits are located in the Piceance Creek Basin in western Colorado and the Uinta Basin in eastern Utah. The shale oil can be extracted by surface and in-situ methods of retorting: depending upon the methods of mining and processing used, as much as one-third or more of this resource might be recoverable.

The proved amount of shale in place in the U.S. is put at 3 340 billion tonnes, with a shale oil content of 242 billion tonnes, of which about 89% is located in the Green River deposits. Recoverable reserves of shale oil are estimated to be within the range of 60-80 billion tonnes, with additional resources put at 62 billion tonnes.