IN SITU RECOVERY OF SHALE OIL

摘要

An in situ oil shale retort is formed in a subterranean oil shale deposit by excavating a columnar void having a vertically extending free face, and explosively expanding the shale adjacent to said free face by a single round of sequential series of explosions to expand the shale toward the free face in layers severed in a sequence progressing away from the free face and to fill with fragmented oil shale the columnar void and the space in the in situ retort originally occupied by the expanded shale prior to the expansion.