By IANS,
Rio de Janeiro : Brazil’s state-owned energy giant Petrobras would conduct a feasibility study to extract oil from oil shale in the US using technology developed by a Brazilian firm, EFE reported Tuesday.
The oil major announced Monday it had struck a deal with Oil Shale Exploration Company, which will give the technology, and Japan’s Mitsui group to conduct the study on extracting oil from oil shale in Utah.
“Petrobras will conduct a technical, economic and environmental feasibility study testing the Petrosix process,” said the Brazilian firm in a communique.
Mitsui will offer consulting services for the administration and execution of the project.
The project includes the exploitation of oil shale on a property leased from the US Bureau of Land Management and in a 22,000-acre plot acquired by ocean systems engineering firm OSEC.
According to the firm, the experience Petrobras and OSEC have with oil shale “may be a great combination to demonstrate and to develop the largest untapped energy resource” in the United States.
Petrobras says the US has “sufficient reserves (of oil shale) to satisfy the present energy needs for the next 100 years.”
Oil shale extraction refers to the process in which a mixture of organic chemical compounds found in fine grain sedimentary rocks, is converted into synthetic crude oil through chemical process.