U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Scientific Investigations Report 2005–5294

Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
Cover.

Left: New Paraho Co. experimental oil shale retort in the Piceance Creek Basin a few miles west of Rifle, Colorado.

Top right: Photo of large specimen of Green River oil shale interbedded with gray layers of volcanic tuff from the 

Mahogany zone in the Piceance Creek Basin, Colorado. This specimen is on display at the museum of the Geological 

Survey of Japan.

Bottom right: Block diagram of the oil shale resources in the Mahogany zone in about 1,100 square miles in the eastern 

part of the Uinta Basin, Utah. The vertical scale is in thousands of barrels of in-place shale oil per acre and the horizontal 

scales are in UTM coordinates. Illustration published as figure 17 in U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 91-0285.
Geology and Resources of Some World 

Oil-Shale Deposits

By John R. Dyni

Scientific Investigations Report 2005–5294

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey
U.S. Department of the Interior

Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary

U.S. Geological Survey

P. Patrick Leahy, Acting Director

U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2006

Posted onlline June 2006

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Suggested citation:

Dyni, J.R., 2006, Geology and resources of some world oil-shale deposits: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific 

Investigations Report 2005–5294, 42 p.
iii

Contents

Abstract...........................................................................................................................................................1

Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................1

Recoverable Resources................................................................................................................................2

Determining Grade of Oil Shale...................................................................................................................2

Origin of Organic Matter...............................................................................................................................3

Thermal Maturity of Organic Matter ..........................................................................................................3

Classification of Oil Shale.............................................................................................................................3

Evaluation of Oil-Shale Resources .............................................................................................................5

Australia ..........................................................................................................................................................5

Torbanite.................................................................................................................................................5

Tasmanite ...............................................................................................................................................5

Toolebuc Oil Shale ................................................................................................................................6

Eastern Queensland .............................................................................................................................6

Brazil ................................................................................................................................................................8

Paraíba Valley........................................................................................................................................8

Iratí Formation .......................................................................................................................................8

Canada...........................................................................................................................................................10

New Brunswick Oil Shale..................................................................................................................10

China ..............................................................................................................................................................13

Fushun ..................................................................................................................................................13

Maoming...............................................................................................................................................15

Estonia ...........................................................................................................................................................15

Dictyonema Shale...............................................................................................................................17

Israel ..............................................................................................................................................................17

Jordan............................................................................................................................................................18

Syria ...............................................................................................................................................................21

Morocco........................................................................................................................................................21

Russia.............................................................................................................................................................21

Sweden..........................................................................................................................................................21

Thailand.........................................................................................................................................................25

Turkey.............................................................................................................................................................25

United States ................................................................................................................................................25

Green River Formation .......................................................................................................................25

Geology........................................................................................................................................25

Historical Developments ..........................................................................................................27

Shale-Oil Resources..................................................................................................................29

Other Mineral Resources .........................................................................................................29

Eastern Devonian–Mississippian Oil Shale....................................................................................29

Depositional Environment ........................................................................................................29

Resources ...................................................................................................................................31

Summary of World Resources of Shale Oil .............................................................................................33

References Cited..........................................................................................................................................38
iv

Figures

1. Classification of oil shales...........................................................................................................4

2. Deposits of oil shale in Australia................................................................................................7

3. Deposits of oil shale in Brazil......................................................................................................8

4. Typical lithologic log and shale-oil yield of the Iratí oil shale, Brazil ...................................9

5. Oil-shale deposits in Canada ....................................................................................................11

6. Oil-shale deposits in the Maritime Provinces, Canada........................................................13

7. Geologic cross section (A) and stratigraphic section (B) of the Fushun oil-shale

 deposit, Liaoning Province, China............................................................................................14

8. Location and stratigraphic section of kukersite deposits, northern Estonia 

 and Russia....................................................................................................................................16

9. Isopach map of the Ordovician Dictyonema Shale in northern Estonia............................18

10. Deposits of oil shale in Israel....................................................................................................19

11. Oil-shale deposits in Jordan .....................................................................................................20

12. Oil-shale deposits in Morocco .................................................................................................22

13. Stratigraphic section of Timahdit oil-shale deposit, El Koubbat syncline, Morocco ......23

14. Map showing distribution of Alum Shale, Sweden...............................................................24

15. Lithology and plots of the abundances of organic carbon and uranium in a 

 drill core from the Alum Shale at Ranstad, Sweden.............................................................26

16. Areas underlain by the Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah, and 

 Wyoming, United States ............................................................................................................28

17. Generalized stratigraphic section of the Green River Formation and 

 associated rocks in the north-central part of the Piceance Creek Basin, 

 northwestern Colorado, United States ...................................................................................30

18. Paleogeographic map showing shoreline of the Late Devonian sea in 

 eastern United States and major areas of surface-mineable 

 Devonian oil shale ......................................................................................................................32

19. Production of oil shale in millions of metric tons from Estonia (Estonia deposit), 

 Russia (Leningrad and Kashpir deposits), United Kingdom (Scotland, Lothians), 

 Brazil (Iratí Formation), China (Maoming and Fushun deposits), and 

 Germany (Dotternhausen) from 1880 to 2000 .........................................................................38

Tables

1. Demonstrated resources of oil-shale deposits in Australia..................................................6

2. Average properties of Iratí oil shale mined at São Mateus do Sul ....................................10

3. Oil-shale deposits in Canada ....................................................................................................12

4. Characteristics of 10 deposits of oil shale in Israel ..............................................................17

5. Resource data for eight deposits of oil shale in Jordan ......................................................20

6. Summary of the fossil energy potential of the Alum Shale in Sweden for 

 shale containing more than 10 percent organic matter.......................................................26

7. Oil-shale deposits of Turkey......................................................................................................27
v

8. Summary of energy and mineral resources of Green River Formation in Colorado, 

 Utah, and Wyoming, United States..........................................................................................31

9. Estimated resources of near-surface oil shale in eastern United States by 

 hydroretorting..............................................................................................................................33

10. In-situ shale-oil resources of some world oil-shale deposits.............................................34
Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale 

Deposits1

By John R. Dyni

Abstract

Oil-shale deposits are in many parts of the world. They 

range in age from Cambrian to Tertiary and were formed in 

a variety of marine, continental, and lacustrine depositional 

environments. The largest known deposit is in the Green River 

Formation in the western United States; it contains an estimated 213 billion tons of in-situ shale oil (about 1.5 trillion 

U.S. barrels). 

Total resources of a selected group of oil shale deposits in 

33 countries are estimated at 409 billion tons of in-situ shale 

oil, which is equivalent to 2.8 trillion U.S. barrels of shale 

oil. These amounts are very conservative because (1) several 

deposits mentioned herein have not been explored sufficiently 

to make accurate estimates, and (2) some deposits were not 

included in this survey.

Introduction

Oil shale is commonly defined as a fine-grained sedimentary rock containing organic matter that yields substantial 

amounts of oil and combustible gas upon destructive distillation. Most of the organic matter is insoluble in ordinary 

organic solvents; therefore, it must be decomposed by heating to release such materials. Underlying most definitions of 

oil shale is its potential for the economic recovery of energy, 

including shale oil and combustible gas, as well as a number 

of byproducts. A deposit of oil shale having economic potential is generally one that is at or near enough to the surface to 

be developed by open-pit or conventional underground mining 

or by in-situ methods.

Oil shales range widely in organic content and oil yield. 

Commercial grades of oil shale, as determined by their yield 

of shale oil, ranges from about 100 to 200 liters per metric 

ton (l/t) of rock. The U.S. Geological Survey has used a lower 

limit of about 40 l/t for classification of Federal oil-shale 

lands. Others have suggested a limit as low as 25 l/t.

Deposits of oil shale are in many parts of the world. 

These deposits, which range from Cambrian to Tertiary age, 

may occur as minor accumulations of little or no economic 

value or giant deposits that occupy thousands of square 

kilometers and reach thicknesses of 700 m or more. Oil shales 

were deposited in a variety of depositional environments, 

including fresh-water to highly saline lakes, epicontinental 

marine basins and subtidal shelves, and in limnic and coastal 

swamps, commonly in association with deposits of coal.

In terms of mineral and elemental content, oil shale differs from coal in several distinct ways. Oil shales typically 

contain much larger amounts of inert mineral matter (60–90 

percent) than coals, which have been defined as containing 

less than 40 percent mineral matter. The organic matter of oil 

shale, which is the source of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons, 

typically has a higher hydrogen and lower oxygen content than 

that of lignite and bituminous coal.

In general, the precursors of the organic matter in oil 

shale and coal also differ. Much of the organic matter in 

oil shale is of algal origin, but may also include remains of 

vascular land plants that more commonly compose much of 

the organic matter in coal. The origin of some of the organic 

matter in oil shale is obscure because of the lack of recognizable biologic structures that would help identify the precursor 

organisms. Such materials may be of bacterial origin or the 

product of bacterial degradation of algae or other organic 

matter.

The mineral component of some oil shales is composed 

of carbonates including calcite, dolomite, and siderite, with 

lesser amounts of aluminosilicates. For other oil shales, the 

reverse is true—silicates including quartz, feldspar, and clay 

minerals are dominant and carbonates are a minor component. Many oil-shale deposits contain small, but ubiquitous, 

amounts of sulfides including pyrite and marcasite, indicating that the sediments probably accumulated in dysaerobic 

to anoxic waters that prevented the destruction of the organic 

matter by burrowing organisms and oxidation.

Although shale oil in today’s (2004) world market is not 

competitive with petroleum, natural gas, or coal, it is used in 

several countries that possess easily exploitable deposits of 

oil shale but lack other fossil fuel resources. Some oil-shale 

deposits contain minerals and metals that add byproduct value 

such as alum [KAl(SO4)

2

•12H2O], nahcolite (NaHCO3), 

1

An earlier version of this report was published in Oil Shale, 2003, v. 20, no. 3, p. 193–252.
dawsonite [NaAl(OH)2

CO3], sulfur, ammonium sulfate, vanadium, zinc, copper, and uranium.

The gross heating value of oil shales on a dry-weight 

basis ranges from about 500 to 4,000 kilocalories per kilogram (kcal/kg) of rock. The high-grade kukersite oil shale of 

Estonia, which fuels several electric power plants, has a heating value of about 2,000 to 2,200 kcal/kg. By comparison, the 

heating value of lignitic coal ranges from 3,500 to 

4,600 kcal/kg on a dry, mineral-free basis (American Society 

for Testing Materials, 1966).

Tectonic events and volcanism have altered some deposits. Structural deformation may impair the mining of an oilshale deposit, whereas igneous intrusions may have thermally 

degraded the organic matter. Thermal alteration of this type 

may be restricted to a small part of the deposit, or it may be 

widespread making most of the deposit unfit for recovery of 

shale oil.

The purpose of this report is to (1) discuss the geology 

and summarize the resources of selected deposits of oil shale 

in varied geologic settings from different parts of the world 

and (2) present new information on selected deposits developed since 1990 (Russell, 1990). 

Recoverable Resources

The commercial development of an oil-shale deposit 

depends upon many factors. The geologic setting and the 

physical and chemical characteristics of the resource are of 

primary importance. Roads, railroads, power lines, water, and 

available labor are among the factors to be considered in determining the viability of an oil-shale operation. Oil-shale lands 

that could be mined may be preempted by present land usage 

such as population centers, parks, and wildlife refuges. Development of new in-situ mining and processing technologies 

may allow an oil-shale operation in previously restricted areas 

without causing damage to the surface or posing problems of 

air and water pollution.

The availability and price of petroleum ultimately effect 

the viability of a large-scale oil-shale industry. Today, few, if 

any deposits can be economically mined and processed for 

shale oil in competition with petroleum. Nevertheless, some 

countries with oil-shale resources, but lack petroleum reserves, 

find it expedient to operate an oil-shale industry. As supplies 

of petroleum diminish in future years and costs for petroleum 

increase, greater use of oil shale for the production of electric 

power, transportation fuels, petrochemicals, and other industrial products seems likely.

Determining Grade of Oil Shale

The grade of oil shale has been determined by many different methods with the results expressed in a variety of units. 

The heating value of the oil shale may be determined using 

a calorimeter. Values obtained by this method are reported in 

English or metric units, such as British thermal units (Btu) 

per pound of oil shale, calories per gram (cal/gm) of rock, 

kilocalories per kilogram (kcal/kg) of rock, megajoules per 

kilogram (MJ/kg) of rock, and other units. The heating value is 

useful for determining the quality of an oil shale that is burned 

directly in a power plant to produce electricity. Although the 

heating value of a given oil shale is a useful and fundamental 

property of the rock, it does not provide information on the 

amounts of shale oil or combustible gas that would be yielded 

by retorting (destructive distillation). 

The grade of oil shale can be determined by measuring the yield of oil of a shale sample in a laboratory retort. 

This is perhaps the most common type of analysis that is 

currently used to evaluate an oil-shale resource. The method 

commonly used in the United States is called the “modified 

Fischer assay,” first developed in Germany, then adapted by 

the U.S. Bureau of Mines for analyzing oil shale of the Green 

River Formation in the western United States (Stanfield and 

Frost, 1949). The technique was subsequently standardized 

as the American Society for Testing and Materials Method D3904-80 (1984). Some laboratories have further modified the 

Fischer assay method to better evaluate different types of oil 

shale and different methods of oil-shale processing.

The standardized Fischer assay method consists of heating a 100-gram sample crushed to –8 mesh (2.38-mm mesh) 

screen in a small aluminum retort to 500oC at a rate of 12oC 

per minute and held at that temperature for 40 minutes. The 

distilled vapors of oil, gas, and water are passed through a 

condenser cooled with ice water into a graduated centrifuge 

tube. The oil and water are then separated by centrifuging. The 

quantities reported are the weight percentages of shale oil (and 

its specific gravity), water, shale residue, and “gas plus loss” 

by difference. 

The Fischer assay method does not determine the total 

available energy in an oil shale. When oil shale is retorted, the 

organic matter decomposes into oil, gas, and a residuum of 

carbon char remaining in the retorted shale. The amounts of 

individual gases—chiefly hydrocarbons, hydrogen, and carbon 

dioxide—are not normally determined but are reported collectively as “gas plus loss,” which is the difference of 100 weight 

percent minus the sum of the weights of oil, water, and spent 

shale. Some oil shales may have a greater energy potential 

than that reported by the Fischer assay method depending on 

the components of the “gas plus loss.”

The Fischer assay method also does not necessarily 

indicate the maximum amount of oil that can be produced by 

a given oil shale. Other retorting methods, such as the Tosco 

II process, are known to yield in excess of 100 percent of the 

yield reported by Fischer assay. In fact, special methods of 

retorting, such as the Hytort process, can increase oil yields 

of some oil shales by as much as three to four times the yield 

obtained by the Fischer assay method (Schora and others, 

1983; Dyni and others, 1990). At best, the Fischer assay 

method only approximates the energy potential of an 

oil-shale deposit.

 Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
Newer techniques for evaluating oil-shale resources 

include the Rock-Eval and the “material-balance” Fischer 

assay methods. Both give more complete information about 

the grade of oil shale, but are not widely used. The modified 

Fischer assay, or close variations thereof, is still the major 

source of information for most deposits.

It would be useful to develop a simple and reliable assay 

method for determining the energy potential of an oil shale 

that would include the total heat energy and the amounts of 

oil, water, combustible gases including hydrogen, and char in 

sample residue.

Origin of Organic Matter

Organic matter in oil shale includes the remains of algae, 

spores, pollen, plant cuticle and corky fragments of herbaceous and woody plants, and other cellular remains of lacustrine, marine, and land plants. These materials are composed 

chiefly of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur. 

Some organic matter retains enough biological structures 

so that specific types can be identified as to genus and even 

species. In some oil shales, the organic matter is unstructured 

and is best described as amorphous (bituminite). The origin 

of this amorphous material is not well known, but it is likely a 

mixture of degraded algal or bacterial remains. Small amounts 

of plant resins and waxes also contribute to the organic matter. 

Fossil shell and bone fragments composed of phosphatic and 

carbonate minerals, although of organic origin, are excluded 

from the definition of organic matter used herein and are considered to be part of the mineral matrix of the oil shale.

Most of the organic matter in oil shales is derived from 

various types of marine and lacustrine algae. It may also 

include varied admixtures of biologically higher forms of 

plant debris that depend on the depositional environment and 

geographic position. Bacterial remains can be volumetrically 

important in many oil shales, but they are difficult to identify. 

Most of the organic matter in oil shale is insoluble in 

ordinary organic solvents, whereas some is bitumen that is soluble in certain organic solvents. Solid hydrocarbons, including 

gilsonite, wurtzilite, grahamite, ozokerite, and albertite, are 

present as veins or pods in some oil shales. These hydrocarbons have somewhat varied chemical and physical characteristics, and several have been mined commercially.

Thermal Maturity of Organic Matter

The thermal maturity of an oil shale refers to the degree 

to which the organic matter has been altered by geothermal 

heating. If the oil shale is heated to a high enough temperature, as may be the case if the oil shale were deeply buried, 

the organic matter may thermally decompose to form oil and 

gas. Under such circumstances, oil shales can be source rocks 

for petroleum and natural gas. The Green River oil shale, for 

example, is presumed to be the source of the oil in the Red 

Wash field in northeastern Utah. On the other hand, oil-shale 

deposits that have economic potential for their shale-oil and 

gas yields are geothermally immature and have not been subjected to excessive heating. Such deposits are generally close 

enough to the surface to be mined by open-pit, underground 

mining, or by in-situ methods. 

The degree of thermal maturity of an oil shale can be 

determined in the laboratory by several methods. One technique is to observe the changes in color of the organic matter 

in samples collected from varied depths in a borehole. Assuming that the organic matter is subjected to geothermal heating 

as a function of depth, the colors of certain types of organic 

matter change from lighter to darker colors. These color differences can be noted by a petrographer and measured using 

photometric techniques.

Geothermal maturity of organic matter in oil shale is also 

determined by the reflectance of vitrinite (a common constituent of coal derived from vascular land plants), if present in 

the rock. Vitrinite reflectance is commonly used by petroleum 

explorationists to determine the degree of geothermal alteration of petroleum source rocks in a sedimentary basin. A scale 

of vitrinite reflectances has been developed that indicates 

when the organic matter in a sedimentary rock has reached 

temperatures high enough to generate oil and gas. However, 

this method can pose a problem with respect to oil shale, 

because the reflectance of vitrinite may be depressed by the 

presence of lipid-rich organic matter.

Vitrinite may be difficult to recognize in oil shale because 

it resembles other organic material of algal origin and may not 

have the same reflectance response as vitrinite, thereby leading 

to erroneous conclusions. For this reason, it may be necessary to measure vitrinite reflectance from laterally equivalent 

vitrinite-bearing rocks that lack the algal material.

In areas where the rocks have been subjected to complex 

folding and faulting or have been intruded by igneous rocks, 

the geothermal maturity of the oil shale should be evaluated 

for proper determination of the economic potential of the 

deposit.

Classification of Oil Shale

Oil shale has received many different names over the 

years, such as cannel coal, boghead coal, alum shale, stellarite, 

albertite, kerosene shale, bituminite, gas coal, algal coal, wollongite, schistes bitumineux, torbanite, and kukersite. Some 

of these names are still used for certain types of oil shale. 

Recently, however, attempts have been made to systematically 

classify the many different types of oil shale on the basis of 

the depositional environment of the deposit, the petrographic 

character of the organic matter, and the precursor organisms 

from which the organic matter was derived.

Classification of Oil Shale 
A useful classification of oil shales was developed by 

A.C. Hutton (1987, 1988, 1991), who pioneered the use of 

blue/ultraviolet fluorescent microscopy in the study of oilshale deposits of Australia. Adapting petrographic terms from 

coal terminology, Hutton developed a classification of oil 

shale based primarily on the origin of the organic matter. His 

classification has proved to be useful for correlating different 

kinds of organic matter in oil shale with the chemistry of the 

hydrocarbons derived from oil shale.

Hutton (1991) visualized oil shale as one of three broad 

groups of organic-rich sedimentary rocks: (1) humic coal and 

carbonaceous shale, (2) bitumen-impregnated rock, and (3) oil 

shale. He then divided oil shale into three groups based upon 

their environments of deposition­—terrestrial, lacustrine, and 

marine (fig. 1).

been fully characterized with respect to its composition or 

origin, but it is commonly an important component of marine 

oil shales. Coaly materials including vitrinite and inertinite 

are rare to abundant components of oil shale; both are derived 

from humic matter of land plants and have moderate and high 

reflectance, respectively, under the microscope. 

Within his three-fold grouping of oil shales (terrestrial, 

lacustrine, and marine), Hutton (1991) recognized six specific 

oil-shale types: cannel coal, lamosite, marinite, torbanite, tasmanite, and kukersite. The most abundant and largest deposits 

are marinites and lamosites.

Cannel coal is brown to black oil shale composed of 

resins, spores, waxes, and cutinaceous and corky materials 

derived from terrestrial vascular plants together with varied 

amounts of vitrinite and inertinite. Cannel coals originate 

in oxygen-deficient ponds or shallow lakes in peat-forming 

swamps and bogs (Stach and others, 1975, p. 236–237).

Lamosite is pale- and grayish-brown and dark gray to 

black oil shale in which the chief organic constituent is lamalginite derived from lacustrine planktonic algae. Other minor 

components in lamosite include vitrinite, inertinite, telalginite, 

and bitumen. The Green River oil-shale deposits in western 

United States and a number of the Tertiary lacustrine deposits 

in eastern Queensland, Australia, are lamosites.

Marinite is a gray to dark gray to black oil shale of 

marine origin in which the chief organic components are 

lamalginite and bituminite derived chiefly from marine 

phytoplankton. Marinite may also contain small amounts of 

bitumen, telalginite, and vitrinite. Marinites are deposited typically in epeiric seas such as on broad shallow marine shelves 

or inland seas where wave action is restricted and currents are 

minimal. The Devonian–Mississippian oil shales of eastern 

United States are typical marinites. Such deposits are generally widespread covering hundreds to thousands of square 

kilometers, but they are relatively thin, often less than about 

100 m.

Torbanite, tasmanite, and kukersite are related to specific 

kinds of algae from which the organic matter was derived; 

the names are based on local geographic features. Torbanite, 

named after Torbane Hill in Scotland, is a black oil shale 

whose organic matter is composed mainly of telalginite 

derived largely from lipid-rich Botryococcus and related algal 

forms found in fresh- to brackish-water lakes. It also contains 

small amounts of vitrinite and inertinite. The deposits are 

commonly small, but can be extremely high grade. Tasmanite, named from oil-shale deposits in Tasmania, is a brown 

to black oil shale. The organic matter consists of telalginite 

derived chiefly from unicellular tasmanitid algae of marine 

origin and lesser amounts of vitrinite, lamalginite, and inertinite. Kukersite, which takes its name from Kukruse Manor 

near the town of Kohtla-Järve, Estonia, is a light brown marine 

oil shale. Its principal organic component is telalginite derived 

from the green alga, Gloeocapsomorpha prisca. The Estonian 

oil-shale deposit in northern Estonia along the southern coast 

of the Gulf of Finland and its eastern extension into Russia, 

the Leningrad deposit, are kukersites. 

Figure 1. Classification of oil shales. Adapted from Hutton 

(1987).

Terrestrial oil shales include those composed of lipid-rich 

organic matter such as resin spores, waxy cuticles, and corky 

tissue of roots, and stems of vascular terrestrial plants commonly found in coal-forming swamps and bogs. Lacustrine 

oil shales include lipid-rich organic matter derived from algae 

that lived in freshwater, brackish, or saline lakes. Marine oil 

shales are composed of lipid-rich organic matter derived from 

marine algae, acritarchs (unicellular organisms of questionable 

origin), and marine dinoflagellates. 

Several quantitatively important petrographic components 

of the organic matter in oil shale—telalginite, lamalginite, and 

bituminite—are adapted from coal petrography. Telalginite 

is organic matter derived from large colonial or thick-walled 

unicellular algae, typified by genera such as Botryococcus. 

Lamalginite includes thin-walled colonial or unicellular algae 

that occurs as laminae with little or no recognizable biologic 

structures. Telalginite and lamalginite fluoresce brightly in 

shades of yellow under blue/ultraviolet light.

Bituminite, on the other hand, is largely amorphous, 

lacks recognizable biologic structures, and weakly fluoresces 

under blue light. It commonly occurs as an organic groundmass with fine-grained mineral matter. The material has not 

Organic-rich

sedimentary

rocks

Bitumenimpregnated

rocks Terrestrial

oil shale

Lacustrine

oil shale

Cannel coal

Marine

oil shale

Humic

coals

Oil

shales

Lamosite

Torbanite

Kukersite

Tasmanite

Marinite

 Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
Evaluation of Oil-Shale Resources

Relatively little is known about many of the world’s 

deposits of oil shale and much exploratory drilling and analytical work need to be done. Early attempts to determine the total 

size of world oil-shale resources were based on few facts, and 

estimating the grade and quantity of many of these resources 

were speculative, at best. The situation today has not greatly 

improved, although much information has been published 

in the past decade or so, notably for deposits in Australia, 

Canada, Estonia, Israel, and the United States.

Evaluation of world oil-shale resources is especially 

difficult because of the wide variety of analytical units that 

are reported. The grade of a deposit is variously expressed in 

U.S. or Imperial gallons of shale oil per short ton (gpt) of rock, 

liters of shale oil per metric ton (l/t) of rock, barrels, short or 

metric tons of shale oil, kilocalories per kilogram (kcal/kg) of 

oil shale, or gigajoules (GJ) per unit weight of oil shale. To 

bring some uniformity into this assessment, oil-shale resources 

in this report are given in both metric tons of shale oil and in 

equivalent U.S. barrels of shale oil, and the grade of oil shale, 

where known, is expressed in liters of shale oil per metric ton 

(l/t) of rock. If the size of the resource is expressed only in 

volumetric units (barrels, liters, cubic meters, and so on), the 

density of the shale oil must be known or estimated to convert 

these values to metric tons. Most oil shales produce shale oil 

that ranges in density from about 0.85 to 0.97 by the modified 

Fischer assay method. In cases where the density of the shale 

oil is unknown, a value of 0.910 is assumed for estimating 

resources.

Byproducts may add considerable value to some oilshale deposits. Uranium, vanadium, zinc, alumina, phosphate, 

sodium carbonate minerals, ammonium sulfate, and sulfur 

are some of the potential byproducts. The spent shale after 

retorting is used to manufacture cement, notably in Germany 

and China. The heat energy obtained by the combustion of 

the organic matter in oil shale can be used in the cement-making process. Other products that can be made from oil shale 

include specialty carbon fibers, adsorbent carbons, carbon 

black, bricks, construction and decorative blocks, soil additives, fertilizers, rock wool insulating material, and glass. 

Most of these uses are still small or in experimental stages, 

but the economic potential is large.

This appraisal of world oil-shale resources is far from 

complete. Many deposits are not reviewed because data or 

publications are unavailable. Resource data for deeply buried 

deposits, such as a large part of the Devonian oil-shale deposits in eastern United States, are omitted, because they are not 

likely to be developed in the foreseeable future. Thus, the total 

resource numbers reported herein should be regarded as conservative estimates. This review focuses on the larger deposits 

of oil shale that are being mined or have the best potential for 

development because of their size and grade. 

Australia

The oil-shale deposits of Australia range from small and 

noneconomic to deposits large enough for commercial development. The “demonstrated” oil-shale resources of Australia 

total 58 billion tons, from which about 3.1 billion tons of oil 

(24 billion barrels) is recoverable (Crisp and others, 1987, 

p. 1) (table 1).

Australian oil-shale deposits range in age from Cambrian 

to Tertiary and are diverse in origin. The deposits are located 

in the eastern one-third of the country, including Queensland, 

New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, and Tasmania 

(fig. 2). The deposits having the best potential for economic 

development are those located in Queensland and include the 

lacustrine Rundle, Stuart, and Condor deposits of Tertiary age. 

The marine Toolebuc oil shale of Early Cretaceous age occupies a large area mostly in Queensland. The torbanite deposits 

at Joadja Creek and Glen Davis in New South Wales and the 

tasmanite deposits in Tasmania were mined for shale oil in the 

last half of the 1800s and into the early 1900s. The remaining 

resources of these high-grade deposits are not commercially 

important (Alfredson, 1985, p. 162). Some of the colorful 

history of the oil-shale operations at Joadja Creek is described 

by Knapman (1988). Glen Davis, which closed in 1952, was 

the last oil-shale operation in Australia until the Stuart Project 

began operations in the late 1990s. About 4 million tons of 

oil shale were mined in Australia between 1860 and 1952 

(Crisp and others, 1987, their fig. 2).

Torbanite

Much of the early production of oil shale in Australia 

was from the torbanite deposits of New South Wales. As many 

as 16 deposits were exploited between the 1860s and 1960s. 

During the early years of mining, torbanite was used for gas 

enrichment in Australia and overseas, but paraffin, kerosene, 

and wood preserving and lubricating oils were also produced. 

Later, in the 1900s, torbanite was used to produce gasoline. 

Although the torbanite assayed as high as 480 to 600 l/t, the 

average feed to the retort was probably about 220 to 250 l/t. 

Of 30 deposits in New South Wales, 16 were commercially 

exploited (Crisp and others, 1987, p. 6).

Two small deposits of torbanite have been investigated 

in Queensland. These include the small but high-grade Alpha 

deposit, which constitutes a potential in-situ resource of 

19 million U.S. barrels (Noon, 1984, p. 4) and a smaller 

deposit at Carnarvon Creek.

Tasmanite

Several companies attempted to develop the marine tasmanite deposits of Permian age in Tasmania during the early 

1900s. Between 1910 and 1932, a total of 1,100 m3 (about 

7,600 barrels) of shale oil was produced from several 

Australia 
Table 1. Demonstrated resources of oil-shale deposits in Australia (from Crisp and others, 1987, their table 1).

[ton, metric ton; l/t, liters per metric ton of rock; km, kilometer; m, meter; bbl, U.S. barrel]

Deposit Age In-situ oil

(106 tons)

Yield

(l/t)

Area

(km2)

Recoverable oil

(106 m3) (106 bbls)

Queensland

Alpha Tertiary 17 200+ 10 13 80

Condor do 17,000 65 60 1,100 6,700

Duaringa do 10,000 82 720 590 3,700

Julia Creek Cretaceous 4,000 70 250 270 1,700

Lowmead Tertiary 1,800 84 25 120 740

Nagoorin do 6,300 90 24 420 2,700

Nagoorin South do 1,300 78 18 74 470

Rundle do 5,000 105 25 420 2,700

Stuart do 5,200 94 32 400 2,500

Yaamba do 6,100 95 32 440 2,800

New South Wales

Baerami Permian 11 260 -- 3 17

Glen Davis do 6 420 -- 4 23

Tasmania

Mersey River do 55 120 -- 8 48

Totals 57,000 3,900 24,000

intermittent operations. Further developments are unlikely 

unless new resources are found (Crisp and others, 1987, 

p. 7–8).

Toolebuc Oil Shale

Oil shale in the marine Toolebuc Formation of Early 

Cretaceous age underlies about 484,000 km2 in parts of the 

Eromanga and Carpenteria Basins in Queensland and adjacent 

States (fig. 2). The oil-shale zone ranges from 6.5 to 7.5 m 

in thickness but yields on average only about 37 l/t, making 

it a low-grade resource. However, the Toolebuc Formation 

is estimated to contain 245 billion m3 (~1.7 trillion barrels) 

of in-situ shale oil. Excluding weathered oil shale from the 

surface to a depth of 50 m, about 20 percent (49 billion m3

or 340 billion barrels) of the shale-oil resource between the 

depths of 50 to 200 m could be produced by open-pit mining 

(Ozimic and Saxby, 1983, p. 1). The oil shale also contains 

potential resources of uranium and vanadium. One of the more 

favorable localities for oil-shale development is near Julia 

Creek, where the Toolebuc oil shale is near the surface and is 

amenable to open-pit mining. The resources of shale oil in the 

Toolebuc Formation suitable for open-pit mining total 1.5 billion U.S. barrels, but the oil shale is too low grade for development at present (Noon, 1984, p. 5).

The organic matter of the Toolebuc oil shale is composed 

largely of bituminite, liptodetrinite, and lamalginite (Hutton, 

1988, p. 210; Sherwood and Cook, 1983, p. 36). The atomic 

hydrogen to carbon (H/C) ratio of the organic matter is about 

1.1 ±0.2 with high aromaticity (>50 percent). Only 25 percent 

of the organic matter converts to oil by conventional retorting 

(Ozimic and Saxby, 1983). 

Eastern Queensland

As a result of the increase in the price of crude oil related 

to the oil crisis of 1973–74, exploration for oil shale in Australia was greatly accelerated. Several companies identified 

or confirmed sizable resources of oil shale at Rundle, Condor, 

Duaringa, Stuart, Byfield, Mt. Coolon, Nagoorin, and Yaamba 

in eastern Queensland during the late 1970s and early 1980s. 

However, by 1986, the prices of crude oil dropped dramatically, and interest in the exploitation of oil shale diminished 

(Crisp and others, 1987, p. 9).

Nine Tertiary oil-shale deposits in eastern Queensland 

have been investigated by exploratory core drilling­—Byfield, 

Condor, Duaringa, Lowmead, Nagoorin, Nagoorin South, 

Rundle, Stuart, and Yaamba (fig. 2). Most of these deposits are 

lamosites that were deposited in freshwater lakes located in 

grabens, commonly in association with coal-forming swamps. 

   Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
Figure 2. Deposits of oil shale in Australia. From Crisp and others (1987, their fig. 1). Area of Toolebuc oil shale from Cook and 

Sherwood (1989, their fig. 2).

N

Perth

Adelaide

Tasmania

Victoria

New South

Wales

South

Australia

Western

Australia

Northern

Territory

Queensland

Sidney

Melbourne

Brisbane

Darwin

EXPLANATION

Cannel coal

Torbanite

Lamosite

Marinite

Tasmanite

Probable area of oil

 shale within the

 Toolebuc Formation

0 300 600 900 KILOMETERS

Mersey River

Camooweal

Julia Creek

Mt. Coolon

Alpha

Yaamba Byfield

Rundle

Stuart

Lowmead

Nagoorin

Duaringa

Nagoorin 

South

Condor

Glen 

Davis

Joadja

Morwell

The 

Coorong

The mineral fraction is typically composed of quartz and clay 

minerals with lesser amounts of siderite, carbonate minerals, 

and pyrite. The sizes of the deposits range from 1 to 

17.4 billion tons of in-situ shale oil with cutoff grades of 

around 50 l/t. Three of the largest deposits are Condor 

(17.4 billion tons), Nagoorin (6.3 billion tons), and Rundle 

(5.0 billion tons) (Crisp and others, 1987).

The Stuart oil-shale deposit, estimated to contain 3 

billion barrels of in-situ shale oil, is under development by the 

Southern Pacific Petroleum (SPP) and Central Pacific Minerals 

(CPM) companies. As of February 2003, 1.16 million tons of 

oil shale were mined by open pit from which 702,000 barrels 

of shale oil were recovered by the Taciuk retorting process. 

Shale-oil production runs during 87 days of operation from 

September 20, 2003, to January 19, 2004, peaked at 3,700 

barrels per day and averaged 3,083 barrels per day (SSP/CPM 

Dec. 2003 Quarterly Report, January 21, 2004). The Stuart 

operation shut down in October 2004 for further evaluation.

Australia 
Brazil

At least nine deposits of oil shale ranging from Devonian to Tertiary age have been reported in different parts of 

Brazil (Padula, 1969). Of these, two deposits have received the 

most interest: (1) the lacustrine oil shale of Tertiary age in the 

Paraíba Valley in the State of São Paulo northeast of the city of 

São Paulo; and (2) the oil shale of the Permian Iratí Formation, 

a widespread unit in the southern part of the country (fig. 3).

Paraíba Valley

Two areas in Paraíba Valley totaling 86 km2 contain a 

reserve of 840 million barrels of in-situ shale oil as determined 

by drilling. The total resource is estimated at 2 billion barrels. The unit of interest, which is 45 m thick, includes several 

types of oil shale: (1) brown to dark brown fossiliferous 

laminated paper shale that contains 8.5 to 13 weight percent 

oil equivalent, (2) semipapery oil shale of the same color 

containing 3 to 9 weight percent oil equivalent, and (3) dark 

olive, sparsely fossiliferous, low-grade oil shale that fractures 

semi-conchoidally.

Iratí Formation

Oil shale of the Permian Iratí Formation has the greatest 

potential for economic development because of its accessibility, grade, and widespread distribution. The Iratí Formation 

crops out in the northeastern part of the State of São Paulo 

and extends southward for 1,700 km to the southern border of 

Figure 3. Deposits of oil shale in Brazil. From Padula (1969, his fig. 1).

1

1

1

7

2

2 3

4

5 8

9 6

9

0 300 600 KILOMETERS 

1. Marine oil shale of Devonian age

2. Cretaceous oil shale

3. Cretaceous oil shale

4. Cretaceous oil shale

5. Cretaceous oil shale

7. Oil shale of unknown age

8. Oil shale of unknown age

Oil-shale occurrences 

ALAGOAS

RORAIMA

AMAZONAS

PARA

MATO GRASSO

RONDONIA

ACRE

SERGIPE BAHIA

MINAS GERAIS

E. SANTO

GOIAS

SAO PAULO

GUANABARA PARANA

Sao Mateus do Sul

MARANHAO

CEARA

PIAUI

AMAPA

PARAIBA

R.G.

NORTE

PERNAMBUCO

S.

CATARINA

RIO GRANDE

DO SUL

Sao Gabriel

N

EXPLANATION

6. Lacustrine oil shale of Tertiary age

 of Paraiba Valley near Sao Paulo ~

~

~

~

9. Permian oil shale of the Iratí 

 Formation (outcrop shown 

 by solid line)

 ́

 Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
Rio Grande do Sul into northern Uruguay (fig. 3). The total 

area underlain by the Iratí Formation is unknown because the 

western part of the deposit is covered by lava flows.

In the State of Rio Grande do Sul, the oil shale is in two 

beds separated by 12 m of shale and limestone. The beds are 

thickest in the vicinity of São Gabriel, where the upper bed is 

9 m thick and thins to the south and east, and the lower bed is 

4.5 m thick and also thins to the south. In the State of Paraná, 

in the vicinity of São Mateus do Sul-Iratí, the upper and lower 

oil-shale beds are 6.5 and 3.2 m thick, respectively (fig. 4). In 

the State of São Paulo and part of Santa Catarina, there are as 

many as 80 beds of oil shale, each ranging from a few millimeters to several meters in thickness, which are distributed 

irregularly through a sequence of limestone and dolomite.

Figure 4. Typical lithologic log and shale-oil yield of the First and Second beds of the Iratí 

oil shale at São Mateus do Sul, Brazil. From L. Carta, Petrobras (1985, unpublished data).

FIRST BED

SECOND BED

2 4 6 8 10

Shale-oil yield, weight percent

2 4 6 8 10

Shale-oil yield, weight percent

12 14

20

Depth

in

meters

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

OIL SHALE

BARREN SHALE

LIMESTONE

Core drilling outlined an area of about 82 km2 that 

contains an oil-shale reserve of more than 600 million barrels (about 86 million tons) of shale-oil equivalent, or about 

7.3 million barrels/km2 near São Mateus do Sul in southern 

Paraná. In the San Gabriel and Dom Pedrito areas of Rio 

Grande do Sul, the lower bed yields about 7 weight percent 

shale oil and contains similar resources, but the upper bed 

yields only 2–3 percent oil and is not considered suitable for 

exploitation (Padula, 1969).

The Iratí oil shale is dark gray, brown, and black, 

very fine grained, and laminated. Clay minerals compose 

60–70 percent of the rock and organic matter makes up much 

of the remainder, with minor contributions of detrital quartz, 

feldspar, pyrite, and other minerals. Carbonate minerals are 

Brazil 
Canada

Canada’s oil-shale deposits range from Ordovician to 

Cretaceous age and include deposits of lacustrine and marine 

origin; as many as 19 deposits have been identified (Macauley, 1981; Davies and Nassichuk, 1988) (fig. 5 and table 3). 

During the 1980s, a number of the deposits were explored by 

core drilling (Macauley, 1981, 1984a, 1984b; Macauley and 

others, 1985; Smith and Naylor, 1990). Investigations included 

geologic studies, Rock-Eval and X-ray diffraction analyses, 

organic petrology, gas chromatography and mass spectrometry 

of the shale oil, and hydroretorting analyses.

The oil shales of the New Brunswick Albert Formation, 

lamosites of Mississippian age, have the greatest potential for 

development (fig. 5). The Albert oil shale averages 100 l/t of 

shale oil and has potential for recovery of oil and may also be 

used for co-combustion with coal for electric power 

generation. 

Marinites, including the Devonian Kettle Point Formation 

and the Ordovician Collingwood Shale of southern Ontario, 

yield relatively small amounts of shale oil (about 40 l/t), but 

the yield can be doubled by hydroretorting. The Cretaceous 

Boyne and Favel marinites form large resources of low-grade 

oil shale in the Prairie Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, 

and Alberta. Upper Cretaceous oil shales on the Anderson 

Plain and the Mackenzie Delta in the Northwest Territories 

have been little explored, but may be of future economic 

interest.

Outcrops of Lower Carboniferous lacustrine oil shale 

on Grinnell Peninsula, Devon Island, in the Canadian Arctic 

Archipelago, are as much as 100 m thick and samples yield 

up to 387 kilograms of shale oil per ton of rock by Rock-Eval 

(equivalent to about 406 l/t). For most Canadian deposits, the 

resources of in-situ shale oil remain poorly known. 

New Brunswick Oil Shale

The oil-shale deposits of the lacustrine Albert Formation 

of Mississippian age are located in the Moncton sub-basin 

of the Fundy Basin that lies roughly between St. Johns and 

Moncton in southern New Brunswick (no. 1 in fig. 6 and no. 9 

of table 3). The principal part of the deposit lies at the east end 

of the sub-basin at Albert Mines about 25 km south-southeast 

of Moncton, where one borehole penetrated more than 500 m 

of oil shale. However, complex folding and faulting obscure 

the true thickness of the oil-shale beds, which may be much 

thinner. 

The richest part of the sequence, the Albert Mines zone, 

measures about 120 m thick in one borehole, which may be 

double the true stratigraphic thickness because of structural 

complexity as noted above. The shale-oil yield ranges from 

less than 25 to more than 150 l/t; the average specific gravity 

is 0.871. Shale-oil reserves for the Albert Mines zone, which 

yields an estimated 94 l/t of shale oil by Fischer assay, is 

estimated at 67 million barrels. The shale-oil resource for the 

Table 2. Average properties of Iratí oil shale mined at 

Sao Mateus do Sul (Petrobras, 1985, unpub. data).

[Wt %, weight percent; kcal/kg, kilocalories per 

kilogram; l/t, liters per metric ton]

Analysis Wt %

Moisture content 5.3

Organic carbon (dry basis) 12.7

Organic hydrogen (dry basis) 1.5

Fischer assay (dry basis)

 Shale oil 7.6

 Water 1.7

 Gas 3.2

 Spent shale 87.5

Total sulfur (dry basis) 4.0

Gross heating value (dry basis, 

kcal/kg)

 1,480

Oil-shale feed stock (l/t) 70–125

 ̃

sparse. The Iratí oil shale is not notably enriched in metals, 

unlike marine oil shales such as the Devonian oil shales of 

eastern United States. Some properties of the Iratí oil shale are 

given in table 2.

The origin of the Iratí Formation is controversial. Some 

researchers have concluded that the organic matter is derived 

from a predominantly algal/microbial source in a freshwater to 

brackish lacustrine environment as indicated by the geochemistry of the shale oil (Afonso and others, 1994). On the other 

hand, Padula (1969), quoting earlier researchers, hypothesizes 

that the organic-rich sediments were deposited in a partially 

enclosed intracontinental marine (Paraná) basin of reduced 

salinity that was in communication with the open sea. The 

basin formed after the close of Late Carboniferous glaciation. 

Hutton (1988) classified the Iratí oil shale as a marine oil shale 

(marinite).

Development of the Brazilian oil-shale industry began 

with the establishment of the Brazilian national oil company, 

Petrobras, in 1954. A division of that company, Superintendéncia da Industrialização do Xisto (SIX), was charged with 

the development of the oil-shale deposits. Early work concentrated on the Paraíba oil shale, but later focused on the Iratí 

shale. A prototype oil-shale retort and UPI (Usina Prototipo 

do Iratí) plant constructed near São Mateus do Sul (fig. 3) 

began operations in 1972 with a design capacity of 1,600 tons 

of oil shale per day. In 1991 an industrial-size retort, 11 m 

in diameter, was put into operation with a design capacity of 

about 550 tons (~3,800 barrels) of shale oil per day. More than 

1.5 million tons (~10.4 million barrels) of shale oil and other 

products including liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), methane, 

and sulfur have been produced from startup of the UPI plant 

through 1998.

10 Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
entire oil-shale sequence is estimated at 270 million barrels 

(Macauley and others, 1984), or about 37 million tons of 

shale oil. 

The oil shale consists of interbedded dolomitic marlstone, laminated marlstone, and clayey marlstone. The mineral 

matrix is composed of dolomite, local calcite, and minor 

siderite with quartz, feldspar, some analcime, abundant illite, 

and minor amounts of smectite. The presence of dolomite and 

analcime, as well as the presence of overlying beds of halite, 

indicates that the oil shale was probably deposited in an alkaline saline lake. 

The first commercial development was of a single vein 

of albertite, a solid hydrocarbon cutting across the oil-shale 

deposits, that was mined from 1863 to 1874 to a depth of 

335 m. During that period, 140,000 tons of albertite were sold 

in the U.S. for $18/ton. A 41-ton sample sent to England in 

the early 1900s yielded 420 l/t and 450 m3 of methane gas/ton 

of albertite. In 1942 the Canadian Department of Mines and 

Resources initiated a core-drilling program to test the deposit. 

A total of 79 boreholes were drilled and a resource of 91 million tons of oil shale above a depth of 122 m was estimated. 

The grade of the oil shale averaged 44.2 l/t. An additional 

10 boreholes were drilled by Atlantic-Richfield Company in 

1967–68 to test the deeper oil shales, and still further exploration drilling was carried out by Canadian Occidental Petroleum, Ltd. in 1976 (Macauley, 1981).

Figure 5. Oil-shale deposits in Canada. Numbered deposits are keyed to table 3. Adapted from Macauley (1981). Areas in blue are 

lakes

Alberta

Victoria

Island

Winnipeg

Calgary

Edmonton

British

Columbia

Manitoba

Ontario

Northwest Territories

Yukon

Territory

Alaska

United States

Quebec

Newfoundland

Saskatchewan

8

2

6

9

10

13

Nova Scotia

11

12

1

3

Southhampton

Island

4

5

7

17

18

14

15

New Brunswick

Prince Edward Is.

Nunavut

N

Ellesmere

Island

19

Devon Is.

Regina

16

Hudson

Bay

Baffin Island

0 200 400 600 800 KILOMETERS

Canada 11
Table 3. Oil-shale deposits in Canada.

No. on

figure 5

Deposit Geologic

unit

Age Oil-shale

type

Thickness

(meters)

Grade

(liters/ton)

1 Manitoulin-Collingwood 

trend, Ontario

Collingwood

Shale

Ordovician Marinite 2–6 <40

2 Ottawa area, Ontario Billings Shale Ordovician Marinite – Unknown

3 Southhampton Island, 

Northwest Territories

Collingwood Shale 

equivalent (?)

Ordovician Marinite – Unknown

4 North shore of Lake Erie, 

Elgin and Norfold Counties, 

Ontario

Marcellus 

Formation

Devonian Marinite – Probably

low

5 Norman Wells area, Northwest 

Territories

Canol Formation Devonian Marinite ≤100 Unknown

6 Gaspé Peninsula, Quebec York River Formation Devonian Marinite – Unknown

7 Windsor-Sarnia area, southwest OntarioKettle Point Formation Devonian Marinite 10 41

8 Moose River Basin, Ontario Long Rapids Formation Devonian Marinite – Unknown

9 Moncton sub-basin, New 

Brunswick

Albert Formation Carboniferous Lamosite 15–360 35–95

10 Antigonish Basin, Nova Scotia Horton Group Carboniferous Lamosite 60–125 ≤59

11 Deer Lake, Humber Valley, 

Newfoundland

Deer Lake Group Carboniferous Lamosite <2 15–146

12 Conche area, Newfoundland Cape Rouge Formation Early 

Mississippian

Torbanite? – Unknown

13 Stellarton Basin, Pictou 

County, Nova Scotia

Pictou Group Pennsylvanian Torbanite and 

lamosite

<5–35

(in 60 beds)

25–140

14 Queen Charlotte Islands, British ColumbiaKunga Formation Jurassic Marinite ≤35 ≤35

15 Cariboo district, British 

Columbia

? Early Jurassic Marinite? – Minor oil

yields

16 Manitoba Escarpment, 

Manitoba and Saskatchewan

Boyne and Favel FormationsCretaceous Marinite 40 and 30,

respectively

20–60

17 Anderson Plain, Northwest 

Territories

Smoking Hills FormationLate 

Cretaceous

Marinite 30 >40

18 Mackenzie Delta, Northwest 

and Yukon Territories

Boundary Creek FormationLate 

Cretaceous

Marinite – Unknown

19 Grinnell Peninsula, Devon 

Island, Nunavut

Emma Fiord Formation Mississippian Lacustrine: 

lamosite?

>100 11–406

12  Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
Figure 6. Oil-shale deposits in the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Adapted from Kalkreuth and 

Macauley (1987, their fig. 1).

BASIN

64° W 60° W 56° W

64°W 60°W 56°W

46°N 46°N

48°N 48°N

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

NEW

BRUNSWICK

NOVA SCOTIA

PRINCE EDWARD

ISLAND

GULF OF

ST. LAWRENCE

CAPE BRETON

ISLAND

OIL SHALE AREAS

1. MONCTON SUB-BASIN (Albert Mines)

2. ANTIGONISH (Big Marsh)

3. CONCHE

4. DEER LAKE

5. PICTOU (Stellarton)

NEWFOUNDLAND

0 200 400 KILOMETERS

St John

FUNDY

St John's

2 5

1

Moncton

4

3

China

Two of China’s principal resources of oil shale are those 

at Fushun and Maoming. The first commercial production 

of shale oil began at Fushun in 1930 with the construction 

of “Refinery No. 1;” this was followed by “Refinery No. 2,” 

which began production in 1954, and a third facility that began 

producing shale oil at Maoming in 1963. The three plants 

eventually switched from shale oil to the refining of cheaper 

crude oil. A new plant for retorting oil shale was constructed 

at Fushun, with production beginning in 1992. Sixty Fushuntype retorts, each having a capacity of 100 tons of oil shale per 

day, produce 60,000 tons (about 415,000 bbls) of shale oil per 

year at Fushun (Chilin, 1995).

Fushun

The Fushun oil-shale and coal deposit of Eocene age is 

located in northeastern China just south of the town of Fushun 

in Liaoning Province. Coal and oil shale are in a small outlier 

of Mesozoic and Tertiary sedimentary and volcanic rocks 

underlain by Precambrian granitic gneiss (Johnson, 1990). In 

this area, subbituminous to bituminous coal, carbonaceous 

mudstone and shale, and lenses of sandstone compose the 

Guchengzi Formation of Eocene age. The formation ranges 

from 20 to 145 m and averages 55 m in thickness. In the West 

Open Pit coal mine near Fushun, 6 coal beds are present, as 

well as a cannel coal 1 to 15 m thick that is used for decorative 

carving. The coal contains red to yellow gem-quality amber.

Overlying the Guchengzi Formation is the Eocene Jijuntun Formation that consists of oil shale of lacustrine origin. 

The oil shale is in gradational contact both with the underlying 

coal of the Guchengzi Formation and with the overlying lacustrine green mudstone of the Xilutian Formation (fig. 7). The 

Jijuntun Formation, which ranges from 48 to 190 m in thickness, is well exposed in the main West Open Pit coal mine 

where it is 115 m thick. The lower 15 m consists of low-grade 

light-brown oil shale and the remaining upper 100 m consists 

of richer grade brown to dark brown, finely laminated oil shale 

in beds of thin to medium thickness.

The oil shale contains abundant megafossils of fern, pine, 

oak, cypress, ginkgo, and sumac. Small fossil mollusks and 

crustaceans (ostracodes) are also present. The gradational 

contact between the oil shale and underlying coal indicates 

a depositional environment of an interior paludal basin that 

gradually subsided and was replaced by a lake in which the oil 

shale was deposited (Johnson, 1990, p. 227).

China 13
Figure 7. Geologic cross section (A) and stratigraphic section (B) of the Fushun oil-shale 

deposit, Liaoning Province, China. From Johnson (1990, his figs. 4 and 6).

B. Generalized stratigraphic section (no scale).

Green mudstone

Oil shale

Coal

Xilutian

Guchengzi

Lizigou

Laohutai

Sandstone

Basalt

Brown shale

LITHOLOGY

Gengjiajie

Tertiary

GROUP/

FORMATION

Tuff

Longfengkan

Fushun Group

Eocene Paleocene

AGECretaceous

A. North-south stratigraphic cross section through the West Open Pit 

 coal mine (no vertical scale).

Xilutian Formation

Jijuntun Formation

Guchengzi Formation

Lizigou Formation

Laohutai Formation

Longfengkan Formation

0.5 km

Tla

Tla

Tx

Tj

Tli

Tla

Tlo

Tj

Tli

Tli

Tx

Tlo

Tg

Tg

14  Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
The oil yield of the shale ranges from about 4.7 to 

16 percent by weight of the rock, and the mined shale averages 

7 to 8 percent (~78–89 l/t) oil. In the vicinity of the mine, oilshale resources are estimated at 260 million tons, of which 

235 million tons (90 percent) are considered mineable. The 

total resource of oil shale at Fushun is estimated at 

3,600 million tons.

The West Open Pit mine is located in a tightly folded 

syncline (fig. 7) that trends east-west and is cut by several 

compressional and tensional faults. The pit is about 6.6 km 

long in an east-west direction, 2.0 km wide, and 300 m deep at 

the west end. In addition, two underground mines lie just east 

of the open-pit mine. The floor of the open-pit mine is on the 

south limb of the syncline and dips 22–45° to the north toward 

the fold axis. The overturned north flank of the syncline is 

bounded by an east-west thrust fault that places sandstone of 

the Cretaceous Longfengkan Formation in contact with the 

Jijuntun oil shale (fig. 7).

Coal mining at Fushun began about 1901. Production 

increased, first under the Russians and later under the 

Japanese, reaching a peak in 1945, then dropped sharply and 

remained low until 1953 when production increased again 

under the first 5-year plan of the People’s Republic of China.

For the first 10 to 15 years of mining coal at Fushun, 

oil shale was discarded with the overburden. Production of 

oil shale began in 1926 under the Japanese and peaked in the 

early 1970s with about 60 million tons of oil shale mined 

annually then dropped to about 8 million tons in 1978. This 

reduction was partly due to increased discovery and production of cheaper crude oil within China. Baker and Hook (1979) 

have published additional details on oil-shale processing at 

Fushun. 

Maoming

The Maoming oil-shale deposit, of Tertiary age, is 50 km 

long, 10 km wide, and 20 to 25 m thick. Total reserves of oil 

shale are 5 billion tons, of which 860 million tons are in the 

Jintang mine. The Fischer assay yield of the oil shale is 4 to 

12 percent and averages 6.5 percent. The ore is yellow brown 

and the bulk density is about 1.85. The oil shale contains 72.1 

percent ash, 10.8 percent moisture, 1.2 percent sulfur, with a 

heating value of 1,745 kcal/kg (dry basis). About 3.5 million

tons of oil shale are mined yearly (Guo-Quan, 1988). The 

8-mm fraction has a heating value of 1,158 kcal/kg and a 

moisture content of 16.3 percent. It cannot be retorted but is 

being tested for burning in a fluidized bed boiler. Cement is 

manufactured with a content of about 15 to 25 percent of the 

oil-shale ash. 

Estonia

The Ordovician kukersite deposits of Estonia have been 

known since the 1700s. However, active exploration only 

began as a result of fuel shortages brought on by World War 

I. Full-scale mining began in 1918. Oil-shale production in 

that year was 17,000 tons by open-pit mining, and by 1940, 

the annual production reached 1.7 million tons. However, it 

was not until after World War II, during the Soviet era, that 

production climbed dramatically, peaking in 1980 when 31.4 

million tons of oil shale were mined from eleven open-pit and 

underground mines.

The annual production of oil shale decreased after 1980 

to about 14 million tons in 1994–95 (Katti and Lokk, 1998; 

Reinsalu, 1998a) then began to increase again. In 1997, 

22 million tons of oil shale were produced from six roomand-pillar underground mines and three open-pit mines 

(Opik, 1998). Of this amount, 81 percent was used to fuel 

electric power plants, 16 percent was processed into petrochemicals, and the remainder was used to manufacture cement 

as well as other minor products. State subsidies for oil-shale 

companies in 1997 amounted to 132.4 million Estonian kroons 

(9.7 million U.S. dollars) (Reinsalu, 1998a).

The kukersite deposits occupy more than 50,000 km2 in 

northern Estonia (the Estonia deposit, fig. 8) and extend eastward into Russia toward St. Petersburg where it is known as 

the Leningrad deposit. In Estonia a somewhat younger deposit 

of kukersite, the Tapa deposit, overlies the Estonia deposit 

(fig. 8).

As many as 50 beds of kukersite and kerogen-rich 

limestone alternating with biomicritic limestone are in the 

Kõrgekallas and Viivikonna Formations of Middle Ordovician age. These beds form a 20- to 30-m-thick sequence in 

the middle of the Estonia field. Individual kukersite beds are 

commonly 10–40 cm thick and reach as much as 2.4 m. The 

organic content of the richest kukersite beds reaches 40–45 

weight percent (Bauert, 1994).

Rock-Eval analyses of the richest-grade kukersite in 

Estonia show oil yields as high as 300 to 470 mg/g of shale, 

which is equivalent to about 320 to 500 l/t. The calorific value 

in seven open-pit mines ranges from 2,440 to 3,020 kcal/kg 

(Reinsalu, 1998a, his table 5). Most of the organic matter is 

derived from the fossil green alga, Gloeocapsomorpha prisca, 

which has affinities to the modern cyanobacterium, Entophysalis major, an extant species that forms algal mats in intertidal to very shallow subtidal waters (Bauert, 1994).

Matrix minerals in Estonian kukersite and interbedded 

limestones includes dominantly low-Mg calcite (>50 percent), 

dolomite (<10–15 percent), and siliciclastic minerals including 

quartz, feldspars, illite, chlorite, and pyrite (<10–15 percent). 

The kukersite beds and associated limestones are evidently not 

enriched in heavy metals, unlike the Lower Ordovician Dictyonema Shale of northern Estonia and Sweden (Bauert, 1994; 

Andersson and others, 1985).

Bauert (1994, p. 418–420) suggested that the kukersite 

and limestone sequence was deposited in a series of east-west 

“stacked belts” in a shallow subtidal marine basin adjacent to 

a shallow coastal area on the north side of the Baltic Sea near 

Finland. The abundance of marine macrofossils and low pyrite 

content indicate an oxygenated-water setting with negligible 

Estonia 15
Figure 8. Location and stratigraphic section of the kukersite deposits in northern Estonia and Russia. 

Adapted from Kattai and Lokk (1998, their fig. 1) and Bauert (1994, his fig. 3).

Tapa deposit

Numbered or lettered kukersite 

bed or kerogen-rich limestone

Limestone with low or little

organic matter

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

Me

mber

Formation

Age MIDDLE ORDOVICIAN

PEETRI MAIDLA

VIIVIKONNA

TAPA DEPOSIT

TATRUSE

Lithology

x

c-d

b

g-h

A

B-C

D-F

G

H

K I V I Õ L I

KÕRGEKALLAS

ESTONIA DEPOSIT

N

Narva Kohtla-Jarve

Tallinn

Tapa

Gulf of Finland

Leningrad

deposit

RUS

SIA

Lake Peipsi

Rakvere

Sillamae

Estonia deposit Estonian power

plant

Baltic power 

plant

Baltic Sea

24oE 26oE 28oE

59oN 0 10 20 30 KILOMETERS

16 Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
bottom currents as evidenced by widespread lateral continuity 

of uniformly thin beds of kukersite.

Kattai and Lokk (1998, p. 109) estimated the proved and 

probable reserves of kukersite to be 5.94 billion tons. A good 

review of the criteria for estimating Estonia’s resources of 

kukersite oil shale was made by Reinsalu (1998b). In addition 

to thickness of overburden and thickness and grade of the oil 

shale, Reinsalu defined a given bed of kukersite as constituting a reserve, if the cost of mining and delivering the oil shale 

to the consumer was less than the cost of the delivery of the 

equivalent amount of coal having an energy value of 

7,000 kcal/kg. He defined a bed of kukersite as a resource as 

one having an energy rating exceeding 25 GJ/m2 of bed area. 

On this basis, the total resources of Estonian kukersite in beds 

A through F (fig. 8) are estimated to be 6.3 billion tons, which 

includes 2 billion tons of “active” reserves (defined as oil shale 

“worth mining”). The Tapa deposit is not included in these 

estimates.

The number of exploratory drill holes in the Estonia field 

exceeds 10,000. The Estonia kukersite has been relatively 

thoroughly explored, whereas the Tapa deposit is currently in 

the prospecting stage.

Dictyonema Shale

Another older oil-shale deposit, the marine Dictyonema 

Shale of Early Ordovician age, underlies most of northern 

Estonia. Until recently, little has been published about this unit 

because it was covertly mined for uranium during the Soviet 

era. The unit ranges from less than 0.5 to more than 5 m in 

thickness (fig. 9). A total of 22.5 tons of elemental uranium 

was produced from 271,575 tons of Dictyonema Shale from 

an underground mine near Sillamäe. The uranium (U3O8) 

was extracted from the ore in a processing plant at Sillamäe 

(Lippmaa and Maramäe, 1999, 2000, 2001).

The future of oil-shale mining in Estonia faces a number 

of problems including competition from natural gas, petroleum, and coal. The present open-pit mines in the kukersite 

deposits will eventually need to be converted to more expensive underground operations as the deeper oil shale is mined. 

Serious air and ground-water pollution have resulted from 

burning oil shale and leaching of trace metals and organic 

compounds from spoil piles left from many years of mining 

and processing the oil shales. Reclamation of mined-out areas 

and their associated piles of spent shale, and studies to ameliorate the environmental degradation of the mined lands by 

the oil-shale industry are underway. The geology, mining, and 

reclamation of the Estonia kukersite deposit were reviewed in 

detail by Kattai and others (2000).

Israel

Twenty marinite deposits of Late Cretaceous age have 

been identified in Israel (fig. 10; Minster, 1994), containing 

about 12 billion tons of oil-shale reserves with an average 

heating value of 1,150 kcal/kg of rock and an average oil yield 

of 6 weight percent. Thicknesses ranging from 35 to 80 m 

were reported by Fainberg in Kogerman (1996, p. 263) and 

5 to 200 m by PAMA, Ltd. (2000?) (table 4). The organic 

content of the oil shales is relatively low, ranging from 6 to 

17 weight percent, with an oil yield of only 60 to 71 l/t. The 

moisture content is high (~20 percent) as is the carbonate 

content (45 to 70 percent calcite) and the sulfur content (5 to 

7 weight percent) (Minster, 1994). Some of the deposits can be 

mined by open-pit methods. A commercially exploitable bed 

of phosphate rock, 8 to 15 m thick, underlies the oil shale in 

the Mishor Rotem open-pit mine.

Utilizing oil shale from the Rotem-Yamin deposit 

(deposits 10 and 11 in fig. 10), about 55 tons of oil shale per 

Table 4. Characteristics of 10 deposits of oil shale in Israel. Data from PAMA, Ltd. (2000?).

Deposit Overburden 

thickness

 (meters)

Oil-shale 

thickness 

(meters)

Percent organic 

matter in 

oil shale

Oil-shale 

resources 

(tons x 106)

Nabi Musa 0–30 25–40 14–18 200

Shefela-Hartuv 25–50 150–200 14–15.5 1,100

‘En Boqeq 30–100 40–60 15.0 200

Mishor Rotem 20–150 20–150 11–17 2,260

Mishor Yamin 20–170 20–120 10–18.5 5,200

Yeroham 70–130 10–50 16.0 200

Oron 0–80 10–60 15–21 700

Nahal Zin 5–50 5–30 12–16 1,500

Zenifim 30–50 10–60 8.0 1,000

Sde Boker 50–150 15–70 15–18 3,000

Israel 17
Figure 9. Isopach map of the Ordovician Dictyonema Shale in northern Estonia. From Loog and others 

(1996, their fig. 1). Thickness in meters.

Gulf of Finland

BALTIC SEA

RUSSIA

24°E 26°E 28°E

59°N

TALLINN

ESTONIA

ERODED EDGE OF THE

DICTYONEMA SHALE

3

5

2

4

1

0.5

5

Lake Peipsi

0 10 20 30 40 50 KILOMETERS

hour were burned in a fluidized bed boiler to power a steam 

turbo-generator in a 25-megawatt experimental electric power 

plant operated by PAMA Company. The plant began operation 

in 1989 (Fainberg and Hetsroni, 1996) but is now closed. The 

grade of the Rotem oil shale is not uniform; the heating values 

range from 650 to 1200 kcal/kg.

Jordan2

Jordan has few resources of oil and gas and no commercial deposits of coal. However, there are about 26 known 

deposits of oil shale, some of which are large and relatively 

high-grade (Jaber and others, 1997; Hamarneh, 1998, p. 2). 

The eight most important of these are the Juref ed Darawish, 

Sultani, Wadi Maghar, El Lajjun, Attarat Umm Ghudran, 

Khan ez Zabib, Siwaga, and Wadi Thamad deposits (fig. 11). 

These eight deposits are located in west central Jordan within 

20 to 75 km east of the Dead Sea. The El Lajjun, Sultani, and 

Juref ed Darawish have been the most extensively explored 

by boreholes and many samples have been analyzed. Table 5

summarizes some of the geologic and resource data for the 

eight deposits.

The Jordanian oil-shale deposits are marinites of Late 

Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) to early Tertiary age. A number 

of deposits are in grabens and some may prove to be parts of 

larger deposits, such as the Wadi Maghar deposit that is now

considered to be the southern extension of the Attarat Umm 

Ghudran deposit (fig 11). The deposits listed in table 5 are 

at shallow depths, in essentially horizontal beds. As much 

as 90 percent of the oil shale is amenable to open-pit mining 

(Hamarneh, 1998, p. 5). The overburden consists of unconsolidated gravel and silt containing some stringers of marlstone 

and limestone and, in some areas, basalt. Overall, the oil 

shales thicken northward toward the Yarmouk deposit near the 

northern border of Jordan where the latter apparently extends 

into Syria (fig. 11) and may prove to be an exceptionally large 

deposit—underlying several hundred square kilometers and 

reaching 400 m in thickness (Tsevi Minster, 1999, written 

commun.).

The oil shales in central Jordan are in the marine ChalkMarl unit, which is underlain by phosphatic limestone and 

chert of the Phosphorite unit. The oil shales are typically 

brown, gray, or black and weather to a distinctive light 

bluish-gray. The moisture content of the oil shale is low (2 to 

5.5 weight percent), whereas comparable deposits of oil shale 

in Israel have a much higher moisture content of 10 to 

24 percent (Tsevi Minster, 1999, written commun.). Calcite, 

quartz, kaolinite, and apatite make up the major mineral 

components of the El Lajjun oil shale (fig. 11), along with 

small amounts of dolomite, feldspar, pyrite, illite, goethite, and 

gypsum. The sulfur content of Jordanian oil shale ranges from 

0.3 to 4.3 percent. The sulfur content of shale oil from the Jurf 

ed Darawish and the Sultani deposits is high, 8 and 10 percent, 

respectively. Of interest is the relatively high metal content of 

2

Many of the names of the Jordanian oil-shale deposits are spelled in different ways by Jordanian and other authors, probably owing to the difficulty of 

translating from Arabic to English. The names in this report are selected from several sources and not necessarily the best ones to use.

18  Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
Figure 10. Deposits of oil shale in Israel. From Minster (1994, his fig. 1).

34°E 35°E 36°E

34°E 35°E 36°E

33°N

32°N

30°N

33°N

32°N

31°N 31°N

30°N

1. Shefar'am

2. Arbel

3. Yarmuk

4. Hadera

5. Nabi-Musa

6. Shefela-Hartuv

7. 'En Boqeq

8. Nevatim

9. Aro'er

10. Mishor Rotem

11. Mishor Yamin

12. Yeroham

13. Oron

14. Biq'at Zin

15. Shivta

16. Nahal Zin

17. Nahal Arava

18. Har Nishpe

19. Paran

20. Zenifim

21. Sde Boker

7 8

9

11 10

12

13

14

15 16

17

18

19

20

Beer Sheva

21

EGYPT

1 2

3

4

5

Jerusalem

Tel Aviv

Haifa

JORDAN

ISRAEL

Oil-shale occurrence

Oil-shale deposit

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

6

DEAD SEA

0 10 20 30 40 50 KILOMETERS

Jordan 19
Figure 11. Oil-shale deposits in Jordan. Adapted from Jaber and others (1997, 

their fig. 1) and Hamarneh (1998, his figure on p. 4).

10

36o

32o 32o

30o 30o

34o 34o

38o

36o 38o

N

0 50 100 150 KILOMETERS

SAUDI ARABIA

 OIL-SHALE DEPOSITS

1. Ma'an

2. Juref ed Darawish

3. El Hasa

4. Sultani

5. Wadi Maghar

6. El Lajjun

7. Attarat Umm Ghudran

8. Khan ez Zabib

9. Wadi Thamad

10. Yarmouk

11. Siwaga 

Amman

JORDAN

SYRIA IRAQ

LEBANON

Mediterranean Sea

ISRAEL

West

Bank

EGYPT

Dead Sea

1

2

3

4

6 7

8

9

5

11

Table 5. Resource data for eight deposits of oil shale in Jordan (from Jaber and others, 1997, their 

table 1; and Hamarneh, 1998). Some data are rounded.

[km2, square kilometers; wt %, weight percent]

Deposit Number of 

boreholes

Area

(km2)

Overburden 

(meters)

Thickness 

of oil shale 

(meters)

Shale oil 

(wt %)

Oil shale

 (109 tons)

Shale oil 

(106 tons)

El Lajjun 173 20 30 29 10.5 1.3 126

Sultani 60 24 70 32 7.5 1.0 74

Jurf ed

Darawish

50 1,500 70 31 ? 8.6 510

Attarat Umm

Ghudran

41 670 50 36 11 11 1,245

Wadi Maghar 21 19 40 40 6.8 31.6 2,150

Wadi Thamad 12 150 140–200 70–200 10.5 11.4 1,140

Khan ez Zabib – ? 70 40 6.9 ? –

Siwaga – – – – 7.0 – –

Total – 2,385 – – – 64.9+ 5,246+

20 Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
the oil shales from the Jurf el Darawish, Sultani, and El Lajjun 

deposits, notably Cu (68–115 ppm), Ni (102–167 ppm), Zn 

(190–649 ppm), Cr (226–431 ppm), and V (101–268 ppm) 

(Hamarneh, 1998, p. 8). Phosphate rock underlies the El Hasa 

deposit (deposit 3 in fig. 11).

Surface water for oil-shale operations is scarce in Jordan; 

therefore, ground water will need to be tapped for oil-shale 

operations. A shallow aquifer that underlies the El Lajjun 

deposit, and provides fresh water to Amman and other municipalities in central Jordan, is too small in capacity to also meet 

the demands of an oil-shale industry. A deeper aquifer in the 

Kurnub Formation, 1,000 m below the surface, may be capable 

of providing an adequate supply of water, but this and other 

potential ground-water sources need further study. 

Syria

Puura and others (1984) described oil shales from the 

Wadi Yarmouk Basin at the southern border of Syria that are 

presumably part of the Yarmouk deposit described above in 

northern Jordan. The strata are marine limestones (marinites) 

of Late Cretaceous to Paleogene age, consisting of carbonate 

and siliceous carbonate shelf deposits that are common in the 

Mediterranean area. Fossil remains constitute 10 to 15 percent 

of the rock. The mineral components of the oil shales are 78

to 96 percent carbonates (mostly calcite), with small amounts 

of quartz (1 to 9 percent), clay minerals (1 to 9 percent), and 

apatite (2 to 19 percent). The sulfur content is 0.7 to 

2.9 percent. Oil yields by Fischer assay are 7 to 12 percent.

Morocco

Oil-shale deposits have been identified at ten localities 

in Morocco (fig. 12), the most important of which are Upper 

Cretaceous marinites, not unlike those of Egypt, Israel, and 

Jordan. The two deposits that have been explored most extensively are the Timahdit and the Tarfaya deposits; about 69,000 

analyses have been made of samples from 157 boreholes 

totaling 34,632 m in length and from 800 m of mine workings.

The Timahdit deposit, located about 250 km southeast 

of Rabat, underlies an area about 70 km long and 4 to10 km 

wide within a northeast-trending syncline (fig. 12). The thickness of the oil shale ranges from 80 to 170 m (fig. 13). The 

moisture content ranges from 6 to 11 percent, and the sulfur 

content averages 2 percent. Total oil-shale reserves are estimated at 18 billion tons within an area of 196 km2

; oil yields 

range from 20 to 100 l/t and average 70 l/t.

The Tarfaya deposit is located in the southwesternmost part of Morocco, near the border with Western Sahara 

(fig. 12). The oil shale averages 22 m in thickness and its 

grade averages 62 l/t. The total oil-shale resource is estimated 

at 86 billion tons within a 2,000-km2 area. The moisture 

content of the Tarfaya oil shale averages 20 percent and the 

sulfur content averages about 2 percent.

Phosphate rock and uranium are also associated with 

the Cretaceous marinites. One drill core (location uncertain) 

revealed a maximum P2O5 content of about 17 percent and 

U308 concentrations of as much as about 150 ppm.

In the 1980s several energy companies from North 

America and Europe conducted exploratory drilling and 

experimental mining and processing of Moroccan oil shale, 

but no shale oil was produced (Bouchta, 1984; Office National 

de Recherches et D’exploitation Petrolieres, 1983?).

Russia

More than 80 deposits of oil shale have been identified 

in Russia. The kukersite deposit in the Leningrad district 

(fig. 8) is burned as fuel in the Slansky electric power plant 

near St. Petersburg. In addition to the Leningrad deposit, the 

best deposits for exploitation are those in the Volga-Pechersk 

oil-shale province, including the Perelyub-Blagodatovsk, Kotsebinsk, and the Rubezhinsk deposits. These deposits contain 

beds of oil shale ranging from 0.8 to 2.6 m in thickness but are 

high in sulfur (4–6 percent, dry basis). The oil shale was used 

to fuel two electric power plants; however, the operation was 

shut down owing to high SO2 emissions. As of about 1995, an 

oil-shale plant at Syzran was processing not more than 50,000 

tons of oil shale per year (Kashirskii, 1996). 

Russell (1990) listed the resources of 13 deposits in the 

former Soviet Union, including the Estonian and Leningrad 

kukersite deposits and the Estonian Dictyonema Shale, at 

greater than 107 billion tons of oil shale. 

Sweden

The Alum Shale is a unit of black organic-rich marinite 

about 20–60 m thick that was deposited in a shallow marineshelf environment on the tectonically stable Baltoscandian 

Platform in Cambrian to earliest Ordovician time in Sweden and adjacent areas. The Alum Shale is present in outliers, partly bounded by local faults, on Precambrian rocks 

in southern Sweden as well as in the tectonically disturbed 

Caledonides of western Sweden and Norway, where it reaches 

thicknesses of 200 m or more in repeated sequences owing to 

multiple thrust faults (fig. 14).

Black shales, equivalent in part to the Alum Shale, are 

present on the islands of Öland and Götland, underlie parts of 

the Baltic Sea, and crop out along the north shore of Estonia 

where they form the Dictyonema Shale of Early Ordovician 

(Tremadocian) age (Andersson and others, 1985, their figs. 3 

and 4). The Alum Shale represents slow deposition in shallow, 

near-anoxic waters that were little disturbed by wave- and 

bottom-current action.

Sweden  21
The Cambrian and Lower Ordovician Alum Shale of 

Sweden has been known for more than 350 years. It was a 

source of potassium aluminum sulfate that was used in the 

leather tanning industry, for fixing colors in textiles, and as a 

pharmaceutical astringent. Mining the shales for alum began 

in 1637 in Skåne. The Alum Shale was also recognized as 

a source of fossil energy and, toward the end of the 1800s, 

attempts were made to extract and refine hydrocarbons 

(Andersson and others, 1985, p. 8–9).

Before and during World War II, Alum Shale was retorted 

for its oil, but production ceased in 1966 owing to the availability of cheaper supplies of crude petroleum. During this 

period, about 50 million tons of shale was mined at Kinnekulle 

in Västergötland and at Närke (fig. 14).

The Alum Shale is remarkable for its high content of metals including uranium, vanadium, nickel, and molybdenum. 

Small amounts of vanadium were produced during World War 

II. A pilot plant built at Kvarntorp produced more than 62 tons 

of uranium between 1950 and 1961. Later, higher-grade ore 

was identified at Ranstad in Västergötland, where an open-pit 

mine and mill were established. About 50 tons of uranium 

per year were produced between 1965 and 1969. During 

the 1980s, production of uranium from high-grade deposits 

elsewhere in the world caused a drop in the world price of uranium to levels too low to profitably operate the Ranstad plant, 

and it closed in 1989 (Bergh, 1994).

Alum Shale was also burned with limestone to manufacture “breeze blocks,” a lightweight porous building block 

that was used widely in the Swedish construction industry. 

Production stopped when it was realized that the blocks were 

radioactive and emitted unacceptably large amounts of radon. 

Nevertheless, the Alum Shale remains an important potential 

Figure 12. Oil-shale deposits in Morocco. From Bouchta (1984, his fig. 1).

28o

32o

36o

28o

32o

36o

10o 6o 2o

10o 6o 2o

LOCATION OF OILSHALE DEPOSITS

2. Timahdit

3. Ait Oufella Basin

4. Haut Moulouya Basin

5. Bahira-Tadla Basin

6. Essaquira

7. Souss Basin

8. Oued Dades Basin

9. Tarfaya

10. Guir Basin

Tarfaya

Tangier

Atlantic Ocean

Mediterranean

Sea

Casablanca

0 100 200 300 KILOMETERS

RABAT

Marrakech

3

4

8

6

5

7

10

1

2

9

1. Tanger

22  Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
Figure 13. Generalized stratigraphic section of the Timahdit oil-shale deposit in the El 

Koubbat syncline, Morocco. Adapted from Office National de Recherches et D’exploitation 

Petrolieres (1983?); l/t, liters per metric ton of rock; kcal/kg, kilocalories per kilogram.

0

10

20

30

40

50

Vertical

scale

(meters)

ZONE LITHOLOGY

STRATIGRAPHIC SECTION OF THE TIMAHDIT DEPOSIT IN EL KOUBBAT SYNCLINE EOCENE

C

T

X

M

S

Sandstone

Limestone, lithographic

Marl, gray, calcareous,

 indurated

Argillaceous marl, black,

papery; several zones of

conglomerate toward

base; about 45 m thick

Argil. marl, dark gray, 

papery; conglomerate 

at base; 2 m thick

Gray marl, calcareous,

about 10 m thick

Gray marl, calcareous,

phosphate nodules,

indurated, averages

62 m in thickness

Alternating layers of marl

and very well indurated

limestone

Y

ASSAY (l/t)

20 to 70

20 to 110

100 to 160

70 to 120

40 to 110

20 to 70

Kcal/kg

~1,200

>2,000

1,200 to

2,000

~1,200

MAASTRICHTIAN

CRETACEOUS TERTIARY

ORE ZONE

AGE

Marl, calcareous

CAMPANIAN

Sweden  23
Figure 14. Map showing areas (in black) of Alum Shale in Sweden. Adapted from 

Andersson and others (1985, their fig. 3). Areas in blue are lakes.

8o 16o 24o

64o

68o

60o

56o

N

AREAS OF ALUM

SHALE IN SWEDEN

 2. NÄRKE

 3. ÖSTERGÖTLAND

 4. ÖLAND

 5. GOTLAND

 6. SKÅNE

 7. CALEDONIDES

 1. VÄSTERGÖTLAND

Stockholm

1

2

3

4

5

6

0 100 200 300 KILOMETERS 

7

24  Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
resource of fossil and nuclear energy, sulfur, fertilizer, metal 

alloy elements, and aluminum products for the future. The 

fossil energy resources of the Alum Shale in Sweden are 

summarized in table 6.

The organic content of Alum Shale ranges from a few 

percent to more than 20 percent, being highest in the upper 

part of the shale sequence (fig. 15). Oil yields, however, are 

not in proportion to the organic content from one area to 

another because of variations in the geothermal history of 

the areas underlain by the formation. For example, at Skåne 

(fig. 14) and Jämtland in west-central Sweden, the Alum 

Shale is overmature and oil yields are nil, although the organic 

content of the shale is 11–12 percent. In areas less affected by 

geothermal alteration, oil yields range from 2 to 6 percent by 

Fischer assay. Hydroretorting can increase the Fischer assay 

yields by as much as 300 to 400 percent (Andersson and others, 1985, their fig. 24). 

The uranium resources of the Alum Shale of Sweden, 

although low grade, are enormous. In the Ranstad area of 

Västergötland, for example, the uranium content of a 

3.6-m-thick zone in the upper part of the formation reaches 

306 ppm, and concentrations reach 2,000 to 5,000 ppm in 

small black coal-like lenses of hydrocarbon (kolm) that are 

scattered through the zone.

The Alum Shale in the Ranstad area underlies about 

490 km2, of which the upper member, 8 to 9 m thick, contains 

an estimated 1.7 million tons of uranium metal (Andersson 

and others, 1985, their table 4). Figure 15 shows a lithologic 

log of a core hole drilled at Ranstad with plots of Fischer 

assays and uranium analyses.

Thailand

Lacustrine oil-shale deposits of Tertiary age are near Mae 

Sot, Tak Province, and at Li, Lampoon Province. The Thai 

Department of Mineral Resources has explored the Mae Sot 

deposit with the drilling of many core holes. The oil shale is a 

lamosite similar in some respects to the Green River oil shale 

in Colorado. The Mae Sot deposit underlies about 53 km2 in 

the Mae Sot Basin in northwestern Thailand near the Myanmar (Burma) border. It contains an estimated 18.7 billion tons 

of oil shale, which is estimated to yield 6.4 billion barrels 

(916 million tons) of shale oil. The gross heating value ranges 

from 287 to 3,700 kcal/kg, the moisture content ranges from 

1 to 13 percent, and the sulfur content is about 1 percent. 

The deposit at Li is probably also a lamosite but the reserves 

are small—estimated at 15 million tons of oil shale yielding 

12–41 gallons of shale oil per ton of rock (50–171 l/t) 

(Vanichseni and others, 1988, p. 515–516).

Turkey

Lacustrine oil-shale deposits of Paleocene to Eocene age 

and of late Miocene age are widely distributed in middle and 

western Anatolia in western Turkey. The host rocks are marlstone and claystone in which the organic matter is finely dispersed. The presence of authigenic zeolites indicates probable 

deposition in hypersaline lacustrine waters in closed basins. 

Data on the shale-oil resources are sparse because only 

a few of the deposits have been investigated. Güleç and Önen 

(1993) reported a total of 5.2 billion tons of oil shale in seven 

deposits with their ranges in calorific values; however, the 

shale-oil resources of these deposits are not reported. The oilshale resources of Turkey may be large, but further studies are 

needed before reliable resource estimates can be made. On the 

basis of available data, total resources of in-situ shale oil for 

eight Turkish deposits are estimated at 284 million tons (about 

2.0 billion bbls) (table 7).

United States

Numerous deposits of oil shale, ranging from Precambrian to Tertiary age, are present in the United States. The 

two most important deposits are in the Eocene Green River 

Formation in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah and in the Devonian–Mississippian black shales in the eastern United States. 

Oil shale associated with coal deposits of Pennsylvanian age 

is also in the eastern United States. Other deposits are known 

to be in Nevada, Montana, Alaska, Kansas, and elsewhere, but 

these are either too small, too low grade, or have not yet been 

well enough explored (Russell, 1990, p. 82–157) to be considered as resources for the purposes of this report. Because of 

their size and grade, most investigations have focused on the 

Green River and the Devonian–Mississippian deposits.

Green River Formation

Geology

Lacustrine sediments of the Green River Formation were 

deposited in two large lakes that occupied 65,000 km2 in 

several sedimentary-structural basins in Colorado, Wyoming, 

and Utah during early through middle Eocene time (fig. 16). 

The Uinta Mountain uplift and its eastward extension, the 

Axial Basin anticline, separate these basins. The Green River 

lake system was in existence for more than 10 million years 

during a time of a warm temperate to subtropical climate. 

United States  25
Table 6. Summary of the fossil energy potential of the Alum Shale in Sweden for 

shale containing more than 10 percent organic matter (from Andersson and others, 

1985, their table 2).

[wt %, weight percent; MJ, megajoules]

Area

Shale

tons

(106)

Organic matter

wt % tons

 (106)

Shale oil

wt % tons

 (106)

Energy in

gas and coke

(1012 MJ)

Närke 1,700 20 340 5 85 8,800

Östergötland 12,000 14 1,600 3.5 400 41,900

Västergötland 14,000 ∼13 1,840 0–3.4 220 53,300

Öland 6,000 12 700 2.7 170 18,000

Skåne 15,000 11 1,600 0 0 58,600

Jämtland

(Caledonides)

26,000 12 3,200 0 0 117,200

Total 74,700 9,280 875 297,800

Figure 15. Lithology and plots of the abundances of organic carbon and uranium in a 

drill core from the Alum Shale at Ranstad, Sweden. From Andersson and others (1985, 

their fig. 9).

Meters

16

18

20

22

LOWER MEMBER MIDDLE MEMBER UPPER MEMBER

24

ORGANIC CARBON

(Weight percent)

URANIUM

(Parts per million)

Sandstone

Limestone

Oil shale

Calcite

concretions

Glauconitic

shale

10

12

14

2

4

6

8

0

0 4 8 12 16 20 0 200 400

26 Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
Table 7. Oil-shale deposits of Turkey. Data from Güleç and Önen (1993) and Sener and others (1995).

[wt %, weight percent; kcal/kg, kilocalories per kilogram of rock; MJ/kg, megajoules per kilogram. For those deposits 

lacking average oil yields, an estimated yield of 5 weight percent was assumed. For deposits where two tonnages were 

given in the references, the larger number was used]

Deposit and

province

Calorific 

value

Average

oil yield

(wt %)

Total 

sulfur

(wt %)

Oil-shale

resource

(106 tons)

Shale-oil

resource

(106 tons)

Bahçecik (Izmit) 418–1,875 kcal/kg – – 100 5

Beypazari (Ankara) 3.40 MJ/kg 5.4 1.4 1,058 57

Burhaniye (Balikesir) 0–1,768 kcal/kg – – 80 4

Gölpazari (Bilecik) 0–1,265 kcal/kg – – 356 18

Göynük (Bolu) 3.25 MJ/kg 4.6 0.9 2.500 115

Hatildag (Bolu) 3.24 MJ/kg 5.3 1.3 547 29

Seyitömer (Kütahya) 3.55 MJ/kg 5.0 0.9 1,000 50

Ulukisla (Nigde) 630–2,790 kcal/kg – – 130 6

Total 5,771 284

During parts of their history, the lake basins were closed, and 

the waters became highly saline.

Fluctuations in the amount of inflowing stream waters 

caused large expansions and contractions of the lakes as evidenced by widespread intertonguing of marly lacustrine strata 

with beds of land-derived sandstone and siltstone. During arid 

times, the lakes contracted, and the waters became increasingly saline and alkaline. The lake-water content of soluble 

sodium carbonates and chloride increased, whereas the less 

soluble divalent Ca+Mg+Fe carbonates were precipitated with 

organic-rich sediments. During the driest periods, the lake 

waters reached salinities sufficient to precipitate beds of nahcolite, halite, and trona. The sediment pore waters were sufficiently saline to precipitate disseminated crystals of nahcolite, 

shortite, and dawsonite along with a host of other authigenic 

carbonate and silicate minerals (Milton, 1977).

A noteworthy aspect of the mineralogy is the complete 

lack of authigenic sulfate minerals. Although sulfate was probably a major anion in the stream waters entering the lakes, the 

sulfate ion was presumably totally consumed by sulfate-reducing bacteria in the lake and sediment waters according to the 

following generalized oxidation-reduction reaction:

 

 2CH2O + SO4

–2 → 2HCO3–1 + H2

S

Note that two moles of bicarbonate are formed for each 

mole of sulfate that is reduced. The resulting hydrogen sulfide 

could either react with available Fe++ to precipitate as iron 

sulfide minerals or escape from the sediments as a gas (Dyni, 

1998). Other major sources of carbonate include calcium 

carbonate-secreting algae, hydrolysis of silicate minerals, and 

direct input from inflowing streams.

The warm alkaline lake waters of the Eocene Green River 

lakes provided excellent conditions for the abundant growth 

of blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) that are thought to be the 

major precursor of the organic matter in the oil shale. During 

times of freshening waters, the lakes hosted a variety of fishes, 

rays, bivalves, gastropods, ostracodes, and other aquatic fauna. 

Areas peripheral to the lakes supported a large and varied 

assemblage of land plants, insects, amphibians, turtles, lizards, 

snakes, crocodiles, birds, and numerous mammalian animals 

(McKenna, 1960; MacGinitie, 1969; and Grande, 1984).

Historical Developments

The occurrence of oil shale in the Green River Formation 

in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming has been known for many 

years. During the early 1900s, it was clearly established that 

the Green River deposits were a major resource of shale oil 

(Woodruff and Day, 1914; Winchester, 1916; Gavin, 1924). 

During this early period, the Green River and other deposits 

were investigated, including oil shale of the marine Phosphoria 

Formation of Permian age in Montana (Bowen, 1917; Condit, 

1919) and oil shale in Tertiary lake beds near Elko, Nevada 

(Winchester, 1923).

In 1967, the U.S. Department of Interior began an extensive program to investigate the commercialization of the Green 

River oil-shale deposits. The dramatic increases in petroleum 

prices resulting from the OPEC oil embargo of 1973–74 

triggered another resurgence of oil-shale activities during the 

1970s and into the early 1980s. In 1974 several parcels of public oil-shale lands in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming were put 

up for competitive bid under the Federal Prototype Oil Shale 

United States  27
Leasing Program. Two tracts were leased in Colorado (C-a and 

C-b) and two in Utah (U-a and U-b) to oil companies.

Large underground mining facilities, including vertical 

shafts, room-and-pillar entries, and modified in-situ retorts, 

were constructed on Tracts C-a and C-b, but little or no shale 

oil was produced. During this time, Unocal Oil Company was 

developing its oil-shale facilities on privately owned land 

on the south side of the Piceance Creek Basin. The facilities 

included a room-and-pillar mine with a surface entry, a 10,000 

barrel/day (1,460 ton/day) retort, and an upgrading plant. A 

few miles north of the Unocal property, Exxon Corporation 

opened a room-and-pillar mine with a surface entry, haulage 

roads, waste-rock dumpsite, and a water-storage reservoir and 

dam.

In 1977–78 the U.S. Bureau of Mines opened an experimental mine that included a 723-m-deep shaft with several 

room-and-pillar entries in the northern part of the Piceance 

Creek Basin to conduct research on the deeper deposits of oil 

shale, which are commingled with nahcolite and dawsonite. 

The site was closed in the late 1980s.

About $80 million were spent on the U-a/U-b tracts in 

Utah by three energy companies to sink a 313-m-deep vertical shaft and inclined haulage way to a high-grade zone of 

oil shale and to open several small entries. Other facilities 

included a mine services building, water- and sewage-treatment plants, and a water-retention dam.

The Seep Ridge project sited south of the U-a/U-b 

tracts, funded by Geokinetics, Inc. and the U.S. Department 

of Energy, produced shale oil by a shallow in-situ retorting 

method. Several thousand barrels of shale oil were produced.

The Unocal oil-shale plant was the last major project 

to produce shale oil from the Green River Formation. Plant 

construction began in 1980, and capital investment for constructing the mine, retort, upgrading plant, and other facilities was $650 million. Unocal produced 657,000 tons (about 

4.4 million bbls) of shale oil, which were shipped to Chicago 

Figure 16. Areas underlain by the Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, 

United States. 

BASIN

UNITA BASIN

112o

43o

111o

113o

41o

38o

107o

N

0 50 100 KILOMETERS

Rifle

Grand

Junction

Meeker

Vernal

WYOMING

COLORADO

Rock Springs

IDAHO

UTAH

SALT LAKE CITY

GREEN RIVER

Kemmerer

WASHAKIE

BASIN

SAND WASH

BASIN

PICEANCE

CREEK BASIN

MAP OF THE UNITED STATES

Location

of figure

UTAH

COLORADO

EXPLANATION

Green River

Formation

Bedded trona

and halite

Nahcolite

and halite

28  Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
for refining into transportation fuels and other products under 

a program partly subsidized by the U.S. Government. The 

average rate of production in the last months of operation was 

about 875 tons (about 5,900 barrels) of shale oil per day; the 

facility was closed in 1991.

In the past few years, Shell Oil Company began an 

experimental field project to recover shale oil by a proprietary 

in-situ technique. Some details about the project have been 

publicly announced, and the results to date (2006) appear to 

favor continued research.

Shale-Oil Resources

As the Green River oil-shale deposits in Colorado 

became better known, estimates of the resource increased 

from about 20 billion barrels in 1916, to 900 billion barrels 

in 1961, and to 1.0 trillion barrels (~147 billion tons) in 1989 

(Winchester, 1916, p. 140; Donnell, 1961; Pitman and others, 

1989). A lithologic section and a summary of the resources 

by oil-shale zones in the Piceance Creek Basin are shown in

figure 17.

The Green River oil-shale resources in Utah and Wyoming are not as well known as those in Colorado. Trudell and 

others (1983, p. 57) calculated the measured and estimated 

resources of shale oil in an area of about 5,200 km2 in eastern 

Uinta Basin, Utah, to be 214 billion barrels (31 billion tons) of 

which about one-third is in the rich Mahogany oil-shale zone. 

Culbertson and others (1980, p. 17) estimated the oil-shale 

resources in the Green River Formation in the Green River 

Basin in southwest Wyoming to be 244 billion barrels (~35 

billion tons) of shale oil.

Additional resources are also in the Washakie Basin east 

of the Green River Basin in southwest Wyoming. Trudell 

and others (1973) reported that several members of the 

Green River Formation on Kinney Rim on the west side of 

the Washakie Basin contain sequences of low to moderate 

grades of oil shale in three core holes. Two sequences of oil 

shale in the Laney Member, 11 and 42 m thick, average 63 l/t 

and represent as much as 8.7 million tons of in-situ shale oil 

per square kilometer. A total estimate of the resource in the 

Washakie Basin was not reported for lack of subsurface data. 

Other Mineral Resources

In addition to fossil energy, the Green River oil-shale 

deposits in Colorado contain valuable resources of sodium 

carbonate minerals including nahcolite (NaHCO3) and dawsonite [NaAl(OH)2

CO3]. Both minerals are commingled with 

high-grade oil shale in the deep northern part of the basin. 

Dyni (1974) estimated the total nahcolite resource at 29 billion tons. Beard and others (1974) estimated nearly the same 

amount of nahcolite and 17 billion tons of dawsonite. Both 

minerals have value for soda ash (Na2CO3) and dawsonite also 

has potential value for its alumina (Al2O3) content. The latter 

mineral is most likely to be recovered as a byproduct of an 

oil-shale operation. One company is solution mining nahcolite 

for the manufacture of sodium bicarbonate in the northern part 

of the Piceance Creek Basin at depths of about 600 m (Day, 

1998). Another company stopped solution mining nahcolite in 

2004, but now processes soda ash obtained from the Wyoming 

trona deposits to manufacture sodium bicarbonate.

The Wilkins Peak Member of the Green River Formation 

in the Green River Basin in southwestern Wyoming contains 

not only oil shale but also the world’s largest known resource 

of natural sodium carbonate as trona (Na2CO3.NaHCO3.2H2O). 

The trona resource is estimated at more than 115 billion tons 

in 22 beds ranging from 1.2 to 9.8 m in thickness (Wiig and 

others, 1995). In 1997, trona production from five mines was 

16.5 million tons (Harris, 1997). Trona is refined into soda 

ash (Na2CO3) used in the manufacture of bottle and flat glass, 

baking soda, soap and detergents, waste treatment chemicals, 

and many other industrial chemicals. One ton of soda ash is 

obtained from about two tons of trona ore. Wyoming trona 

supplies about 90 percent of U.S. soda ash needs; in addition, 

about one-third of the total Wyoming soda ash produced is 

exported.

In the deeper part of the Piceance Creek Basin, the Green 

River oil shale contains a potential resource of natural gas, 

but its economic recovery is questionable (Cole and Daub, 

1991). Natural gas is also present in the Green River oil-shale 

deposits in southwest Wyoming, and probably in the oil shale 

in Utah, but in unknown quantities. A summary of the oil shale 

and mineral resources of the Green River Formation in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah is given in table 8.

Eastern Devonian–Mississippian Oil Shale

Depositional Environment

Black organic-rich marine shale and associated sediments of Late Devonian and Early Mississippian age underlie 

about 725,000 km2 in the eastern United States (fig. 18). These 

shales have been exploited for many years as a resource of 

natural gas, but have also been considered as a potential lowgrade resource of shale oil and uranium (Roen and Kepferle, 

1993; Conant and Swanson, 1961).

Over the years, geologists have applied many local names 

to these shales and associated rocks, including the Chattanooga, New Albany, Ohio, Sunbury, Antrim, and others. A 

group of papers detailing the stratigraphy, structure, and gas 

potential of these rocks in eastern United States have been 

published by the U.S. Geological Survey (Roen and Kepferle, 

1993). 

The black shales were deposited during Late Devonian 

and Early Mississippian time in a large epeiric sea that covered much of middle and eastern United States east of the Mississippi River (fig. 18). The area included the broad, shallow, 

United States  29
Figure 17. Generalized stratigraphic section of the Green River Formation and associated rocks in the northcentral part of the Piceance Creek Basin, northwestern Colorado, United States. Adapted from Cole and Daub (1991, 

their fig. 2). The shale-oil resource data, converted from U.S. barrels to metric tons, are from Pitman and others 

(1989).

C C C

C C C

C C C

C C C

C C C

C C C

C C C

C C C

C C C

C C C

C C C

C C C

C C C

C C C

C C C

C C C

C C C

EXPLANATION

Sandstone, siltstone, and some

marlstone and lean oil shale

Marlstone and low-grade oil shale

Leached oil shale; contains open solution

cavities and marlstone solution breccias

Nahcolite-bearing oil shale; contains nodules,

scattered crystals, and beds of nahcolite

Clay-bearing oil shale

Interbedded halite, nahcolite, and oil shale

Nahcolite and oil shale

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

A-GROOVE

MAHOGANY

ZONE

B-GROOVE

 R-6

L-5

 PARACHUTE CREEK MEMBER

 GREEN RIVER FORMATION

R-5

L-4

R-4

L-3

R-3

L-2

R-2

L-1

R-1

L-0

R-0

ANVIL POINTS MEMBER

GARDEN GULCH

MEMBER

UPPER SALT

LOWER SALT

GREENO BED

LEACHED

ZONE

SALINE

ZONE

DISSOLUTION

SURFACE

R-8

UINTA FORMATION

(WITH TONGUES OF

GREEN RIVER FM.)

Oil shale

0

DEPTH

(meters)

GENERALIZED

LITHOLOGY

SHALE OIL RESOURCES

Shale oil

Zone

R-8 (ND) (ND)

25.25 172.94

23.23 159.09

7.65 52.42

26.09 178.72

8.88 60.85

15.74 107.78

2.73 18.72

8.52 58.38

2.93 20.08

7.75 53.07

1.56 10.70

16.84 115.35

Mahogany

R-6

L-5

R-5

L-4

R-4

L-3

R-3

L-2

R-2

L-1

R-1

Total 147.17 1008.10

(109 tons) (109 bbls)

30 Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
Interior Platform on the west that grades eastward into the 

Appalachian Basin. The depth to the base of the Devonian–

Mississippian black shales ranges from surface exposures on 

the Interior Platform to more than 2,700 m along the depositional axis of the Appalachian Basin (de Witt and others, 1993, 

their pl. 1). 

The Late Devonian sea was relatively shallow with minimal current and wave action, much like the environment in 

which the Alum Shale of Sweden was deposited in Europe. A 

large part of the organic matter in the black shale is amorphous 

bituminite, although a few structured fossil organisms such as 

Tasmanites, Botryococcus, Foerstia, and others have been recognized. Conodonts and linguloid brachiopods are sparingly 

distributed through some beds. Although much of the organic 

matter is amorphous and of uncertain origin, it is generally 

believed that much of it was derived from planktonic algae. 

In the distal parts of the Devonian sea, the organic matter 

accumulated very slowly along with very fine-grained clayey 

sediments in poorly oxygenated waters free of burrowing 

organisms. Conant and Swanson (1961, p. 54) estimated that 

30 cm of the upper part of the Chattanooga Shale deposited on 

the Interior Platform in Tennessee could represent as much as 

150,000 years of sedimentation. 

The black shales thicken eastward into the Appalachian 

Basin owing to increasing amounts of clastic sediments that 

were shed into the Devonian sea from the Appalachian highland lying to the east of the basin. Pyrite and marcasite are 

abundant authigenic minerals, but carbonate minerals are only 

a minor fraction of the mineral matter.

Resources

The oil-shale resource is in that part of the Interior Platform where the black shales are the richest and closest to the 

surface. Although long known to produce oil upon retorting, 

the organic matter in the Devonian–Mississippian black shale 

yields only about half as much as the organic matter of the 

Green River oil shale, which is thought to be attributable to 

Table 8. Summary of the energy and mineral resources of the Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, 

United States. Data from Donnell (1980), Culbertson and others (1980), Trudell and others (1983), Dyni (1974, 1997), Beard 

and others (1974), Cole and Daub (1991), Pitman and Johnson (1978), Pitman and others (1989), Wiig and others (1995), 

and unpublished data from the U.S. Bureau of Mines (1981).

[km2, square kilometers; l/t, liters per ton; m3, cubic meters]

Basin Area

(km2)

Federal lands

(percent)

Resources

 Grade Shale oil

 (l/t) (109 tons)

Shale-oil resources

Piceance Creek Basin, Colorado 4,600 791 ≥63 147

≥104 (85)2

≥125 (49)2

Uinta Basin, Utah ∼ 2,150 77 ≥42 31

Green River Basin, Wyoming ∼ 1,200 62 ≥63 35.4

∼(475)2 125 (1.9)2

Total 7,900 213

Other resources

Green River Basin, Wyoming

Trona ∼ 2,800 57 115

Piceance Creek Basin, Colorado

Dawsonite ∼ 1,300 26

Nahcolite 660 29

Natural gas >230 130x109 m3

1

The percentage of Federal lands in the Piceance Creek Basin has been reduced by several percent from this figure owing to the transfer of 

a group of oil-shale placer claims to private ownership.

2

Data included in the total figure for the basin. 

United States  31
K Y

Mississippi River

TN

SC

AL GA

FL

MS

IL IN OH

PA

N Y

ME

NH

VT

MA

CT

R.I.

WI

MI

NC

WV

VA

NJ

St. Lawrence River

DE

MD

MI

Ohio River

SHORELINE OF LATE

DEVONIAN SEA SHORELINE OF LATE

DEVONIAN SEA

Mississippi River MAJOR AREAS OF MINEABLE OIL SHALE

CANADA

N

0 200 400 600 KILOMETERS

SOUTHERN LIMIT

OF WISCONSIN

GLACIAL DRIFT

Figure 18. Paleogeographic map showing shoreline of the Late Devonian sea in eastern United States 

and major areas of surface-mineable Devonian oil shale. After Conant and Swanson (1961, their fig. 13) and 

Matthews and others (1980, their fig. 5).

32  Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
differences in the type of organic matter (or type of organic 

carbon) in each of the oil shales. The Devonian–Mississippian 

oil shale has a higher ratio of aromatic to aliphatic organic 

carbon than Green River oil shale, and is shown by material balance Fischer assays to yield much less shale oil and a 

higher percentage of carbon residue (Miknis, 1990). 

Hydroretorting Devonian–Mississippian oil shale can 

increase the oil yield by more than 200 percent of the value 

determined by Fischer assay. In contrast, the conversion of 

organic matter to oil by hydroretorting is much less for Green 

River oil shale, about 130 to 140 percent of the Fischer assay 

value. Other marine oil shales also respond favorably to hydroretorting, with yields as much as, or more than, 300 percent of 

the Fischer assay (Dyni, and others, 1990).

Matthews and others (1980) evaluated the Devonian–Mississippian oil shales in areas of the Interior Platform where the 

shales are rich enough in organic matter and close enough to 

the surface to be mineable by open pit. Results of investigations in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, 

eastern Missouri, Tennessee, and West Virginia indicated that 

98 percent of the near-surface mineable resources are in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee (Matthews, 1983).

The criteria for the evaluation of the Devonian–Mississippian oil-shale resource used by Matthews and others (1980) 

were:

1. Organic carbon content: ≥10 weight percent

2. Overburden: ≤200 m

3. Stripping ratio: ≤2.5:1

4. Thickness of shale bed: ≥3 m

5. Open-pit mining and hydroretorting

On the basis of these criteria, the total Devonian–Mississippian shale oil resources were estimated to be 423 billion 

barrels (61 billion tons); resources by State are summarized in 

table 9.

Summary of World Resources of 

Shale Oil

Resources of shale oil for selected deposits worldwide are 

listed in alphabetical order by country in table 10. Individual 

deposits for some countries are listed under subheadings, commonly by States or Provinces.

Because of widespread use in the reporting of petroleum 

and shale-oil resources, quantities are expressed in terms of 

U.S. barrels in table 10; resources are also reported in metric 

tons of shale oil. Sources of information (author and date of 

reference) are given for most of the deposits. The data are too 

sparse for most deposits to differentiate between resources and 

reserves of oil shale.

The grade of the oil-shale resource is not indicated in the 

table. However, it can be assumed that most of the deposits 

listed will yield, by Fischer assay, at least 40 or more liters of 

shale oil per ton of oil shale.

For some countries, shale-oil resources of individual 

deposits are listed. Resources for individual deposits are 

shown in parentheses when they are included in the total 

resource figure for a country. Resource figures shown in 

boldface are from data reported in the literature; the associated 

figure in normal type was calculated for table 10.

The reliability of resource data, as indicated in the foregoing sections of this report, ranges from excellent to poor. 

Data for some deposits that have been explored extensively 

by core drilling are good, such as the Green River oil shale in 

Colorado, the kukersite deposit in Estonia, and some of the 

Tertiary deposits in eastern Queensland, Australia, are especially good in comparison to others. 

A few large deposits of oil shale, such as the Toolebuc 

oil shale of Queensland, Australia, are too low-grade to be utilized in the near future. However, improved methods of mining and processing could change their economic status. The 

largest and richest known deposit by far is the Green River oil 

shale in western United States. In Colorado alone, the total 

resource reaches one trillion barrels, of which one-quarter to 

perhaps as much as one-third may be recoverable with mining 

and processing techniques available today. 

Some countries having good-quality oil shale but lacking 

petroleum and (or) coal resources will continue to mine oil 

shale for transportation fuels, petrochemicals, fuel for electric 

power plants, building materials, and other byproducts. However, their oil-shale industries face imposing challenges from 

cheaper resources of crude petroleum and coal, as well as from 

air and water pollution problems.

Production of oil shale from several countries, for which 

some data are available, are shown in figure 19. World oilshale production peaked in 1980 when 47 million tons were 

mined, much of it in Estonia where it was used mainly for fuel 

in several large electric power plants.

Table 9. Estimated resources of near-surface oil shale in 

eastern United States by hydroretorting. Data derived from 

Matthews and others (1980, their table 3).

[km2, square kilometer; hectare=2.47 acres]

State

Area

(km2)

Shale oil

 tons (109) tons/hectare

Ohio 2,540 20.2 79,000

Kentucky 6,860 27.4 40,000

Tennessee 3,990 6.3 15,500

Indiana 1,550 5.8 37,000

Michigan 410 0.7 17,500

Alabama 780 0.6 7,500

Total 16,130 61.0

Summary of World Resources of Shale Oil  33
Table 10. In-situ shale-oil resources of some world oil-shale deposits.

Country, region,

and deposit1

Age2

In-place

shale-oil

resources3

(106 bbls)

In-place

shale-oil

resources3

(106 tons)

Date

of 

estimation4 Source of information

Argentina 400 57 1962

Armenia

 Aramus T 305 44 1994 Pierce & others (1994)5

Australia

 New South Wales P 40 6 1987 Crisp & others (1987)

 Queensland 

 Alpha P 80 1 1987 Matheson (1987)6

 Byfield T 249 36 1999 Wright (1999, written commun.)6

 Condor T 9,700 1,388 do do

 Duaringa (upper unit) T 4,100 587 do do

 Herbert Creek Basin T 1,530 219 do do

 Julia Creek K 1,700 243 do do

 Lowmead T 740 106 do do

 Mt. Coolon T 72 10 do do

 Nagoorin Basin T 3,170 454 do do

 Rundle T 2,600 372 do do

 Stuart T 3,000 429 do do

 Yaamba T 4,100 587 do Wright (1999, written commun.)7

 South Australia

 Leigh Creek d 600 86 1999 Wright (1999, written commun.)6

 Tasmania

 Mersey River P 48 7 1987 Crisp & others (1987)

Austria 8 1 1974

Belarus

 Pripyat Basin D 6,988 1,000

Brazil

Iratí Formation

Paraíba Valley

P

T

 80,000

 2,000

11,448

 286

1994

1969

Afonso & others (1994)

Padula (1969)

Bulgaria 125 18 1962

Canada

 Manitoba-Saskatchewan

 Favel-Boyne Formations K 1,250 191 1981 Macauley (1981, 1984a, 1986)8

 Nova Scotia

 Stellarton Basin

 Antigonish Basin

P-h 1,174

 531

 168

 76

1989

1990

Smith & others (1989)8

Smith & Naylor (1990)

 New Brunswick

 Albert Mines

 Dover

 Rosevale

M

M

M

 269

 14

 3

 38

 2

 0.4

1988

do

do

Ball & Macauley (1988)

do

do

 Newfoundland

 Deer Lake Basin M ? ? 1984 Hyde (1984)9

34  Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
Table 10. In-situ shale-oil resources of some world oil-shale deposits—Continued.

Country, region,

and deposit1

Age2

In-place

shale-oil

resources3

(106 bbls)

In-place

shale-oil

resources3

(106 tons)

Date

of 

estimation4

Source

of

information

 Nunavut

 Sverdrup Basin M ? ? 1988 Davies & Nassichuk (1988)10

 Ontario

 Collingwood Shale O 12,000 1,717 1986 Macauley (1986)

 Kettle Point Fm D ? ? 1986 do

Chile 21 3 1936

China

 Moaming

 Fushun

T

T

 16,000

 (2,271)

 (127)

 2,290

 (325)

 (18)

1985

1988

1990

Du & Nuttall (1985)11

Guo-Quan (1988)

Johnson (1990)

Congo, Republic of 100,000 14,310 1958

Egypt

 Safaga-Quseir area

 Abu Tartur area

K

K

 4,500

 1,200

 644

 172

1984

1984

Troger (1984)

Troger (1984)

Estonia

 Estonia deposit

 Dictyonema Shale

O

O

 3,900

 12,386

 594

 1,900

1998 Kattai & Lokk (1998)12

France 7,000 1,002 1978

Germany 2,000 286 1965

Hungary 56 8 1995 Papay (1998)13

Iraq

 Yarmouk K ? ? 1999

May be very large;

See Jordan

Israel 4,000 550 1982 Minster & Shirav (1982)14

Italy

 Sicily

 10,000

 63,000

 1,431

 9,015

1979

1978

Jordan 

Attarat Umm Ghudran K 8,103 1,243 1997 Jaber & others (1997)15

El Lajjun K 821 126 1997 do

Juref ed Darawish K 3,325 510 1997 do

Sultani K 482 74 1997 do

Wadi Maghar K 14,009 2,149 1997 do

Wadi Thamad K 7,432 1,140 1997 do

Yarmouk K (Large) 1999 Minster (1999)16

Kazakhstan

Kenderlyk field 2,837 400 1996 Yefimov (1996)17

Luxembourg J 675 97 1993 Robl and others (1993)

Madagascar 32 5 1974

Mongolia

Khoot J 294 42 2001 Avid and Purevsuren (2001)

Morocco

Timahdit

Tarfaya Zone R

K

K

 11,236

 42,145

 1,719

 6,448

1984

1984

Bouchta (1984)18

do

′

Summary of World Resources of Shale Oil  35
Table 10. In-situ shale-oil resources of some world oil-shale deposits—Continued.

Country, region,

and deposit1 Age2

In-place

shale-oil

resources3

(106 bbls)

In-place

shale-oil

resources3

(106 tons)

Date

of 

estimation4

Source

of

information

Myanmar (Burma) 2,000 286 1924

New Zealand 19 3 1976

Poland 48 7 1974

Russia

St. Petersburg kukersite O 25,157 3,600

Timano-Petchorsk Basin J 3,494 500

Vychegodsk Basin J 19,580 2,800

Central Basin ? 70 10

Volga Basin ? 31,447 4,500

Turgai & Nizheiljisk deposit ? 210 30

Olenyok Basin e 167,715 24,000

Other deposits — 210 30

South Africa 130 19 1937

Spain 280 40 1958

Sweden

Narke e 594 85 1985 Andersson & others (1985)

Ostergotland e 2,795 400 1985 do

Vastergotland e 1,537 220 1985 do

Oland e 1,188 170 1985 do

Thailand

Deposit & (Province)

Mae Sot (Tak) T 6,400 916 1988 Vanichseni & others (1988)

Li (Lampoon) T 1 1988 do

Turkmenistan & Uzbekistan

Amudarja Basin19 P 7,687 1,100

Turkey

Deposit & (Province)

Bahcecik (Izmit) T 35 5 1993 Güleç & Önen (1993)20

Beypazari (Ankara) T 398 57 1995 Sener & others (1995)

Burhaniye (Bahkesir) T 28 4 1993 Güleç & Önen (1993)

Golpazari (Bilecik) T 126 18 1993 do

Goynuk (Bolu) T 804 115 1995 Sener & others (1995)

Hatildag (Bolu) T 203 29 1995 do

Seyitomer (Kutahya) T 349 50 1995 do

Ulukisla (Nigde) T 42 6 1993 Güleç & Önen (1993)

Ukraine

Boltysh deposit 4,193 600 1988 Tsherepovski

United Kingdom 3,500 501 1975

36 Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits
Table 10. In-situ shale-oil resources of some world oil-shale deposits—Continued.

Country, region,

and deposit1 Age2

In-place

shale-oil

resources3

(106 bbls)

In-place

shale-oil

resources3

(106 tons)

Date

of 

estimation4

Source

of

information

United States

Eastern Devonian shale D 189,000 27,000 1980 Matthews & others (1980)21

Green River Fm T 1,466,000 213,000 1999 This report

Phosphoria Fm P 250,000 35,775 1980 Smith (1980)

Heath Fm M 180,000 25,758 1980 do

Elko Fm T 228 33 1983 Moore & others (1983)

Uzbekistan

Kyzylkum Basin 8,386 1,200

Total (rounded) 2,826,000 409,000

1

The resources in the above table are listed by country in alphabetical order. For some countries, the deposits are listed under State or Province. 

2

The age of the deposit, when known, is indicated by the following symbols: e, Cambrian; O, Ordovician; D, Devonian; M, Mississippian 

(Early Carboniferous); h, Pennsylvanian (Late Carboniferous); P, Permian; d, Triassic; J, Jurassic; K, Cretaceous; and T, Tertiary. 

3

The resources of shale oil are given in U.S. barrels and metric tons. Resource numbers in boldface type are from the references cited; the 

associated number in nonboldface type was calculated for this table. In several cases, resource numbers in parentheses are included in the total 

resource number for the country. To determine tons of resources from volumetric data, it is necessary to know the specific gravity of the shale oil. 

In some cases, this value was given in the source reference; if not, a specific gravity of 0.910 was assumed.

4

The “date of estimation” is the publication date of the source reference. If a reference is not listed for a deposit, the resource data are from 

Russell (1990). A few deposits for which no resource numbers are given are still listed in the table because they are believed to be of significant 

size.

5

The resource was estimated by assuming seven beds of oil shale totaling 14 m in thickness, which underlie 22 square kilometers and have an 

average oil-shale bulk density of 2.364 gm/cc.

6

Shale-oil specific gravity (SG) of 0.910 was assumed. Resource data from Matheson (1987) augmented by a personal communication from Dr. 

Bruce Wright to Professor J.L. Qian dated March 29, 1999.

7

McFarlane (1984) gives the Yaamba deposit as 2.92 billion in-situ barrels of shale oil.

8

Shale oil SG of 0.910 was assumed.

9

The west side of the basin is largely unexplored and may contain oil-shale deposits.

10Alginite-rich oil shale is found in the Lower Carboniferous Emma Fiord Formation at several localities in the Sverdrup Basin. On Ellemere 

Island the shale is geothermally overmature, but on Devon Island, the oil shale is immature to marginally mature.

11China’s total oil-shale resources are given by Du and Nuttall (1985, p. 211).

12A shale-oil yield of 10 wt pct and a shale oil SG of 0.968 were used to calculate barrels of resources (Yefimov and others, 1997, p. 600). 

Kogerman (1997, p. 629) gives the range of oil yields of Estonian kukersite as 12–18 wt pct.

13Assumed a shale-oil yield of 8 wt pct and a shale-oil SG of 0.910.

14Fainberg and Hetsroni (1996) estimate Israel’s oil-shale reserves at 12 billion tons, which equates to 600 million tons of shale oil.

15Shale-oil SG of 0.968 was assumed.

16The oil-shale deposit underlies several hundred square kilometers and reaches 400 m in thickness (Minster, 1999, written commun.).

17Shale-oil SG of 0.900 was assumed.

18Shale-oil SG of 0.970 was assumed. Occidental Oil Company made the estimate of the Timahdit resource and Bouchta estimated the Tarfaya 

resource; details of both estimates are in Bouchta (1984).

19Amudarja Basin extends across border between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

20Güleç and Önen (1993) reported 5,196 million tons of oil shale in seven deposits but no shale-oil numbers. Graham and others (1993) estimate the Goynuk resource at 9 billion tons of oil shale. Sener and others (1995) reported 1,865 million tons of oil shale in four Turkish deposits.

21The Devonian oil-shale resource estimated by Matthews and others (1980) is based on hydroretorting analyses. To make these results compatible with the rest of the resource data in this table, which are based mostly on Fischer assay analyses, the resource numbers given by Matthews 

and others (1980) were reduced by 64 percent.

Summary of World Resources of Shale Oil  37
0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Germany

Maoming

Fushun

Brazil

Scotland

Kashpir

Leningrad

Estonia

METRIC TONS, MILLIONS

Figure 19. Production of oil shale in millions of metric tons from Estonia (Estonia deposit), Russia 

(Leningrad and Kashpir deposits), United Kingdom (Scotland, Lothians), Brazil (Iratí Formation), China 

(Maoming and Fushun deposits), and Germany (Dotternhausen) from 1880 to 2000.

The total resource of oil shale of 409 billion tons 

(2.9 trillion U.S. barrels) listed in table 10 should be considered a minimum figure, because numerous deposits are still 

largely unexplored or were not included in this study. Further 

exploration will undoubtedly add many more billions of tons 

of in-situ shale oil to this total. 

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Manuscript approved for publication December 28, 2005

Published in the Central Region, Denver, Colorado

Graphics by author

Photocomposition by Sharon Powers

Edited by Tom Judkins

42  Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits