Patent ID: 8261831

Claim:
A method of recovering hydrocarbonaceous and other products from oil or tar sands, comprising the steps of: forming a hole in a body of oil or tar sand; positioning an apertured sleeve within the hole to minimize fill-in of the sand; positioning a gas inlet conduit into the apertured sleeve; heating and pressurizing a processing gas; introducing the processing gas into the sleeve through the gas inlet conduit, such that the heated, pressurized processing gas penetrates into the sand through the apertures, thereby converting bitumen within the sand into hydrocarbonaceous products; withdrawing the processing gas and hydrocarbonaceous products as effluent gas through the hole; performing one or more initial condensation steps to recover and store crude oil products from the effluent gas; and performing one or more subsequent condensation steps to recover and store additional liquefied products from the effluent gas.