Ikelic - Alliance Digital Repository

STATUS OF OIL SHALE PROJECTS (Underline denotes changes since June 1994)
COMMERCIAL PROJECTS (Continued)
The project, inactive for some time, began being reconsidered in 1990 by the equal partners. The viability of a 50,000 barrel
per day plant that would process 60 million tonnes of shale is under examination. ONAREP expects the cost of development
to be around $24-25 a barrel.
Project Cost: $25 billion (estimated)
- OCCIDENTAL MIS PROJECT Occidental
Oil Shale, Inc. (S-20)
Federal Oil Shale Lease Tract C-b, located in Rio Blanco County in the Piceance Creek Basin of northwestern Colorado, is
managed by Occidental Oil Shale, Inc. A modified detailed development plan for a 57,000 barrels per modified day in situ
plant was submitted in March 1977 and subsequently approved in April 1977. The EPA issued a conditional Prevention of Sig
nificant Deterioration (PSD) permit in December 1977 which was amended in 1983.
Project reassessment was announced in December 1981 in view of increased construction costs, reduced oil prices, and high in
terest rates. The project sponsors applied to the United States Synthetic Fuels Corporation (SFC) under the third solicitation
in January 1983 and the project was advanced into Phase II negotiations for financial assistance. On July 28, 1983 the SFC an
nounced it had signed a letter of intent to provide up to $2.19 billion in loan and price guarantees to the project. However,
Congress abolished the SFC on December 19, 1985 before any assistance could be awarded to the project.
Three headframes-two concrete and one steel-have been erected. Four new structures were completed in 1982: control room.
east and west airlocks, and mechanical/electrical rooms. The power substation on-tract became operational in 1982. The
ventilation/escape, service, and production shafts were completed in Fall 1983. An interim monitoring program was approved
in July 1982 to reflect the reduced level of activity.
Water management in 1984 was achieved via direct discharge from on-tract holding ponds under the NPDES permit. Environ
mental monitoring has continued since completion of the two-year baseline period (1974-1976).
On April 1, 1987, the Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of the Interior, granted Cathedral Bluffs Shale
Oil Company a suspension of operation and production for a minimum of five years. Meanwhile, of pumping the mine inflow
water continued in order to keep the shaft from being flooded.
Although Congress appropriated $8 million in fiscal year 1991, Occidental declined to proceed with the $225 million "proof-
of-concept"
modified in situ (MIS) demonstration project to be located on the C-b tract. In January 1991 Occidental an
nounced its intention to shelve the demonstration project in an effort to reduce company debt. The announcement came only
a month after the death of Oxy chairman, Armand Hammmer, a long-time supporter of oil shale.
The project was to be a 1,200 barrel per day demonstration of the modified in situ (MIS) retorting process. Estimates indicate
that there are more than 4.5 billion barrels of recoverable oil at the site. Also included in the project were plans for a
33 megawatt oil shale fired powerplant to be built at the C-b tract. Such a powerplant would be the largest of its kind in the
world.
At the end of the demonstration period, Occidental had hoped to bring the plant up to full scale commercial production of
2500 barrels of oil per day.
Project Cost: $225 million for demonstration
- PAMA OIL SHALE-FIRED POWERPLANT PROJECT PAMA (Energy Resources Development) Inc. (S-270)
PAMA, an organization founded by several major Israeli corporations with the support of the government, has completed ex
tensive studies, lasting several years, which show that the production of power by direct combustion of oil shale is technically
feasible. Furthermore, the production of power still appears economically viable, despite the uncertainties regarding the
economics of production of oil from shale.
PAMA has, therefore begun a direct shale-fired demonstration program. A demo plant has been built that is in fact a commer
cial plant, co-producing electricity to the grid and low pressure steam for process application at a factory adjacent to the Rotem
oil shale deposit. The oil-shale-fired boiler, supplied by Ahlstrom, Finland, is based on a circulating fluid bed technology.
The 41 megawatt plant is a cogeneration unit that delivers 50 tons per hour of steam at high pressure. Low-pressure steam is
sold to process application in a chemical plant, and electricity produced in a back-pressure turbine is sold to the grid. Commis
sioning was begun in August 1989 and oil shale firing began in October. Process steam sales began in November 1989 and
electricity production started in February, 1990.
PAMA and Israel Electric (the sole utility of Israel) have also embarked on a project to build a full scale oil shale-fired com
mercial powerplant. The first 75 megawatt unit is scheduled to go into operation in 1999.
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SYNTHETIC FUELS REPORT, JANUARY 1995