Israel to start taking oil from shale

[ECH1969]

With oil prices hovering around $70 a barrel, Israel is looking for ways to reduce its near-total dependence on energy imports. It's pondering the use of the nation's huge reserves of oil shale — a dark, crumbly rock loaded with hydrocarbons — located in the central and southern parts of the country. Thanks to a technical breakthrough, it should be possible to extract fuel oil from the shale for less than $20 a barrel. That could allow Israel eventually to cut its crude imports by up to one-third.

Shale is already used as a fuel for power plants in Israel and Estonia, where the rock is burned like coal to drive steam turbines. Israel's small shale-fired power plant was built nearly 20 years ago. But past attempts to extract liquid oil from shale weren't economically feasible: The process cost upwards of $50 per barrel at a time when oil was selling for less than half that.

A Haifa-based engineering firm called A.F.S.K. Hom Tov, which owns the patented process, is now gearing up to exploit the opportunity. “The technology could reduce dependence on imports and substantially reduce Israel's overall energy bill,” says Israel Feldman, the company's co-founder and managing director. A.F.S.K. Hom Tov has proposed building a plant that could produce up to 3 million tons of oil annually, or roughly 30 percent of Israel's current oil imports.

How does it work? Older technologies squeezed oil out of shale by putting the crushed rock under enormous pressure at high temperatures. But the process developed by Gvirtz costs far less. The shale is mixed and coated with bitumen, a remnant of normal oil refining, then put through a catalytic converter under relatively low pressure. The output is synthetic oil that can be refined into gasoline and other products.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13737475

[Behind the Aegis]

1. Good.

A new source of fuel.

Love the writing in this article. :sarcasm:

[unhappycamper]

2. They'll be able to extract hydrocarbons while they trash their

environment. Swell.

[Skidmore]

3. When they are done grinding up their land, perhaps they'll become

even more expansionistic than they are. Cue the nukes.