Oil shale, heavy oil deposits, and tar sands are the most prevalent forms of petroleum found in the world. Reserves of these sources are many times more abundant than the world’s total known reserves of crude oil. Because of the high cost of converting shale oil and tar sands into usable petroleum products, however, only a small percentage of the available material is processed commercially.
An industry to make oil products from tar sands has been started in Canada, and Venezuela is looking at the prospects of developing the vast reserves of tar sands in its Orinoco River basin. Nevertheless, the quantity of oil products produced from these two raw materials is small compared with the total production of conventional crude oil.
Until world petroleum prices increase, the quantity of oil produced from oil shale and tar sands will likely remain small relative to the production of conventional crude oil.
No comments:
Post a Comment