Stuart Oil Shale Project
Coordinates: 23 ° 47 ′ 11.9 ″ S , 151 ° 8 ′ 48.5 ″ E
The Stuart Oil Shale Project was a development project to extract crude oil from oil shale in Australia on the east coast near Gladstone in Queensland . It was Australia's first major attempt since the 1950s to re-attempt commercial extraction of oil from shale deposits. The project was originally started by the Australian companies Southern Pacific Petroleum NL and Central Pacific Minerals NL (SPP / CPM).
history
In 1995, SPP / CPM signed a joint venture agreement with the Canadian company Suncor Energy to exploit the oil shale deposit at Stuart. Suncor was designated as the project leader. In April 2001, Suncor left the project and SPP / CPM became the sole shareholder. In February 2002, during the restructuring of SPP / CPM, SPP became the parent company for the group's activities including the Stuart oil shale project.
Because SPP had guaranteed fixed and variable income for the benefit of Sandco Koala LLC in May 2003, Sandco Koala sued SPP on December 2, 2003.
In February 2004, the Stuart Oil Shale Project was sold to the newly formed Queensland Energy Resources. The plant was closed on July 21, 2004 for economic and environmental reasons.
Industry
The first stage of the project, which cost 250 to 360 million Australian dollars, consisted of an oil shale mine and a pilot plant to extract the oil from the shale. The plant was between 1997 and 1999 under Canadian licenses u. a. with the inclusion of deliveries from German plant engineering companies. The system, which was in operation from 1999 to 2004, used the "Alberta-Taciuk-ProcessorATP" retort technology. This was the first industrial application of ATP technology to oil shale worldwide. The plant was designed to process 6000 tons of oil shale per day and to produce an output of 4,500 barrels of oil from it. From 2000 to 2004 the pilot factory produced over 1.5 million barrels of oil.
The second step, at a cost of 600 million Australian dollars, was planned from a single large module, four times the size of the first plant, with a total capacity of 19,000 barrels of oil products (naphtha and middle shale oil) per day. The plant was originally supposed to go into operation in 2006. The third step was planned with a multiple installation of such units, with a capacity of up to 200,000 barrels per day. This was scheduled for commissioning between 2010 and 2013.
The level 2 environmental assessment was suspended in December 2004.
The factory has been under provisional maintenance in an operational state since its closure.
technology
The core module of shale oil extraction in Stuart is the ATP processor after a Canadian-Yugoslav process engineer named Taciuk. This processor is
- a horizontal rotating barrel
- with partial double wall,
- which pulls in the oil shale material by means of conveying elements (screws),
- the material gradually warms up on the way there,
- Drives oil out of the slate in vapor form,
- and then uses the remaining shale oil content, which can no longer be extracted as oil, by internal combustion in a chamber to generate process heat.
- On the way back in the outer casing, the ash-containing slate remains are carried away
- and in doing so give off the heat to the newly released material on their way back.
In view of the costs at the time, the entire system should be worthwhile if the price of a barrel of crude oil climbed above the mark of 17 US dollars: a condition that applied over the entire duration of the project.
controversy
The project was heavily criticized by environmentalists. More than 20,000 people and 27 associations of environmentalists, tourism associations and fishermen complained about the emission of greenhouse gases. Greenpeace claimed that emissions were nearly four times higher than conventional oil production, although SPP had advertised that level 3 greenhouse gas emissions would be 5% lower than conventional oil production. Greenpeace also lamented that the Stuart Project was a significant source of highly toxic dioxins and would destroy the Great Barrier Reef World Conservation Area at level 3. Public health concerns were also raised.
Individual evidence
- ^ Petroleum and gas production . Department of Natural Resources and Water of Queensland. Archived from the original on April 30, 2007. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
- ↑ a b c d e Survey of energy resources. (PDF; 6.2 MB) (No longer available online.) World Energy Council, 2004, archived from the original on September 25, 2007 ; Retrieved July 13, 2007 (pp. 83-84). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd v Southern Pacific Petroleum NL. Corporate law judgments. No. 2051 of 2004 . University of Melbourne. Center for Corporate Law & Securities Regulation. 2004 . Retrieved July 24, 2007.
- ↑ Greenpeace Australia Pacific: Victory: shale oil project collapses . July 21, 2004 -. Archived from the original on June 24, 2007. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
- ↑ Stuart Oil Shale - Stage 2 . Department of Infrastructure of Queensland. August 15, 2006. Archived from the original on August 31, 2007. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
- ↑ Stuart Oil Shale project ready for restart , Alexander's Gas & Oil Connections. January 31, 2000. Retrieved November 29, 2013.
- ↑ a b Greenpeace Australia Pacific: Climate-changing shale oil industry stopped . March 3, 2005. Retrieved June 28, 2007.
- ↑ Shale oil. AIMR Report 2006 . Geoscience Australia. Archived from the original on February 13, 2007. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 30, 2007.
- ↑ Greenpeace Australia Pacific: Stuart Oil Shale Project (PDF) October 1, 2003. Retrieved June 28, 2007.
