Shale Oil as Feedstock for Libyan Conventional Crude Oil Existing Refineries

Abstract

Shale oil (light tight oil) refers to Hydrocarbon (HC) trapped in the formations whereas oil and gas cannot easily flow-out into the string pipe as the conventional oil and can be access using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracking technique using a plenty of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure down to open the rocks fissures and allow the oil to flow-out. The Global shale oil resources are estimated at between 330 - 1,465 billion bbls and the global shale oil production is expected to reach up to 14 million bbls/day by 2035 which is equivalent to about 12% of the world’s total oil supply. Shale oil once is extracted is processed & refined into more useful products utilizing the traditional process wise of refining mechanism. Libyan's shale oil reserves is estimated between 48 to 74 billion barrels (bbls) and that Libya occupies fifth place in global shale oil reserves after Russia, US, China & Argentina. The new amount is added to the inventory to lift the life duration of Libyan oil production from 70 years to 112 years. This paper focuses on studying the possibility that the current Libyan refineries that use conventional oil as feedstock to handle and accommodate unconventional oil (shale oil) from the fields adjacent to the Murzuq Basin. Considering that Al-Zawia Oil Refinery (case study) is currently using conventional oil as feedstock from Sharara Field belongs to Rebsol Oil Operations (concession NC-115). It can be concluded that as a result of the prevailing belief among experts in reservoir engineering and geosciences, that shale oil may have the same chemical and physical properties as conventional oil, so the refinery that uses conventional oil may not need any improvement, development or upgrading operations on its current facilities. Therefore and once the reservoir studies of Murzuq Basin are completed in the future and shale oil production begins using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technology from the targeted wells, it is possible to start directly pumping the produced quantities of shale oil towards Al-Zawiya Refinery for oil processing whether through the existing pipeline network or that is supposed to be designed for this particular purpose. Libya’s future success in producing and refining shale oil from which it has large reserves, and the entry of Libyan oil industry into this challenge will be a great achievement considering the recent reports and studies issued by energy research centers and global stocks that confirm the decline and depletion of conventional oil production in the most world’s countries.