Yield Appraisal of the Cretaceous-Paleogene Oil Shales of the Quseir-Safaga Area, Red Sea, Egypt

Abstract

Oil shales are source rocks of low to moderate maturity, which are considered as a potential deposit for future hydrocarbon generation. In Egypt, the epicontinental Cretaceous-Paleogene sequence is a part of a Middle East belt of oil shale deposits. The belt, in the Egyptian territories, is trending east-west and extending from the Quseir-Safaga district along the Red Sea to the Kharga-Dakhla oases in the Western Desert, passing through the Nile Valley between Idfu and Qena. These oil shales are constrained to the Duwi-Dakhla formations in ascending order. In this study, the Fischer assay technique is used to get oil yield for 37 selected oil shale core samples from seven localities along the Red Sea to come up with an evaluation. The average oil yield values of Abu Shegela, M. Rabah, Sodmine, and Um El-Huweitat areas are acceptable from the economic and processing points of view for the exploitation step. Raw-mix designs are necessary for high-yield and low-medium-yield strata for future exploitation of these shales. We propose the In-Capsule Retorting method to extract oil from the study oil shales, because of its inexpensive and environment-friendly characters.