Current status and prospects of oil shale in-situ conversion technology in China

China’s oil shale resources contain about 47 billion tonnes of shale oil, and its large-scale exploitation will effectively alleviate the current oil and gas supply situation in China. In-situ conversion, which is the trend for exploiting oil shale resources, has not yet been commercialized due to the limitations of technical difficulty and high cost. In response to the characteristics of China’s oil shale resources, some universities, research institutes and energy companies have developed a variety of in-situ conversion technologies. Among them, Jilin University and Jilin Zhongcheng Oil Shale Company have constructed three pilot tests in the Songliao Basin, all of which have successfully produced shale oil from underground verifying the feasibility of the in-situ conversion technologies to a certain extent. However, there are still some issues of in-situ conversion technologies, such as low technology maturity, small test scale, high cost and low oil and gas recovery. With the background of the energy demand and the Dual Carbon Targets in China, the in-situ exploitation of oil shale faces both opportunities and challenges, calling for prompt action in the areas of efficient compound heating, reservoir stimulation, cost reduction and efficiency enhancement, low-carbon sustainable development, etc. At the same time, guidance from national policies and cooperation among industry, university and research institutes serve as essential measures to facilitate the commercialization of oil shale in-situ exploitation.