MY LAST 2 CENTSRaytheon process allows oil shale for sale, by Jay Fitzgerald, Boston Herald General Economics Reporter [2006 May 9]
"Raytheon Co. and CF Technologies think they’ve developed a breakthrough technology that could help ease the nation’s energy supply woes.The Waltham-based Raytheon and Hyde Park-based CF said yesterday they’ve jointly come up with a new process that would allow companies to tap into huge underground U.S. shale reserves that can be turned into oil.
The technology entails transmitting radio frequencies into the ground, heating up hydrocarbons in shale and then injecting them with critical fluids that force oil toward wells.
The process is cheaper and more efficient than current technologies used to extract oil from shale, Raytheon said. With oil prices now hovering near historic highs, the technology could help make shale extraction more economically viable for oil companies.
There is an estimated 2 trillion barrels of oil in the nation’s shale reserves, located mostly in the Rocky Mountain region. Canada also has huge reserves of tar sand, which Raytheon believes its technology could extract oil from as well.
Raytheon said the technology was an offshoot of prior work with CF in defense-related projects.