The heat for converting kerogen to oil and gas will be supplied by downhole burners in long horizontal wells through the illitic shale, as shown schematically in the second figure. The burners will be fired using gas co-produced with the shale oil. By separating our process from the aquifers by a thick layer of impermeable nahcolitic oil shale (i.e., contains high levels of baking soda), we avoid aquifer contamination problems.
