Chevron CRUSH

Sinclair Oil Corporation conducted an experiment using both natural and induced fractures to establish communication between wells and developing an in situ combustion process.

[2] Based on these works, Chevron Corporation and the Los Alamos National Laboratory started a cooperation in 2006 to improve the recovery of hydrocarbons from oil shale.

[4] In February 2012, Chevron notified the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Reclamation, Mining and Safety that it intends to divest this lease.

[5][6] For decomposition kerogen in oil shale, the Chevron CRUSH process uses heated carbon dioxide.

The process involves drilling vertical wells into the oil shale formation and applying horizontal fractures induced by injecting carbon dioxide through drilled wells and then pressured through the formation for circulation through the fractured intervals to rubblize the production zone.