Strictly speaking shale oil is not oil; it's an oil-like substance which is known as kerogen found in sedimentary rocks. The oil shale formation was as a result of application of pressure and heat over millions of years on a mixture of silt and organic matter at the bottom of seas and lakes. Oil shale can actually burn without any processing. The problem is in the extraction of the oil and gas from shale. Though the process of extraction is more expensive and complex than from normal oil wells it is at last becoming an economically viable project more so after an estimated 800 billion barrels of oil have been located in the Green River Formation. Conservatively this will cater for the USA's requirement of oil for the next about 400 years! Technological breakthrough and higher oil prices have together made shale oil recovery a commercially viable project. Shale formations also yield huge quantities of natural gas. People staying in shale rich areas like Fort Worth are therefore realizing the value of oil mineral rights. You may own the property but if you don't own the shale mineral rights you don't get a dime!

Above is the typical problem faced by property owners whose mineral rights have been severed from surface rights which is permissible in the US. As a matter of fact property owners are disinclined to sell their gas or oil mineral rights because of the hope of striking it rich eventually. The other problem is to find a solution to the dilemma of having an entire city sitting on huge gas deposits. One of the biggest problems is between property owners building houses and mineral rights owners demanding access for their drilling facilities. Property owners who do not own oil mineral rights are definitely not a happy lot. However, using horizontal drilling techniques after going down to about 2 miles the companies have found a way out of adding to the woes of the home owner. To complicate matters further the local municipality support oil and gas extraction activities since the effort adds to their coffers! Besides, a fair share of the oil rich land is federal!

Article Source: http://www.ArticleBlast.com