Shell is trying to heat the oil shale rock to a temperature of 700 degrees fahrenheit using heating elements that are carefully embedded down into the rock. The oil and natural gas is then baked out of the rock creating pools that can then be pumped to the surface. A fundamental problem of the process is that the oil soaks further down and away into the ground shortly after being turned into liquid. To compensate, Shell has buried refrigeration pipes in a ring around the heating site so that the edges of the extraction site will remain solid and hold the liquid oil in place. This process requires a great deal of energy but in the end produces more energy than it expends (approximately 3.5 times as much energy comes out as goes in). The Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI) is low compared to conventional crude oil extraction, however the heating process itself creates a byproduct of natural gas that can be used as the energy input, so heating energy cost should be insignificant compared to the value of the crude oil output.

This project is an optimistic follow-up to the abandoned projects of other oil companies who received billions of dollars in funding during the Carter Administration in the 1970's only to fail. Private investments also failed and have made investors wary of oil shale projects. The most notorious of these projects undertaken by Exxon under the name of the Colony II Project in Garfield County, Colorado, where 2,000 people eventually lost their jobs when Exxon pulled out of the project in 1982. Shell's project has been a lot more cautious and in early 2005 produced its first successful extractions

It is not economically feasible to produce oil from shale because of the capital required . . . UNTRUE – early attempts by others required heavy capital expenditures on huge facilities based on the alleged benefits of economies of scale. The Oil-Tech process reverses that trend and uses smaller, easily replicated and fabricated modular units. These may be easily transported. Any operational/service problems do not disrupt production by more than a minimal percentage.

It is not economically feasible to produce oil from shale because of the energy required . . . UNTRUE – the Oil-Tech process has been validated to produce shale oil with a very low energy cost. The system can also be upgraded by utilizing cogeneration and a variety of BTU recovery technologies that virtually eliminate the need for external power for any site operations.