REM is seeking to raise $9 million to support its joint venture with Northwood Exploration Israel, a company established in 2011 by the wine-making Casella family, which also has exploration drilling interests in Australia.

 

The partnership plans to build a plant in southern Israel to produce oil and electricity from kerogen shale.

 

The company's license has an estimated 245 million tonnes of shale oil for the production of 135 million barrels of oil. 

 

While kerogen shale developments in Australia remain marginal at best, and loss-making at worst, the REM-Northwood partnership expects to be able to produce 800,000-900,000 barrels of oil per annum and generate 15 megawatts of electricity for use by the company and external customers.

 

The oil-rich kerogen shale will be mixed with plastic waste for the enrichment of oil production and as an environmental solution for landfilling of non-biodegradable municipal waste.

 

Northwood holds a licence near the Mishor Rotem industrial zone in southern Israel where the kerogen shales overly a phosphate deposit.

 

The companies are planning to use a solid heat carrier technology that has been demonstrated in Estonia to extract oil shale oil for over thirty years, creating by-products such as electricity, fine chemicals and ash to improve the economic benefits of the project. 

 

It does not leave unused mined shale

 

Northwood said the project would have "an attractive low break-even point, allowing the project to operate at current depressed oil prices".

 

The process is based on ex-situ technology and operates in a closed and controlled system to minimise environmental impact, with all the heat needed coming from a heat recovery system using the residual carbon and retorted gas left after the retort process.

 

Under SHC technology the mined shales are heated up and mixed with hot ash till it reaches the optimal retorting temperature.

 

The shale oil vapors mixed with retort gas are cooled down in a cooling system were the shale oil is condensed and separated as final product and the retort gas is sent back to the heat recovery system.

 

The heat recovery system operates under moderate and controlled conditions to avoid ecological implications.

 

Northwood has already spent around $4 million on planning the project to date.