Eastern oil shale represents a major supply of oil reserves. For example, the oil shale located in just two counties in Kentucky represent two or more trillion barrels of oil when based on an overburden to shale ratio of 1.5. There are potential advantages to the production of oil from these Eastern reserves including location within 500 miles of a large fraction of the U.S. population and a ready supply of water needed for processing. A major disadvantage for the eastern shale is that it requires special retorting if the oil is to be competitive in the marketplace. One of the disadvantages of Eastern shale compared to Western U.S. shale is that a larger fraction is converted to coke under normal thermal recovery retorting processes. However, a 1.5 – 2.0 greater yield of oil is obtained when a rapid pyrolysis such as fluid bed retorting is used. Limited data suggest that a high yield of products of higher quality can be obtained if the rapid pyrolysis is conducted in a hydrogen atmosphere. An overview of the Eastern oil shale reserves, with emphasis on the Kentucky resource, will be provided. Typical yields of product and its quality is obtained with various retorting processes will be described.

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