shale oil
3
4.0
- noun
- /ʃeɪl ɔɪl/
- Specialized
:
petróleo de esquisto
- North Dakota, now enjoying a shale oil boom, has seen its economy thrive.
- shale oil boom
- shale oil production
- shale oil and gas
Examples
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For starters, much of the increased oil production has come from the exploitation of previously unreachable stores of shale oil in the Bakken formation underlying Montana and North Dakota.
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Instead of social spending, America will have a chance to pay down debt with royalties from the coming shale oil boom.
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There also seems to be a focus on the lower 48 shale oil reserves.
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Also, US oil production is climbing again, thanks to deep water drilling and new shale oil production.
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Colorado alone has trillions of barrels in the form of shale oil.
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Even OPEC is now convinced that shale oil would diminish its share of the U.S. market.
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Overall, Akita Prefecture's total shale oil reserves are estimated at a modest 100 million barrels.
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Last week, JAPAX announced that it had succeeded in extracting shale oil from the Ayukawa oil and gas field in Akita Prefecture, a first for Japan.
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The U.S. is now producing shale oil through advanced extraction techniques.
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Oil prices are influenced by the increasing production of shale oil in the United States.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound denotes oil that comes from shale rock, which is a straightforward noun+noun composition: 'shale' (a type of rock) + 'oil' (the fuel/liquid). Although the technical extraction methods (fracking/horizontal drilling) are specialized, the basic meaning 'oil from shale' is directly inferable and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will likely understand it.
Etymology
Shale oil is called this because the oil comes from underground shale rock that must be drilled and cracked to free the oil. Because the oil is trapped in small spaces in the rock, it is also called 'tight oil', and the name explains its modern meaning.