type private industry oil shale predecessor egl oil shale headquarters rifle colorado united states key people claude pupkin ceo howard jonas ceo parent company alan burnham chief technology officer owner genie oil & gas total s.a. website www.amso.net the american shale oil llc amso originally known as egl oil shale llc was a developer of in situ shale oil extraction technology based in rifle colorado . it was owned by genie energy and total s.a. . 1 2 in may 2016 genie energy announced that the amso project was closing . 2 contents 1 history 2 technology 3 operations 4 management 5 references 6 external links history edit egl oil shale was established as a subsidiary of egl resources a privately owned independent oil and gas company with operations in the southwestern united states . in 2006 it was awarded a lease by the united states bureau of land management to develop and demonstrate its in situ oil shale extraction technology in western colorado . on 22 january 2008 idt corporation and egl resources signed an agreement according to which idt acquired 75 % of egl oil shale and renamed it amso llc . amso was formed on 15 february 2008 . 3 4 shortly thereafter idt bought an additional 15 % of amso llc . subsequently on 3 march 2009 french oil major total bought 50 % of amso llc s shares for 3.2 million with egl resources selling their remainder and idt retaining 50 % . 1 5 idt s share was subsequently transferred to genie energy which was split off from idt on october 31 2011 . they were owned by american shale oil corporation which major shareholder was genie energy s oil and gas arm genie oil and gas with 98.3 % . 6 in 2007 the company was awarded the bureau of land management oil shale research development and demonstration lease in rio blanco county colorado . 7 amso started its pilot well in january 2012 but the operations were interrupted shortly afterwards due to technical problems with a 600 kilowatt electric heater . 8 by march 31 2016 the ownership of total in amso llc was increased to 58.7 % . 6 on february 23 2016 total announced its intention to discontinue funding amso llc and on march 23 2016 it announced its withdrawal from the project effective april 30 2016 . 2 6 total agreed to pay us 3 million for decommissioning winding up and dissolution of amso llc . 6 genie energy estimated that the total amount of such cost would be about 5 million of which genie s share would be under 2 million . 2 6 technology edit amso developed a process called conduction convection reflux ccr oil shale conversion . the process combines horizontal wells which are heated by a downhole burner or other means and other horizontal or vertical wells which provide both heat transfer through refluxing of generated oil and a means to collect and produce the oil . at the start of the heating process oil is injected to improve heat transfer . amso has proposed that permeability of the formation sufficient for convection will be achieved by thermomechanical fracturing . 9 the original technology proposed by egl was based on hydraulic fracturing . 10 amso believes that by heating the rock more quickly than in the shell in situ conversion process 3 to 12 months as opposed to several years the ccr process will consume less energy and require fewer wells . 11 researchers at petrochina who reviewed amsos proposed technology in 2008 noted that the output of oil and gas could be faster but felt that the technical complexity and costs of the proposed technology were shortcomings and also noted that the fluid flow would be difficult to control and easy to short circuit . 12 operations edit amso s operating office was located in rifle colorado . 13 amso was also supported by amso and genie staff at the genie office in newark new jersey . 5 according to an sec filing by idt in october 2011 amso had four full time employees and fixed assets of us 15 000 . 5 the company leased a 160 acres 650 000 m2 test tract in the piceance basin from the bureau of land management . 10 14 management edit the company s chairman and chief executive officer was howard jonas the founder and chairman of idt corporation . the president was claude pupkin . the chief technology officer and project manager was alan k. burnham 3 and the vice president for operations was roger l. day . references edit a b total buys 50 pct stake in amso to sell shale oil . reuters . 2009 01 14 . retrieved 2009 02 14 . a b c d first quarter 2016 results . genie energy . retrieved 2016 08 02 . a b idt corporation introduces shale oil division press release . idt corporation . 2008 02 15 . retrieved 2016 08 03 . idt grabs share of shale . upstream online . nhst media group . 2008 01 22 . retrieved 2008 08 18 . subscription required help . a b c preliminary information statement . genie energy . retrieved 2011 10 11 . a b c d e quarterly report form 10 q . genie energy . 2016 05 10 . retrieved 2016 08 03 . tsai catherine 2012 08 31 . blm oks 2 more colo. oil shale research leases . bloomberg businessweek . associated press . archived from the original on 2012 09 03 . retrieved 2012 11 18 . farnham alan 2012 11 13 . an american oil find that holds more than all of opec . abc news . retrieved 2012 11 18 . burnham alan k. ; day roger l. ; hardy michael p. ; wallman p. henrik 2010 . amso s novel approach to in situ oil shale recovery . oil shale a solution to the liquid fuel dilemma . agapito associates . pp. 149 160 . doi 10.1021 bk 2010 1032 . ch008 . isbn 9780841225398 . subscription required help . a b plan of operation for oil shale research development and demonstration r d d tract pdf . e.g.l. resources inc. 2006 02 15 . retrieved 2008 05 01 . rd & d leases . testing a new generation of technology . center of the american west . retrieved 2011 10 11 . fang chaohe ; zheng dewen ; liu dexun 2008 10 13 . main problems in development and utilization of oil shale and status of in situ conversion in china pdf . 28th oil shale symposium . golden colorado colorado school of mines . retrieved 2011 10 28 . secure fuels from domestic resources the continuing evolution of america s oil shale and tar sands industries pdf 4 ed . . united states department of energy . september 2011 . pp. 8 9 . retrieved 2012 11 18 . innovation in shale technology . egl shale . 2006 11 16 . archived from the original on 20 june 2007 . retrieved 2007 07 06 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title american shale oil & oldid 743853887 categories oil companies of the united statesoil shale companiesenergy companies established in 2005non renewable resource companies established in 2005privately held companies based in coloradototal s.a.hidden categories pages containing links to subscription only content navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured 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