ICP is a patented technology developed by Shell for exploiting oil shale and other unconventional resources, which is especially beneficial to the development of deep oil shale. The basic principle of ICP mining oil shale is to heat and crack the underground oil shale seam to convert it into high-quality oil or natural gas, and then extract oil and natural gas respectively through relevant channels; These high-quality oil (gas) can be collected and processed on the ground to produce naphtha, kerosene and other refined oil. The outstanding advantages of this technology are: improving the efficiency of resource development and utilization; Reduce the damage to the ecological environment in the process of mining, that is, less land occupation, no tailings and waste, no air pollution and less groundwater pollution, and minimize the generation of harmful by-products. Although the technology has not been fully commercialized, key technical problems such as technology and equipment have been solved, and commercial demonstrations have been carried out in Colorado, USA and Alberta, Canada.
The efficient utilization of oil shale and the progress of mining and utilization technology will lead to the increasing demand for oil shale ore, which not only needs shallow exposed oil shale ore, but also needs large hidden oil shale deep ore.