I understand the language can be confusing as the media refers to oil from shale as shale oil. But this process is not about the old retorting shale to produce kerogen to create a synthetic crude.
This article is discussion producing oil that is already separated from the shale and can be produced with only drilling and pumping. What has changed is the ability to effectively use steerable horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing to open up the relatively narrow bands within the tight rock.
This isn't theory. It has been in production for years and has already produced significant increases in oil production.
We have a ways to go, but with this technology and a few states reasonable in the regulations, we have reversed the declining trend of the US oil production.
