Unconventional oil means that oil is produced or exploited by unconventional oil well technology, such as extra-heavy crude oil , oil sands oil, tight oil, shale oil , etc., all of which have heavy specific gravity, many impurities, high viscosity, and light hydrocarbon components. Less and higher production cost.
Currently, unconventional oil is less efficient to produce, and in some typical cases, its extraction is more harmful to the environment than conventional oil.
These unconventional oil resources can be widely used for automobiles and other transportation when the “economic damage” caused by the shortage of conventional oil occurs.
The current preference for conventional oil is for very small refining losses after extraction (ie, a very high recovery/refining ratio). In unconventional oil exploration, in order to improve production efficiency, technologies such as injecting hot steam into oil sands and then extracting oil and other hydrocarbons are continuously used.
With the reduction of conventional oil resources and the rise of production costs, unconventional oil will be developed and utilized.