Shale oil extraction Energy estimates that the "ex-situ" processing would be economic at sustained average world oil prices above $54 per barrel and "in-situ" processing would be economic at prices above $35 per barrel. These estimates assume a return rate of 15%. Royal Dutch Shell announced in 2006 that its Shell ICP technology would realize a profit when crude oil prices are higher than $30 per barrel ($190/m), while some technologies at full-scale production assert profitability at oil prices even lower than $20 per barrel ($130/m). To increase the efficiency of oil shale retorting and by this the viability of the shale oil
Barrel (unit) in many countries, the term may be used for the commercial package units independent of actual volume, where common range for professional use is 20-60 L, typically a DIN or "Euro keg" of 50 L. Richard III, King of England from 1483 until 1485, had defined the wine puncheon as a cask holding 84 gallons and a wine tierce as holding 42 gallons. By 1700 custom had made the 42-gallon watertight tierce a standard container for shipping eel, salmon, herring, molasses, wine, whale oil and many other commodities in the English colonies. After the American Revolution in 1776, American merchants