The dielectric behavior of Green River oil shale from the Piceance Creek Basin was studied in the microwave frequency range as a function of organic content, frequency of radiation, and packing factor. Shale containing 42 to 317 cm® of oil/kg of shale (10 to 76 gal/ton) as determined by Fischer assay exhibited increasing values of the imaginary relative permittivity from 0.034 to 0.155 at a frequency of 500 MHz. The measurement of permittivity may, therefore, be an alternate and powerful assaying method for oil shale. A broad spectrum of frequencies may be used to assay shale because orientation polarization was observed to disperse molecular dipole relaxation over two decades of frequency.

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