Used as a raw material for the synthesizing petroleum following the peak oil crisis of the 2020s, oil shale production and consumption has been limited almost exclusively to Osea. As a hydrocarbon abundantly available throughout the Osean mainland, it became increasingly politically prudent to advocate energy independence through petroleum infrastructure based on oil shale from the 1980s onward, coinciding with Yuktobanian research into the same matter. Serious studies on both sides of the Ceres, however, revealed that the expenses such synthesization entail negate their benefits, and that the mining, refining, and distribution of oil shale-based petroleum actually used more petroleum than it produced. Furthermore, the environmental risks of strip mining for oil shale and carbon emissions produced by its distillation into gasoline were largely regarded by experts as limiting factors in the fuel's widespread acceptance.
Oil shale-distilled petroleum returned in the 2020s as Oseans insisted on maintaining their suburban landscape, and massive federal projects began to fund oil shale infrastructure. Although far more expensive to refine than regular crude oil, government subsidies have lowered the price to consumers despite accumulating to 15% of the federal budget by 2030. Limited oil shale production has also continued worldwide - primarily by General Resource - to facilitate the manufacturing of petroleum byproducts such as plastics and for distillation into jet fuel and other distillates.