Shale oil is extracted by drilling down two miles to where the layers of shale oil exists and then high pressure bursts of water, sand and chemicals are pumped in to extract the oil. Shale oil can be drilled by using multistage fracking as well as horizontal drilling. Shale oil extraction methods are more flexible than traditional oilwell drilling but fracking  is also disadvantageous as it requires the usage of a great quantity of natural resources.