Show the oil 0 11 of utah and colorado BY HENRY M ADKINSON the threatened exhaustion of oil wells in this country has directed earnest attention to a potential source of 0 oil supply in the oil bearing shale rocks of which there are large deposits in this country some of the richest of these beds are found on public lands in colorado and utah and the government has been quick to recognize their value and has withdrawn thousands of acres f from rom public entry in order to safe erd ard its own ends this action perhaps ore than any other has directed commer I 1 jal al attention to this field the e oil shale industry is new to the cited cited states but tor fifty years it has sen een standardized in scotland and oper aed tea on oil a stabilized basis the production 1 petroleum by distillation from oil bear 61 H einger ining ei noer walker bank building salt S ake city ing rock has been commercially successful in scotland because that country has not enjoyed the advantage of cheap and abundant supply from oil wells which we have had in the united states our attention is now being turned toward this oil shale industry because at the present time our consumption of oil is exceeding its production from oil wells and because we have no reason to expect new oil well fields to come 4 az 21 N 1 0 A or tat the overburden that mining by steam shovels is the logical method reduced erlna action has so in therefore we are looking to methods costs I 1 and results in scotland as our basis for estimation of oil shale possibilities s here the purpose here is to give a summary of the essential facts and figures and a general understanding of the important commercial features in this field the data given herewith are taken from tho original sources in government publications both in the united states and canada and have A been supplemented with information from responsible sources in advance of publication present oil conditions the present supplies production and consumption of stocks of oil is given out by mr mark L requa director of the oil division of the federal fuel administration for 1917 as follows the production for 1917 was barrels the tion was barrels to which we had to draw on stock in reserve to the amount of barrels barr als and the total stocks of 0 oil on hand on january 1 1918 was approximately barrels it is thus clear that we have on hand about half a years supply and we are drawing heavily on this surplus stock to care for current demand discussing this situation before the col orado metal mining association at denver deliver on oil january 1918 dr david T day of the united states bureau of mines commented on the increase in the price of crude oil in 1917 of about 1 per barrel he said now why we get more oil we tried the consumer went to the extent in 1916 of paying out as a bonus to the producers to get thern them inspired to stimulate them to produce more oil if they gave them 1 a barrel barre 1 11 more I 1 on the average that is just pure velvet then they certainly ought to be inspired to get more oil out and make more profit and they tried and they increased the production we will say twenty to forty million barrels thereby and it cost bonus to do it now perhaps next year we might increase a few million barrels more but certainly will not come up to the consumption it looks to us as though the pro ply of fuel oil for the navy there have recently been withdrawn from entry large areas in the vicinity of utah and rangely langely Ran gely colorado perhaps it is this action more than any one thing that has brought the possibilities of the oil shale industry into the focus of the public eye governmental investigation although this recognition of the possibilities bili ties of the utah colorado field has come very recently the preliminary investigations which led to this withdrawal of the public lands began in 1913 and have been carried steadily forward ever since in the summer of 1913 dr david T day and mr E G woodward of the U S geological survey made the first systematic field survey of the oil in the western area and conducted tests to determine the oil content which could be released by distillation the results of this investigation were published in bulletin A on oil P A ilk the oil of scotland are found at depth and must be mined through deep shafts of oil would never again be up in the united states from the oil fields we know of or any that we have a right to expect as though the production would never again come up to the legitimate demands of the oil industry now that is a kind of shocking idea because we have always had the idea that the trade could get enough oil but when such men as mr teagle president of the standard oil company of new jersey warns you and mr bedford adds his warning that the time has come when we have got to get more oil some way or husband our oil one of the two then we have got to look out the government has promptly recognized the threatened oil shortage sandwith and with equal promptness has appreciated the potentialities of the oil shale beds and to guardati guar guards dAts its own interests and provide a sup of northwestern colorado and northeastern utah the possibilities of this field were so encouraging that the field examination was continued in 1914 and 1915 by the government under the direction of dean E winchester in his tests mr winchester determined not only the quantity of crude oil in the shale but also the amount of gas and of amon luin sulphate valuable as a fertilizer that might be obtained as a byproduct by product the report by mr winchester is published by the united states geological survey as bulletin F P on oil shale in northwestern colorado and adjacent areas areas of western shale fields the reconnaissance work by mr dean 0 winchester developed three oil shale areas lying in utah wyoming and colorado the accompanying key ke y map shows the delineations of these been designated as areas which chate haye 1 uintah basin lying mostly in fa ut i with a small extension in colorado 2 green river basin lying albot ai 81 wholly in wyoming and touching n northera llena utah 3 southern red desert basin ly equally in colorado and wyoming ng e of these areas the uintah basin is the th 8 most important from the viewpoint of po pi sible productivity and accessibility and the government has made its most extended and careful examinations in this territory within the uintah basin the area about abott watson utah has promised much and fur ther extensive deposits which lie in favor able positions for cheap mining are fouti in the vicinity of de beque and of rials ditl colorado these two towns are located OE 01 the main line of the denver rio granie railroad watson utah lies on a brand of the denver rio grande running not from the main line at mack colorado AI of these points find their largest adjacent city at salt lake city it is at and near watson utah that to government has designated the lands whid shall be exempted from location and 1 held for future oil supply for the ravy navy possible production from uintah basin basim the report made by mr winchester cok j bains information showing the quality as 21 quantity of the oil that may be distin distill ft from the richer beds of shale the nu nuite int of such beds at the different localities 0 f and the g general beneral distribution of tt I 1 shale throughout northwestern co colora locals s and adjacent parts of utah uta h and a his results which have been corro corr borab a I 1 by tests made in t the he laboratory of the e t E reau of mines show that the quantity I 1 such ch sha sh 1 I from oil that may be derived to niu nin i ranges from less than one gallon result alt t gallons to the ton of shale As a estima esti mat his examination mr winchester S that in colorado alone there is suffice b feet or m shale in beds that are three ino nore thick and capable of yielding mined in than the average shale now ta land twenty three gallons per b ol of C barrels yield about 4 of 0 oil from which barrels DI 0 oline may be extracted by ordinary is P of refining and in utah there pd h amount of shale just jus a ably an equal in hl ada the same shale in colorado ad ca but little litt the oil should produce with ain cost about tons of balul 11 sulphate a compound especially SO R in the unite united as a fertilizer worth industry inn the from 50 to 60 a ton of retorts re 0 quires a large equipment well I 1 e den sers and oil refineries as callot it c la it mining machinery so that small scale sea ab profitably handled on a the thickest and richest beds of shale are found exposed along the southern margin of the basin and nearly every section examined contains beds of shale more than three feet thick and will yield considerable oil an examination of the same formation in wyoming indicates that in that area there are no thick beds of rich shale the estimate of mr winchester for the r united states geological survey is confirmed by that of dr ir D george state geologist agist of colorado whom the writer has known intimately for many years as an accurate and conservative geologist dr george estimates that the of garfield and rio blanco counties colorado alone have a potential oil production of barrels 1 As noted above the average production from the scotch for many years has been twenty three gallons per ton this too was the average for 1916 against this record on which a basic industry has been established the of the uintah basin avill will yield over wide areas from forty to sixty gallons per ton this increased yield as is a very important commercial factor and is discussed later I 1 in the uintah basin the shale beds lie I 1 at approximately horizontal positions and weathering action has so reduced the amount of overburden that mining by steam shovels is the logical method stream tero erosion sion has cut deeply into the ex osing vertical walls varying from a few feet beet to many ciany hundreds of feet in height this aphis again is most favorable for stearn steam pnovel shovel mining these mining conditions ire are r nuch much more favorable than those in scotland where the deposits of oil re ire found at depth and are much broken y faulting and folding these beds must ie e mined through deep shafts at increased mining expense for breaking hoisting and timbering notwithstanding ding the added difficulties in scotland the mining costs there are 1 per ton even though lavor costs are lower in scotland than we can expect to have here yet the greater accessibility of our deposits deposes and the possibilities of steam shovel fining ought to reduce our mining costs below belov theirs dr day states that if our mining ining companies will put the hale shale s into the he mouth of the retort for 60 cents per ton on it is certain that the business will pay handsome dividends under the methods which are available this seems not a difficult alt result to accomplish r scottish costs are reported as follows mining ning costs of shale per ton buoo reduction in retorts per ton 40 total to produce 23 gals of crude oil buo against this we may expect the following costs in the treatment of our oil whales hales mining costs of shale per ton 60 retorting costs using the scotch flure figure fl ure 40 total to produce average of 50 gals crude oil production cost U S oil per gal 02 production cost scotch oil per gal 06 rel however on an estimated production of fifty gallons per ton the production cost per barrel would be 1 and the profit on the present market would be per barrel therefore at the present oil quotations a porfi table margin is shown in the business busine sg merely in the production of crude alx I 1 ail V A A 7 V X A IF v p i an 43 R some of the richest oil bearing shale rocks are found in colorado an d utah the present price of crude oil mideon quotations is per barrel of forty two gallons if our produced produce dt as do those of scotland only twenty three gallons per ton of shale it aou would id cost per barrel to produce and the profit on the present market would be 46 cents per oil and entirely disregarding the profits in the refining of the oil oil distillation processes at the present time the industry is being exploited by many proposed oil processes many any chemists are at work on ons of the scottish distilling I 1 methods and each claims to have devised the best system from the commercial point of view it would seem wisest to adopt the standardized and proven distillation methods now being operated in scotland and france and use use these established systems at the outset it should be a sufficient advantage in the beginning to have of higher oil content and so located that the mining costs are greatly reduced using this as the basic advantage the colorado utah industry can well afford to begin its operations with the time tidie brov proven en distillation methods I 1 1 oil sands in addition to the large beds of oil from which the oil must be obtained by applying intense heat to the shale rock and driving off the oil in vaporized vaporizer form there are deposits of oil sands in these oil sands the oil is mixed with the sand just as molasses would be were handfuls of sand stirred into a basin of molasses the extraction of the oil from these sands is very simple in that it is only necessary to put the oil sands into a container and pour in gasoline which will dissolve the oil and the sands will be discharged clean and white the oil and gasoline come off together they are then separated and the gasoline can be used as a solvent time and again the two distinctive treatments are thus seen at a glance the oil are treated by heating and driving off the oil as a vapor which is afterward condensed by a reduction in its temperature as it passes through water cooled condensers the oil sands are treated by a gasoline solvent and cleansed by dissolving out the oil this latter method is the most attractive one from the commercial viewpoint view point especially in beginning operations in this new field f the equipment for obtaining the oil is much simpler and the methods are less expensive in installation several mechanical ch anical devices for the treatment of oil sands are being now tried out refining any discussion of the refining of the crude oil is omitted here because this is an established business in which the methods used in the united states are preeminent pre eminent the cracking of the oil to obtain gasoline lubricating bri cating oils and other products is well and widely understood history of oil in the U S between 1850 and 1860 oil were imported from canada scotland and from england these together with some hales from near boston and from pennsylvania were distilled with great profit in the united states the mormons cormons were then distilling oil from shale near juab utah where the ruins of an old still can yet be seen baskerville says there were fiat fifty y five oil companies in the united states in 1860 many of these companies were of small capacity and most of them were not more than fairly started when the discovery of petroleum paralyzed paral zed the industry the discovery of the oil wells in pennsylvania in 1859 and 1860 made petroleum so cheap that shale distillation was abandoned in the united states but it was not abandoned in france where it had been established and in operation since about 1830 nor in scotland where it has been prosperous since 1860 the french are much poorer in quality than the scottish but the experience and basic methods of the scotch shale industry still dominate the processes used in germany france and australia scotch modern english an and i d scotch industries were really started by dr james young in 1847 when bighead coal or the nehill minerals were first treated and yielded from to gallons of crude oil per ton D R steuart says of this the manufacture of oil from shale is allied to the great petroleum industry and more closely to the oil shale manufacture in france and the |