Show rac radical aspect of oil yielding shale deposits of the western slope S ope BY J B I 1 have been asked by the salt lake g review to briefly describe in a series of acles the marvelous deposits of oil yield ig of the western slope of this con ant nt and particularly as to those deposits iw included in colorado utah and wyom ig comprising the original deposits of the reat at uinta basin before its segregation into 19 green river basin the uinta basin the debeque aque and soldier summit fields I 1 am so invited to discuss the commercial assets of profitably mining and treating th these ese posits of oil yielding because of the arld r ld wide at attention which now is being at acted to them and because of the work aich ch I 1 have done in the field during the st few years and the attention I 1 have h ave yen ven to the practical side of this new c om com erceal industry the potentialities of which a hardly be comprehended at the moment these fields constitute today what is own lown to be the greatest deposits of oil elding belding in the world and when their are compared with those of the eposito of scotland france australia and eng these latter fields melt into in Forr formation nation of deposits and characteristics S the proper consist primarily of ar lacious sedimentary deposits ranging in lickness bickness kness from a few inches to many feet and id containing the remains of billions upon lyions of small plants such as spores dia onis ims and the algae which thrived in the ocene period on the shores and bottom of his is great warm quiescent inland lake they assembled the green mossy plants that we e at this time at the bottom of stagnant during summer time these grew in eat luxuriance and together with number ss fishes and other animal and insect life ere imbedded embedded im bedded on the lake bottom within lays aya and mud sediments brought by freshets fresh ets id d streams from surrounding mountains rom om the oscillating movements of the water lid id mud these were finely mas and aund round into the sediments and after maning ning engineer and oil shale specialist it t lake city utah ble action finally became a part of them occasionally great mineral bearing ledges extending through the mountains were eroded away and the sand and clay from these together with such gold silver and platinum as they contained also found their way into the lake bottoms thereby building up at times beddings which were As all plant and animal life contains nitro t 4 1 X t 7 04 P Z Z W 73 at st A A atypical gdorge garde showing feet of photo taken debeque colorado creek near brush at a point 1000 1000 ai feet above ranches below I 1 I 1 gen and potash it is natural that these also should be preserved in the compressed and become constituents of the shale of lake bottoms went on A this building up for ages until great mass masses es consisting of thin lay layers ers or beddings perhaps each depre renting a season were built to an aggregate 23 thickness of sometimes hundreds of feet these great beddings later on through earth upheaval have themselves become exposed to surface erosion and in places have been entirely uncovered while great gorges and river ch channels changela annela have been cut through the entire formation leaving the surface exposed and showing hundreds of feet in vertical thickness of which are capable of yielding from a few gallons to as high as gallons of high grade petroleum to the ton I 1 I 1 these oil yielding are fou found nd in the green river formation consisting usually of at least two members an upper and a lower in the heart of the uinta basin and where cut by the channel of th the e green rl river v er they show three distinct members each separated by a bell rock this bell rock is a brittle hard sandstone ranging rangin 0 in thickness from a few inches to two feet and which breaks in long slabs usually in an easterly or westerly direction and at a width equal to the thickness of the bed thereby taking on the appearance of sawed timber it has a peculiar metallic ring when struck with a hammer from which it derives the name of bell rock As we approach the rim of what was once the great basin this bell rock merges ant into thicker and softer sandstone beddings this is notably in evidence at debeque colorado green river wyoming and soldier summit utah the members between the intervening bell rock consist of many measures ranging in thickness from a few inches to several feet and in oil yield from a few gallons e to at times as much as ninety or gallons per ton As a rule under similar conditions the older the shale the lower the yield of oil and the higher the yield of ammonia which accounts for our geologically younger western american producing more oil and IL ilk Q 5 4 R 77 high grade shale on brush creek near debeque colorado less ammonia as compared with the products of the scotch while our older kentucky or devonian approach more nearly the products of scotland this does not mean necessarily that the lower and older member of one of our great escarpments will give a much lower yield of oil than the upper one for in that particular locality conditions may have been more favorable for the laying down of oil yielding matter in the lower than in the upper mem ber and the therefore which has been going on in the lower shale during the millions of years intervening between the time of deposit of the earlier and later members may be more than offset by the greater proportion of the hydrocarbon hydro carbon material deposited in the older member when evidence of similar conditions can be established as is frequently the case in different parts of these fields it is safe to asame assume that the younger or upper member is richer in oil making material than the lower one i 11 historical review my first work personally in connection with our american was undertaken early in 1902 when an old scotch retort man came into my office bringing samples of shale from tucker utah with a wonderful story as to the possibilities of producing kerosene direct from shale in this country as was being done in scotland gasoline was then a product byproduct by somewhat of a drug on the market and had but little value the enthusiasm of the old gentleman together with actual demonstration in a small impromptu retort of the production of oil from shale had its effect upon me and I 1 entered into arrangements with him whereby we should build a scotch type retort of sufficient size to demonstrate the practicability of the undertaking after a years work it was concluded that blat the scotch type retort was not fully adapted to the treatment of our high grade american and that while we had splendid success with certain grades particularly those ranging around thirty or thirty five gallons par ton downward we h had a great deal of difficulty when treating shale running above a barrel to the ton the would frequently flux in the retort rt all and sty so all operations until the solid mass could h b removed while we did not then under u derstad der stan the difference between the of se sea land and those of america or the cause fluxing flexing when attempting to retort our youn er american we have since learne very important facts pertain pertaining ang to each an are prepared now to construct and opera operal t retorting and refining plants based on th the important later learned laws it was found that certain fields hoi ho ever contain non fluxing flexing which mi be treated with entire success cess by the met od we were adopting but inasmuch as it afi particularly the high yielding tta we were desirous of working and chic must necessarily be the ones selected in 0 der to operate at a profit it became nee nece sary to work out other devices after good deal of experimental work lasting I 1 tween three and four years this was acco in the development of what has la lafa become the stage process thema ter wa was then allowed to lapse on account inability to interest capital at that time the industry and it was not until about foi years ago when the serious demand for p products began to take on an acut acu aspect that a new retort was wa s built on dep 0 avenue salt lake city and which casbe be operated as occasion has required even sine on from all the important imports nt weste fields the operation of this retort hi b yielded a fund of very important inform sinfori tion pertaining to the treatment of i well as proving commercial possibilities i the of the western slope titles assured great activity certain taio up until antil a few months ago when the ru ing appertaining to the patenting ing of sha st lands was made by assistant secretary secreta ry gelhang and concurred in by se secre crebar payne the outlook for the shale industry Vs that thail B seriously doubtful owing to the fact one could say whether or not titles cou could id be investor invest tor secured to the lands owners and a like alike held aloof and were unwilling to dermake any development or c tio I 1 last ast te work and it is only within the not notice C 1110 months that real 1011 activity l ll j has been been en able during that time M more ore has th to complis hed in this country looking BPS early production of oils from fro M shale P than through all the past years ext silt large interests have secured great holdings under option and while no over amount of actual cash has bar been paid pai or s first perhaps nevertheless norn nominal 11 al ments have been made and as soon as tbt to t buyers can satisfy themselves as y of the various claims P pf af iSIT ex ten D will rapidly be completed and construction of plants will fO follow indications already point to the Y year ito 1921 as ag becoming one of extreme a bu but t that tha gatei as there js is now no question fay y be seemed secured on lands where the law has en strictly atly complied with petro our colorado chloi ado utah as generally abken of are misunderstood misun dei stood they are not i 1 and contain no oil but rather are lales ales which contain the materials from ich petroleum peti oleum can be produced not exacted arted mind you but produced there are lales ales however which do contain petroleum d from which petroleum can be extracted t they are not the colorado utah aich ich we are now co considering fc true oil contain petroleum very uch eh as our saturated oil sands do and it ay y be extracted from them when one day a Y speaks of oil even though re aring ing to our colorado utah his hears naturally think of this kind of shale the rm ni therefore becomes very misleading tiey ey may be which were originally 1 yielding such as our colorado utah lales ales are now but which by internal earth at have been retorted and then later ha have ve 1 sobbed the oil produced or which ere not originally oil yielding but which ve ive through ca attraction or other ise ise taken up migratory oils and thereby ive ave each become true oil another character of shale which con ins no petroleum and from which petro lim um therefore cannot be extracted may etain stain the basic elements of petroleum hy ogen ben and carbon in their primary arted condition and from which oil can be on breaking open a piece of this lar acter of shale one detects a peculiar r lor or this comes from a small amount of as s and a trace of petroleum which has een en Proa produced from frictional or other interi heat at some time in the earths history id d has been confined within the shale un the present time an intense odor does not necessarily in cate a high yielding shale as generally opposed for some of our low grade e much more odorous than some of our agh gh grade the intensity of odor ther indicates the degree of temperature at the shale has undergone the fact that piece of shale burns freely when placed on fire also is not proof of high grade ale as generally supposed low grade ale if dry will do this also but the lighter weight the resultant ash the higher the ade of shale will prove to be r trogen Pe some years ago prof crum brown pos my ably guided by the fact that kerosene was en the most important oil product from he 41 e scotch suggested the term keron ew to express the carbonaceous matter lid that term has been used quite generally europe ever since while it may serve be e purpose under existing conditions in eude ode it is not definite and when applied to T r american where kerosene is of inor importance only and where petroleum its embryo condition and in its broadest sense is referred to the term be becomes cornes as inappropriate and as misleading as the term oil shale does when applied to which contain no oil it was to avoid this and to obtain a concise term for the carbonaceous material as well as to be able to describe each and to designate between the true oil shale and oil yielding shale that the writer some years 24 4 ZV I 1 ik 1 I 1 j ju RM Z aa L L ka al N 3 projecting bell rock near hill creek uinta basin utah slab on which man Is sitting is projecting twelve feet ago coined two new words as well as one to designate the gasoline fraction coming from these to be used in making cal reports it is evident that as soon sooim as the great shale oil plants shall come into operation and the industry shall become established that thai the gasoline products from shale and wells will be placed on the market in competition with each other probably both being dispensed side by side at the same stand inasmuch as the shale gasoline has many properties not possessed by the well gasoline notably more rapid and complete combustion it will become necessary to have a distinguishing name in order that the purchaser may designate which is wanted I 1 have since been using these terms with entire success and find that when adopted the reader or hearer invariably gets the concise meaning that is intended I 1 the words and their are as follows trogen Pe that the hydrogen and carbon F from rom the fact a as s contained in the is the source of petroleum I 1 have taken from the word petroleum the first syllable petro and have added the suffix gen meaning source to form the word I 1 pe trogen indicating therefore the source of petroleum or that material which through destructs c constructive distillation produces petroleum petro to those which are still in their bri primary mary unaltered condition containing pe trogen but not petroleum and therefore are yet only a source of petroleum I 1 pre prefer ferto to apply the term petro sh ales this applies in general to the of colorado utah wyoming new brunswick the devonian of kentucky etc oil OilS haIes to those which were originally petro but which through later earth heat have given up their pe trogen and then through absorption have taken up the re petroleum and are now saturated or true oil and to those which were originally not petro but which through ca attraction or otherwise have taken on migratory oils and therefore also contain oil I 1 prefer to retain the term oil shalene to dasting distinguish the product from shale which correspond to the gasoline fraction I 1 add to the word shale the letters ne to form the word shalene iscalene and which gives me the following concise terms Pe trogen petro oil shale and shalene with their various meanings as above massive shale and paper shale petro are comino commonly filY spoken of as of two kinds massive and paper shale there is primarily no difference between the two except that the paper shale consists of much thinner beddings or measures than the massive between each bedding is a thin layer of argillaceous material containing no trogen pe and this on weathering decomposes and permits the beddings to separate when the exposed edge resembles somewhat sheets of paper piled on each other and which suggests the name paper shale this may be illustrated by taking a number of sheets of tin and a number of pieces of blotting paper and after pasting these firmly together to form a mass an inch oi or two in thickness permit the edge to come |