Show the oil 01 1 shale industry in 1920 1 BY VICTOR C ALDERSON the past year is one in which no spectacular results have been obtained but a year in which substantial and far reaching fundamental progress has been made effective legal progress has been made in securing valid title from the government extensive experimental work has been done on retorting chemical investigation on the nature properties and behavior of oil shale has been carried on the problems of refining shale oil have been taken up by oil re finers and chemists and finally large financial interests especially the oil and mining have recognized that the oil shale industry is worthy of their closest attention title to oil shale lands the passage of the oil land leasing bill clearly and definitely established the validity of oil shale claims initiated under the placer law it also provided for the withdrawal from entry of all oil shale land not filed on before the passage of the act by far the most important event in 1920 as far as the oil industry is concerned was the issuance of a patent to oil shale land b by the united states government this esta established a precedent to the effect that oil shale lands filed on under the placer law with annual assessment done according to law could be carried to patent the first patent issued was to the reed doyle interests the application of the colorado carbon company is now pending others may be expected to follow rapidly as it is unlikely that large financial interests will invest in the erection of if plants until they are assured of a good title to their land the bill extending the time until july 1 1921 in which assessment work for 1920 could be done was a boon to land owners who were over extended it also prevented the reversion of much land to the government that can now be held by the locators there remains however many causes of friction and petty annoyances like the character of the assessment work that will be accepted by the government and at the same time be a direct develop development meni of the land the frequent unfriendly attitude of local representatives of the land office and the ineptitude of washington officials to understand local conditions Cali fornias oil shale deposits little has been published about the oil shale deposits of california yet they are extensive and valuable it is reported that in kern county an area of twenty five square miles have been sampled and found to yield an average of 52 gallons of oil to the ton at elsinore near Ri verdale test pits show show fifteen feet of shale which yield from 58 to 62 gallons of oll oil president colorado of mille mines S golden colorado exerts fro from m a an extended t review prepa prepared for in the colorado school of mines quarterly at the shuman cut on the southern pacific three miles north of casmalia carmalia Cas malia and ten miles from santa maria a foot face of oil shale is exposed on the west side of the cut on the east side a hill feet high is virtually all shale with a small overburden of soil on the eastern edge of this hill an oil well sunk to 2000 feet showed a continuous body of oil shale the deposit has been sampled from surface exposures and by drill holes and shows an average from 30 to 35 gallons of oil to the ton A sample tested at the colorado school of mines gave 32 gallons the economic advantages of this deposit cheap open cut mining nearness to transportation and to market gives it a distinct advantage as a commercial project the united states producers refining company owns 1000 acres of this ground the president E W hartman has designed a retort the first fifty ton unit of which is now being installed and is expected to be in operation by february 1 no effort will be made to produce products byproducts by A skimming plant only will be erected mr hartman that with a plant of tons daily capacity which he contemplates he can mine and retort the shale for 65 cents a barrel and that the marketable product will be 20 gallons of gasoline 3 gallons of distillate and 2 gallons of coal oil to the ton of shale in nevada the deposit seven miles from carlin has been traced for a distance of fe feet r t four veins are exposed two five feet thick one ten feet thick and one thirty feet thick the dip is 40 degrees an incline shaft shaf thas has been sunk on the thirty foot vein for a distance of seventy six feet the nevada shale fuel company of elko nevada owns acres of this ground nevada plant pla nt on commercial basis at elko nevada the catlin plant is on a commercially productive basis with a daily output of barrels of crude oil the mine has been opened by an inclined shaft feet long with drifts feet apart each approximately feet long no apparent change in the character of the shale has been noted the cost of mining as nearly as can be estimated now is a ton the plant is a complete unit with retort condensers two barrel stills sweating and refrigerating plant the marketable products are arc gasoline distillate lubricating oil and paraffin wax enough gas is produced from the raw sha shale in the retort added to the gas made from the spent shale in a detached gas producer to supply power needs of the entire plant experimental work has been going on for the past four years fifteen thousand gallons of crude oil have been produced and gallons put through the stills the product will not be put on the market until a commercial stock has been accumulated to R IM M catlin franklin Pur burnace nace new jersey who alone has financed this undertaking and has done the experimental work together with W L sheeler the superintendent belongs the credit of operating the first commercially productive oil shale plant in the united states utah and colorado activities in utah the western shale oil company erected a tenton ten ton plant of the galloupe type was producing regularly and had contracted with the apex refining company for the delivery of oil A fire however interfered with operations four additional units of ten ton capacity each are under construction and are expected to be completed by february 1 this will be increased to tons by march 1 the company estimates that the total cost of production of oil in this plant will be a barrel in colorado activity has been pronounced especially in and about grand valley and debeque at grand valley the grand valley oil and shale company is erecting a retort and a wells refining plant on their property in starkey gulch six miles north of town the company is also erecting ing a testing and research laboratory in the town of grand valley the union oil company of california and the midwest oil company have both secured extensive acreage the schuyler doyle interests are erecting a taff retort in wheeler gulch at debeque the W P hammon interests have acquired approximately acres are engaged in diamond drilling the ground and are planning to erect a plant the lackawanna company is erecting a randall retort the mount blaine a brown retort and the monarch company a ginet retort the mount logan company is operating a simplex retort in rio blanco county the continental oil shale company has a 50 ton plant ready for operation in the spring in denver L F chew of the national oil shale company has erected a com merical saz sized ed vertical re tort and is doing experimental experiment il work on both retorting and refining J mcd johns of the industrial process company of st lous louis has put up a full sized inclined retort the peculiar feature of which is that the shale is reduced to a very fine size a part of this powdered shale is used as fuel to teat heat the retort and the rest is put through the retort and yields gas and oil research and experimental work it would be impossibly impossible within the limits of this paper to describe in detail the experimental per peri i mental and research work of the past year even if it were worth while the amount of work bein being g done is so great and the number of investigators so numerous nume numerous ious scattered and interested only in their own special problems that the task of collecting co coordinating and analyzing the individual results is virtually impossible the problem remains the same however first to perfect a retort of large capacity fool proof in its operation constructed on correct scientific principles that alil produce the maximum amount of good oil second to refine crude shale oil not into a long list of hypothetical products byproducts by prodoc ts but into a few products for which there is a ready market and third to ordinate coordinate co the various processes so that the marketable products can be sold at a profit As usual governmental and state research work lags behind private enterprise private interests are now employing their own chemists and technical men to make their investigations the U S bureau of mines is doing creditable work as far as its resources will allow at the colorado school of mines resources are limited but the interest is so keen that individual efforts by professors low roberts and franks of the chemistry department and keeney and williams of the metallurgical research department have resulted in scientific information and technical publications of permanent value to the industry this has been carried to such an extent that even with its scant financial resources the colorado school of mines has attained an international reputation as a center of oil shale research and information general observations A retrospect of 1920 shows an interest in the oil shale industry exceedingly gratifying to those pioneers of the industry whose interest was first awakened by the bulletins of the U S geological b survey in 1913 14 A spirit of pessimism the result of ignorance or ulterior motives has been succeeded by a spirit of optimism close observers have known of the possibilities ties of oil shale for years but not till the past year have the laymen the investor the oil men the mining men and the large financial interests become awakened to the full import of the subject and its great possibilities the action of such strong financial organizations as the union oil company of dC california alifornia the pure oil company the ohio cities gas company the carter oil company the standard oil company the midwest oil company and the W P hammon organization in the united states the an glo American and anglo persian oil companies of london and the var coal and oil company of france in acquiring land and investigating the method of treatment of oil points unerringly to the early establishment lish ment of the industry on a commercially productive basis so that the united states need have no apprehension whatever about its domestic supply of crude oil virtually for all time |