Salt Lake Tribune | 1916-05-02 | Page 6 | Utah's Shale beds

UTAH'S SHALE BEDS. The United Slates geological survey estimates that in Colorado alone there is sufficient shale, in beds three feet or more thick, to yield 20,000,000,000 bar- j re!s of crude oil from which at least' 2,000,000,000 -barrels of gasoline may be extracted by ordinary refining processes. The men sent; out by the survey studied an area of land in northwestern Colorado, Colora-do, northeastern Utah and southwestern Wvomiug. and their report says the shaie found in the district contains minerals which, when heated. 'may be converted into crude oil, gas aud ammonia, and the prediction is made that sooner or later this great source of Mippiy will be utilized to supplement the decreasing production from the regular oil fields. It is said that when refined by ordinary ordi-nary methods the shale oil yields en average of 10 per cent gasoline, 35 per (cent kerosene and a large amount of paraffin. In tunes past little attention has be eu paid to these vast shale deposits de-posits iu Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, although from time to time there has b.ren ta'k of the development of a new iudustrv in the mountains by extracting the oil long known to exist at our very doors. The coming in of new wells in the United Scares, howm or, has been sufficient to supply all demands for petroleum and the shale beds have been reserved lor the future. Some time, perhaps sooner than we imagine, Utah will be prominent in the oil producing iudustrv and much wealth wiU flow into f'he state from this source. 1 1 is evil nov-ilde that these deposits leould be extensheiy worked at a fair ! profit even now. For more than fifty eai s the oil saale indusi ry of Seot-j Seot-j iand ha- been a very im port ant one. ITho rrpnrt the survey rails attention ito tiie fa t tii at in a recent year more Mi:m men were employed iu the in- 'du-try in Gi;iL tuuulr.v. 3 cL Lite ucraac yield of oil per ton of shale was much less than that which appears possible from the shale of this state, Colorado and Wyoming. Just now, with, gasoline selling at thirty cents a gallon, it would be a fine thing if the Utah shale were crushed and the oil extracted, for a better opportunity to establish the industry could not exist. But as prices are expected to fall at the close of the war in Europe we fear this new industry in-dustry will not be fully developed by enterprising American citizens until the oil wells begin to fnil some, time in the future. While it does not do us any great amount of good at the present time, it is some comfort to know that the sha.le exists and that some day it will be worked.