Show l importance ce of f Oil Shale I If By Ira C. C Tichenor f fr the oil sh lo ind industry stI a ae pr previously vio sIy has be been n declared in inthis in sl this tI column is IS destined destined- to become becom of great importance is S tc constantly stant y becoming recognized is proved by the fact that some of the Jarg largest st drilling comp companies nies in tho the United States tate are arc a acquiring quiring 1 Ly V y purchased purche or lease holdings of ot rich oil all shale lands In Utah Colorado and 1 f j which states states lead In extent of ot de deposits os ts and and tho richness ch of t oil all f deposit i fc t During g. g the present month the Oil and G Gas s N News ws Issued a It special edition on f of cf mo more e th than n eighty y pages devoted almost exclusively to tool oil and n in n t k which were re p printed p photographs of ot some some of at atthe the mou mountains tai S of r oil oh oil In Eastern Utah and Western C Colorado lorado together with articles by well known geologists and and experts experts showing the possibilities of at the 01 oil shale Industry I In an editorial on the subject of at oil all shale the journal declared The time Is rapidly approaching in the United States when the price pricel l I ot pe peo petroleum o products must be figured d on n an Import rather than an export t basis asis In other words we are speeding the day when the American motorist I Pf w iiii ll be paying in the neighborhood of ot 80 SO or 90 cents per gallon for tor gasoline as the English motorist pays and yet will be able to obtain it may be but buta buti i a a third of or the quantity he now now consumes In a car that no longer is deemed a luxury but a a. necessity Unprecedented activity in the development of at producing fields and Ifa x exploration in unproven territory Is W failing to bridge the ever wI widening gap between production and consumption of ot petroleum During January February and March of t the present year It It was necessary according to i statistics ics announced by the United States geological survey urvey survey to withdraw ii O barrels of crude oil all from front storage to meet demands and yet the It t. t c consumption ot of gasoline and lubricants by the automobile was far less duri during g L these these months than it will be during the summer eummer and fall tall months while the aini tractors of or the Northern and and- Central states were only beginning to I fl awaken from winter hibernation late In March tot with the fact tact that in v Considering pon the condition as sketched together t r northern Colorado and northeastern Utah alone deposits of at oil shale underlie than square squar mlles miles of at territory which eminent geologists and F engineers g n ers estimate to be capable o of yielding more th than n barrels oJ of crude oil on or nearly ten tim times s as much petroleum as had been obtained from J-from f from wells In the United States since 1857 that this crude shale shale oil all will refine into any and all the products that are obtained from underground S rud petroleum that the production of or shale oil has been an Important and commercially successful industry In Scotland during the the the greater greater part of at r last th the last seventy severity years und under r cond conditions t far r less less' favorable than exist in color Colorado do Utah and other mountain states further explanation of ot the 2 d decision n to devote this issue of ot Oil and G Gas s News in part to a discussion 1 and stupendous po possibilities of ot the shale oil oU industry stry of th the present status A 1 appears superfluous be beH Regardless or of the extent to tY which the oil shale Industry may H developed developed there is no possibility that it will prove detrimental to the demand interests of r dr drilling operations In view of increasing r for r. r oil which which already has passed the supply In hi this country be and the to developed th the oil fields yet consideration I P Taking into of or coming comIng oil shale and oil sand industries it would would appear that the history i lle oil ll ind industry stry has but Just begun |