Show I Two Vernal men are pictured in the summer edition of the Petroleum Today magazine Lee Marchant and Robert E. E Covington are shown in the tar sand beds along with a picture of the ERDA reverse ignition experiment project just west of Vernal Also a county road paved with untreated tar sands locally called asphalt is featured The article stated the Vernal tar sands roads have a reputation for durability and so far this represents the only practical use of tar sand in the United States The Petroleum Today article features the success of oil sands projects in Canada mainly located In the Athabasca tar ar sands A project called Sync rude is being built at ata a cost of more than two billion dollars which is expected to wring out barrels of oil per day from tar sands One reason for the great enthusiasm for oil sands production in Canada is that for forthe forthe forthe the first time in its nine years of operation the pioneer in the industry Great Canadian Oil Sands has earned its first profits With the new effort and economical success to produce oil from oil sands in Canada maybe the US U.S. will become more interested in developing its only experimental plant near Vernal's Asphalt Ridge Also along the line of energy resources i is a claim made by bythe bythe bythe the Pitts Energy Energy- Group Dallas Dallu Texas that only 2 percent of the US U.S. has been tested for potential oil and gas production The article stated that 98 percent of the US U.S. remained unexplored due to federal controls Instead of running out of natural gas as President Carter and his energy advisors say we are vast quantities of new natural gas are expected to tobe tobe tobe be produced in the remaining 98 percent of the untested potential sediments in the US U.S. the article states The artificially low price received for natural gas has been the reason more gas wells are not drilled Four problem areas in gas exploration according according according ac ac- ac- ac cording to oil companies are low production areas deep geological areas frontier areas and special category areas In short if the price is right the gas will be found and marketed About the only good thing we can say for the recent forest fire on the Ashley forest is that it was not man Lightning is blamed for the start of the blaze And theres there's not much anyone can do to prevent lightning With the extreme drought conditions prevailing over the west and with the remain ingli t weather ahead of us forest and range fire potential is frightening Fire could wipe out outa a lot of country Lets Let's be especially careful over the of July holiday that no fire damages are caused by careless campers and pic pic- Dont Don't take the chance of leaving campfires and smokes until you are sure they are dead out Be safe rather than sorry dont don't underestimate underestimate underestimate un un- the forest fire threat A lot of work is going into the Pioneer Day celebration activities activities ac ac- ac planned for Monday A breakfast at the Bicentennial pavilion and a parade down Main Street are special features A rodeo will also be beheld beheld beheld held Saturday and Monday nights We will be closed Monday as aswill aswill aswill will most other businesses with the exception of a few that stay open to serve the needs need of the public We will be open Sa Saturday morning to get started on next weeks week's paper So bring in the news early well we'll be glad to get it It |