Show Oil shale development becomes more important After years of relative the U.S. Department of Energy is taking new steps to develop the tremendous oil shale deposits of Wyoming and As initiated by Gunn million was appropriated by Congress for the design and potential construction of a commercial-scale surface oil shale cannot afford to sit back as our energy supplies dwindle and leave untapped a major source of McKay He said up to billion barrels of many times greater than the proven oil reserves of are thought to be recoverable from the high-grade oil shale deposits in the three The energy department has called for companies to make proposals on the design and potential construction of an oil-shale extraction process that would be carried out on a commercial The project would be a surface operation rather than the potentially destructive underground The department anticipates that it will award several contracts to design different kinds of oil shale or heating The shale must be heated to at least degrees to release the McKay contracts could be awarded by December and the actual module designs would take about a year to Interested firms must make proposals to the department by July The most promising concepts will be selected from those submitted by early and the actual awarding of contracts would take place in The designs would take up to about a year to Department officials noted that last April President Carter proposed that a oil shale production tax credit be used as a way to stimulate the early commercial development of oil The tax which still must be approved by Congress before it could take would begin to phase out when world oil prices reach a It would be completely eliminated when prices reach a George Fumich director of the department's fossil energy said the tax credit is still the administration's preferred way to stimulate oil shale it permits a larger number of industrial participants and leaves the crucial business decisions in the hands of the tax credit not prove the program we are beginning will ensure that we have updated designs and can move forward quickly with actually- cost-shared construction of the first module with if loss of Fumich |