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Show By Jack Wallis : ' federal government assisting ' tiering the prospects for the te commercial production of e y oil shale will never be . (rcially feasible without :al assistance from the federal tment. Others say that the -nent is causing the problems Js stingy leasing policies and jjive environmental restrictions. "i say the government is the Jgency that can afford to cut i" its own red tape. ' eek was a good example of how ""lent hand-outs work. The 'lent of Energy could not agree e Tosco Corp., who has the " rating in technology for the "cial development of -oil shale, Tosco would not give up its "Sy. Tosco claims its technology latest investment. Why share ".Hidings oi lis work with other nes for a few million from the 1 government? tJOE then approved contracts for n with Paraho Development $5.6 million to Superior Oil ,P demonstration oil shale facilities towards the com- Production of oil shale. still maintains it will speed up t;elpment work at its Sand Wash j south of Vernal. This project is i e leases and has been active in L Sua'ity, monitoring study, j on on spent shale and has l.lCor drilling on the project. The 'opment is to drill a shaft. 1,1? Shale company that has 'l the most money in its jnt in Utah is White River IMt on its federal leases Ua J 18 ironical that this company V"? e most problems. First SouJ"dicated the air aualitv in. . location exceeded the EPA Jr ozone- Next came tne R ikT actually owns the land, I ii tstate leases prior to 1920, ' iisni ns- As a result- slW tied up in litigation. A smaller company, Geokinetics, Inc., has been the only commercial producer of oil from oil shale in Utah so far. Geokinetics took the bull by the horns and went way off by itself and proved that its small operation of the horizontal in situ method in low grade oil shale lands will work. The problem Geokinetics now has is to get enough land leased to be able to expand its technology to make it profitable. All the technology in the world isn't much help if the land isn't available to lease. With most of the rich oil shale land in Utah owned by the federal government, on BLM land, leasing has been an uphill battle. The government at first didn't seem to care much about its oil shale lands development. But now the pressure is on for self-sufficiency in energy development, oil shale is important. Tne government has made attempts to guarantee the price of oil from shale and help provide funds for test modules in proving the best way to develop oil shale, but it has always maintained a tight hand on its lands. If the right incentive is provided for leasing federal oil shale lands and realistic environmental controls maintained, we think the oil companies could handle the oil shale commercial production problem. We don't think the federal government govern-ment knows much about producing oil from shale anyway. About all they are doing is taking the money away from the oil companies in high leases and taxes and then piecemealing it back in incentive grants to help encourage companies in their technological development, and then to top it off this technology is to be shared by others who haven't made the efforts or investments in-vestments other companies have. It is no wonder oil shale has had its ups and downs, and that its development develop-ment is doubted by some. But if oil shale is ever to be developed it must be developed first to make a profit and second to provide another source of oil to our diminishing supply. |