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Show Qj shale lease j funds sought by U. S. . u federal judge was asked iVt of last week to release million in funds from oil ordered impounded when tiTtracts was questioned in a . old court case. " J.RruceC. Jenkins, U.S. District fJmh said he would study the ilte by attorneys for the : liC who -sr1 ther & released since the suit 'vUg title to the land is finished. .SohioShaleOilCo.andtwo j?Us wto claim t0 1lold,011 shj! e &Zlt leases on the land say title "Vwcts is again in question. and ! Jenkins shouldn't disburse the nooey was impounded by the to Willis W. Ritter in a suit filed t'state of Utah against the federal 1gfi seeking title to some rtf acres of oU-shale land in Uintah Judge Ritter ruled in the favor but the case was over-' over-' jj by the U.S. Supreme Court. cre recently, Sohio has filed suit 1 flat the federal government, from J B ney received lease of the lands, ! 'i-i a rKent decision by Judge i regarding the size of the Uintah w Indian Reservation may cloud jf to (be land. fcco says they will lose up to $500 ' planned for the project if the Telndian Tribe is deemed to hold title lie land. Gerald S. Fish, attorney for the U.S. jment of Justice, told Judge jeiins the funds should be released a! mted that with interest they could count to $100 million. Be said there is now no basis to hold k!unds, describing Sohio's request if rt'xit merit tail Murdock, attorney for Sohio, 1 ii Judge Jenkins that the company it an obligation under its lease foment to develop the oil shale m, but if the federal government isn't have title and the Ute Tribe to, Sohio and two other companies d lose everything. The money was bid by oil shale wpanies seeking to develop two I ma of federal land in eastern Utah, 1' teijiated U-a and U-b. The money w put into a special account when the toe o( Utah filed suit, claiming it had I the right to obtain the land from the federal government as its in-lieu selections. When Utah became a state, just before the turn of the century, the federal government granted it four sections of every township of land the national government owned in the state. But some of the land was in Indian In-dian reservations, military reservations, reser-vations, national parks, etc., preventing preven-ting Utah from taking control of sections sec-tions there. So the government allowed the state to choose land elsewhere. Utah chose a large amount of oil shale land in the eastern part of the state. But the government asserted the state was not entitled to land on an acre-by-acre basis without consideration con-sideration of value. When the battle over the oil shale properties finally reached the U.S. Supreme Court, Utah lost. Meanwhile, money had been kept in a special account set up by the federal court, earmarked for the victor. The federal government recently filed a motion asking that the money be released to the treasury. The fund has grown meanwhile, from $72 million orginally bid to $125 million with interest. in-terest. However, the Ute Indian Tribe attempted at-tempted to assert ownership over an area including the tracts U-a and U-b. Jenkins affirmed that the Ute reservation reser-vation covers land that has been sold to settlers in the Roosevelt and Duchesne areas, but denied the Utes' claims to shale property. The Utes have appealed this to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Oil shale companies asked Jenkins to keep the bid money in the court account until the Ute claims are finally settled. One expert said the shale companies may hope to get refunds of the bids, should the federal government's title to the lands not be upheld. Attorneys for the federal government requested that the bid money be released. They were supported by state attorneys. The state stands to gain half of the money because it is entitled to that proportion of federal mineral royalties. A question remains whether the state would get half the entire amount or half of the $72 million principal. - Jenkins said he would consider the arguments and rule soon. |