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Show Water Transfers Feasible For Synthetic Development Water transfers to supplement supple-ment local sources for full development de-velopment of a synthetic fuels Industry In the West appear to be physically and financially feasible. This Is the opinion of F. D. Dennstedt, senior vice president, presi-dent, at Exxon Company, U.SA. Dennstedt says transportation transporta-tion systems designed to move water for energy production also could be designed to bring in additional water for agriculture, agri-culture, municipal and other uses. He says production of 8 million mil-lion barrels per day of shale oil from the Piceance and TJinta Basins in Colorado and Utah and the equivalent of 7 million barrels per day of gas and liquids from coal from various Western and Eastern states could be sustained through an industrywide effort ef-fort for 175 years on presently known resources. If several companies could help reach this level of production pro-duction over 30 years, Dennstedt Denn-stedt says it "would allow imports im-ports of oil and gas to be cut significantly in the 1990s and completely eliminated early in the next century if the nation wishes to do so." He says these figures do not constitute "Exxon's plan" for solving the country's energy problems, "nor do they outline a major project upon which Exxon has embarked." Water, he explains, is a major concern in the West because be-cause shale and coal synthetics require 2 to 4 barrels of water for each barrel of product. Several studies, including Exxon's, suggest that water from Colorado's local sources would permit continuous development de-velopment of a shale oil industry indus-try through the late 1990s up ' to a level of 1.5 to 2 million barrels per day of oil equivalent. equiva-lent. "This fact alone has sur-fHsed sur-fHsed some, but the ability of Colorado's Piceance Basin to support such an industry MONT. J N D POWDER ' RIVER BASIN tvNI i "KvJ SD. VVYO VYll IDAH01 v' OAHE ! Vs RSERV0IRi l neb."" UTAHj J JF """""" L PICEANCE i"K"N AND jtXWYlCOAL UINTA BASINS I shale actually is based on a conservative con-servative projection," he says. Exxon used 3.6 barrels of water in its future-needs projections for each barrel of product, and the company did not take into account underground water wa-ter supplies. "We assumed only the availability of the basin's estimated 300,000 acre feet per year of surface water," he says. Beyond the 1990s, continued development of a synthetic fuels Industry would require inter-regional water transfers. Without them, he says, economic eco-nomic development of the new industry would be limited to 5 to 7 million barrels per day 2 million barrels per day of shale oil from the Piceance and Uinta Basins and 1 million mil-lion barrels per day of western coal synthetics production, with the balance from eastern regions. But water to supplement local sources is available from several areas, he stresses. "As an example, we have indentified more than the required re-quired 1.7 million acre-feet per year that could be made available from the Oahe Reservoir Res-ervoir on the Missouri River in South Dakota, as well as smaller quantities available from other western river sources. sourc-es. Transfer of water to the Piceance and the powder River Basins, the latter in Wyoming and Montana, appears to be feasible both physically and financially. fi-nancially. "Physically, 600,000 acre feet per year would be carried 330 miles from the Oahe Reservoir to the Powder River Basin through two pipelines, each measuring some nine feet in diameter. The additional need of 1.1 million acre feet per year for oil shale operations can be transferred the 680 miles from Oahe by three additional ad-ditional pipelines, also nine feet each in diameter. "We estimate that capital and operating costs for these pipelines would add about 55 cents to the cost of a barrel of synthetic fuels in 1985 dollars, or less than 1 percent," Dennstedt Denn-stedt says. products add still another dimention to potential profits for the soft drink industry. in-dustry. OUTLOOK ENHANCERS Several favorable factors should aid the industry's progress. The firms are well established, have a proven degree of marketing expertise, and are reaping the benefit of several years of excellent earnings which have bolstered their financial conditions. Furthermore, several firms also benefit from prior diversification efforts. ef-forts. All this contributes to our expectation ex-pectation that full-year 1981 will see a pickup in economic tempo versus the recession-plagued 1980 market. And as an offset to the alarming sugar price increases, the majors have allowed reformulation of their drinks with the less expensive high-fructose sweeteners. Hence, the Babson Research Staff concludes that the positives outweigh the negatives. They are advising their clients to maintain |