Show AND MOUNTAINS 1 RICH OIL SHAU 4 IN OVA A 4 I 1 cl illi TOBX im 4 x i FROM THE IN BALK OCL OIL A AND MUST BE RETORTED sj so for caral the ties of oil from the shale beds of noth northwestern western colorado and utah have gradually eclipsed the interest la in petroleum la in that awon which whick W was tic caused by the discovery of tee rangeley field in rio blanco county colorado about the time wyoming ing began to demoa demo the ot of oil in the ke mountains and turned the ore ors in that direction colorado and utah were being examined tor for bed beds ot at oil all shale and the location and prospecting ot of these shale deposits caused this region to be regarded as an valuable only lor for oil shale it has han been generally accepted as a act fact that aka formations of at the rocky mountain region are re not oil bearing the sediments of this age are jin jn most part of fresh rater water origin and not favo favorable raUle to the formation of petroleum but the age show shows much evidence of marine deposition it Is AW green river formation in which the oil ahanes on are found and which also promises to be a large producer of petroleum where proper structural conditions exist the petroleum la in the green river entirely separate rat fro col phille hale however and appears to a have avd no connection with it the oil in the oil does not exist as tree free om after atter the nature of a sand mud aad and cannot be extracted by a solvent but must be retorted the action of tho the heat beat within the retort Is to the completion of the chemical action in the elements in inthe the shale in order to form and extract the oils k OvI evidence deace emt ell all shale is not bethe the source octlee 0 oil il in sands under a structure is that the sandstone aund found in direct con contact ti ct with the riebert rie heist shale beds how show no evidence whatever of migration of oil all into the and sand from the shale when this peculiarity of oil shale became generally known it wa wasten stAken for granted that the green river format formation ioa would not be a producer of petroleum and consequently it has not been developed as such recent studies have shown the presence of petroleum in this formation in certain sections where conditions of deposition were favor able oil shale also is in found bat but has no connection wh chater ater r W I 1 th the petroleum being deposited un a der different conditions and several hundred feet above the sediments la in which the petroleum was found thus it Is 1 evident that the oil hale shale in the green river formation has kas BO no bearing on the petroleum flea ties but since this has not been previously recognized it k has resulted in th tha ad e entire n t ire formation being condemned damned a ai s a possible poa elble prote leum producer during a recent investigation of the uintah basin oc at utah and northwestern colorado the writer discovered geological evidence of certain conditions 0 ot f deposition of the ther sediments in the lower part of the green river formation which appeared to be very tory favor fable kible to the formation of oil on A careful eadeh over some of or these areas resulted in ii the finding of several sanda sands saturated with oil all of as an altic base one ot of the 91 sands an do wax w over forty feet thick and a few in ches back irom from the outcrop showed euper saturation I 1 the oil bearing sands are a re inter bedded in a heavy beavy body of oft dark shale which shows none of the characteristics of the so called oil shaloy oc curing several hundred feet higher inthe geological section while there la Is no areal connection continued on page date 5 MOUNTAINS AND MOUNTAINS continued from page 1 between this oil bearing proportion of the green river formation tor matlon and the oil bearing formations of california they are of the same ago age and were deposited under very similar conditions alt although bough in separate seas it Is not probable ahat the bearing sands of the green river format loh are as an extensive as the oil shale deposits and they cannot be expected to cover the area represented by the california f fields felds there are large areas of green river formation in which no signs of petroleum have been found and ank further investigation will undoubtedly show that it exists in small areas compared to that covered by the oil and in die definite finite relation to 0 o the source of the sediments the only region known to the writer in which the lower part of this formation carries oil Is within the uintah basin and contiguous areas and although barren batren in many other districts will be found where oil may be expected although not showing evidence at the surface the uintah basin great gilsonite beds have long been famous for its gilsonite and many beds of asphalt io sands are known but these are main ly in other formations in tact fact formations from triassic to late bertl nry ary are known to carry sands but ut their origin has never been satisfactorily determined the youngest formation in which aspdal tic sands have been found Is the vintah for formation matlon overlying the green air formation most of the sIde in the of vernal etab are made ma de from asphalt taken from a quarry quaky a few miles west welt of town t has s been long thought that this quarry la is in the wasatch formation but careful investigation stows it to be uintah and much later than the wasatch the as ahalt however does not originate in the uintah but has found it ita way into the sands through faulting and cannot be considered for petroleum the mesa verde formation of cretaceous age was found to con lain tain several heavy bando a bowing howing saturation with oil and this may also prove drove to be a large re reservoir a erver of petroleum the book effs near grand junction north of the denver rio grande railroad are capped by the mesa verde sandstones Bande sand topes and offers a large area fot fol prospecting in langely rangely field the oil oll of 0 f the nan langely rangely gely field in northwestern northwester n colorado is found below the mesa verde sandstones sande tonee in the upper part of tho the mancos shale and is the most valuable oil of the region while no bands sands exist in the south aide laide of tho the rook cliffs it ie 12 known thit this sandstone rises toward the mesa verde as the outcrop is followed eastward and that of grand junction colorado it k tea changed completely to hale thale the territory between grand junction and helper utah and north ot et the book cliffs contains sufficient ad to act as a reservoir that a good field may be expected in the upper mancos under proper structure at least two such structures truc turee have been found and will bo be drill drilled epo this year but as only a small the favorable area has been searched for folding it Is probable preble that more drilling sites will bejo be jo dated and prospected j at least three known to be oil bearing and althan with an immense area of oil shale it js 4 almost certain that the torri territory torr between the uintah mountains on the north and the denver rio grande on the south will be a heavy producer of our future gasoline troa from petroleum and hale shale oil oll braad junction news 4 |