Show shale oil reserve could mean new wealth to plateau area there Is a proven reserve of billion barrels of 0 oil in western colorado shale deposits that when developed fully would provide employment for persons that may seem to be a little mixed up but bitt it certainly for the vast oil shale deposits in the 1000 square mile area referred to as the green river basin Is closely tied in with the economic future of the entire colorado plateau and especially that district between grand junction and glenwood springs in colorado inaccessibility of the shale deposits is being overcome by the federal 1 government as well as by private explorers and developers at rifle colo the government Is operating abing a giant retort to process oger shale s ale taken from mines in the district to reach those mines the government rement has been forced to bove build many miles of roads in heretofore remote mountain ledges at an altitude of feet although several private con companies are engaged in research the government is the only agency conducting large scale operations so far there Is little reason reason now for any oil company to spend money on oil shale development so long as the federal tax laws make investment in well oil or petroleum so very attractive with the depletion allowance in effect but if at some future date present statutes are amended to permit the same kind of allowances to apply to shale oil production i oil produced from that source will be in price competition with well petroleum tr tro some government sources andl indicate there is a better than ever chance that within the next few years shale oil research will permit marketing of products from shale at retail prices within the reach of the common user they may be very optimistic but government sources also have released figures compiled by bd experts revealing that a pop population tation growth of about Is possible on colorados western slope because of oil shale development that in addition to workmen in the mines plants and offices another would be supported by them many thousands of other people would be be employed in a host of smaller industries developing with the oil industry to use the byproducts p duc ts of the refineries to turn out 0 fertilizer insecticide medicines and synthetics there is no guesswork involved in any of the calculations made by the government core drilling has determined the extent of the deposits manpower needed to operate mines and retorts is already well known by people engaged iff in that field and of course abarge a large number of people is required quiren to work in allied industries to keep a few in the basic industry according to an article appearing a in a recent issue of colorado co business review about barrels of oil per day is feasible to carry this petroleum to markets would require a pipeline capable of transporting at least barrels daily the rest presumably going into products byproducts by nature made mans job more difficult by placing these deposits of oil shale near the top of a vast plateau at an elevation of approximately feet in an area where tributaries tributa ries of the colorado river have ha v e cut into the plateau and left sheer s he er cliffs above its canon the shale bed in the parachute member of the green river formation is about feet thick within this formation is a layer feet thick known in the industry as the mahogany ledge which using present processes produces about 30 gallons of crude oil per ton of shale still other layers produce about 15 gallons per ton several companies have shown more than a passing interest in the oil shale deposits and have indicated they may take up where the government leaves off if it abandons the present project at rifle they include union gulf cities service standard of f california sinclair dow chemical eaton shale continental pacific western Ilono honolulu lulu oil pure oil parachute oil OR shale and the texas co many of these companies anes have avel developed aped their own m processes ro cese for or recovering oil from I 1 the e shale but they arent talking much about them however the government system is well known and highly publicized it Is a system where by y crushed shale Is dumped into the top of a retort and li Is heated by its own recycled gases and the oil produced by the heat is carried out in the form of a vapor by the gas when the vapor Is cooled it becomes a liquid and Is refined product of this system is higher grade than obtained from wells except fr its lubricating qualities important advances in systems of recovery development of byproducts pro ducts and in mining are made regularly before s shale ale oil 41 is able tc successfully compete with petroleum obtained from wells something must occur to ena enable e the industry to lower prices whatever the future may hold for the shale oil industry whether it will be oblivion or ascendancy into success will be revealed within the next ten years |