| Show Oil Shale firm enters fuel contract An experiment to refine shale oil Into fuel for Air Force jet fighters could lead to commercial shale oil production We t co r this a c corn corn- mercial mercia I operation said Mike Lekas president of Inc Salt Lake City When the contract is over we expect ex- ex expect to be ready to make a few more modifications and have a commercial setup set The Air Force contract worth involves fuel for F 15 and F 16 fighters based at Hill Air Force Base in Weber County A subcontractor Caribou Four Corners Inc Acton Afton Wyo will refine the shale oil at its Woods Cross refinery in Davis County and the governments government's shale oil stockpile at Anvil Points Colo will provide half of the gallons of crude shale oil each this will be the first time anyone has had an ongoing going operating experience treating shale oil Lekas said has the richest history of any shale oil producer In this country The company has produced the stuff since 1975 just north of the area in southern Uintah County Unlike more massive underground oil shale mining operations under construction uses a retorting process known as situ in-situ that allows extraction of oil from shale close to the surface Caribou Four Corners has to alter its refinery to make way for a ment process that will take troublesome nitrogen out of the oil This is a step you have to take in refining shale oil said Lekas Oil has some amounts of nitrogen naturally he added But its it's much much more in shale oil like a factor of ten times more shale oil can add anywhere from 2 to 7 to the cost of refining a regular barrel of crude oil The cost said Lekas depends on the cost of an important ingredient for the process hydrogen The process mixes shale oil with hydrogen and then heats the mixture to degrees at a pressure of 1500 pounds per square inch products Byproducts of ammonia and sulfur are drawn off The ih pr process c sst takes ce n a group of four or five vessels 20 feet to 30 feet tall talland talland and three to four feet wide The vessels contain a substance that aids the chemical reaction between the shale oil and hydrogen called a catalyst In this case the catalyst is nickel molybdenum provided by Union Oil Co Lekas said The heated shale oil hydrogen mixture passes through the vessels in series During the ten and a half month con tract with the Air Force Caribou Four Corners and will try dif ferent catalysts They will also try dif dif- different ferent substances to use with the shale oil mixture before the to get rid of unwanted substances such as iron arsenic and rock products Lekas said Air Force mechanics will keep track of whether maintenance needs change as a result of using the fuel Rusty Lundberg of told the federal Shale Oil Environmental Ad Ad- Advisory Panel meeting In Vernal in late September that the firm developed two one acre surface retorts and was prepared to develop two more With the situ in-situ process a series of explosions creates a rip rip- ripple pie through a one acre section which in turn creates a sump into which the oil oilcan oilcan can drain after the shale is heated Lund Lund- Lundberg berg said produced barrels through that method went public about two and anda a half years ago Lekas said stockholders have 28 million shares sell ing for about 5 a share The company has relied on govern govern- government ment contracts Lekas hopes the Depart ment of Energy will willi renew a testing con con- contract contract tract for 1983 That agreement started five years ago tried unsuccessfully to get assistance in the first round of the US Synthetic Fuel Corps Corp's loan guarantee program The company will try in the these se- se second Bond cond and third rounds said Lekas |
