Show m mtMi a snogs 4E £&$&$ i £ Tf t '7?iTTr f L J Part 2 THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Sunday January 16 1949 r lake Oil From Shale of a great new ESTABLISHMENT or the continued healthy growth of an older one is certain to result from an integrated research program being conducted by the U S bureau of mines at Laramie Wyo and Rifle Colo In Wyoming the bureau's petroleum and development station is cooperating with private industry' in a twofold task — extension of the life of the natural petroleum industry and the creation of a new one founded on the conversion of oil shale to oil At the Colorado development plant the feasibility of various processes for producing oil from shale are determined through actual tests in semicommercial scale equipment The program at Laramie is of such magnitude that officfels of all the major oil companies in the United States and from several foreign countries have reviewed the le oil-sha- le work in progress there A trained and experienced scientific staff has been assembled including 62 scientific workers of oil shale and shale oil and developing methods of r r £ AT- y processing and using these materials Lessons learned in the Laramie laboratory are applied in the demonstration plant at Rifle w HILE shale oil has been produced on a commercial scale in foreign countries for more than 100 years it is only recently that such a process has been seriously attempted in America The reason: Increased difficulties and costs of finding new supplies of petroleum to keep pace with unprecedented demand Recent estimates place the recoverable shale oil of this country at about 300 billion barrels which represents more than 100 years supply of liquid fuels at the present rate of consumption Most of this reserve is sealed In the vast Green river 'VV V S 2 : in i I t to 60 gallons of oil per ton could mean a production of 9000 gallons of oil daily However as this Is an experimental operation the pilot plant setup is on a much smaller scale It is impressive though for there is a battery of crushers 75 foot high retorts and even chemical testing laboratories and the shale moves from the trucks down a production line the oil is bled off into storage tanks ready for refining into gasoline diesel and burner fuels HE importance of the Rifle experiments is attested by the fact that the U S navy owns a major slice of the shale lands in the Book Cliffs region and major oil companies of the country are studying results of the X tests A contract for further exploratory drilling was awarded in 194 S to Boyles Brothers Drilling Co of Salt Lake City which is scheduled to complete seven diamond core drill holes ranging in depth from 570 to 1200 feet by December 1949 Although shale oil products are considered substitutes for those from petroleum it is apparent from these experiments that both the production tech ot t x - t 4 ‘ r Block Leasing 3 ft L- - TLOCK leasing has been an important phase of western f at: 77 i UTTT"4 "‘ - dte - '7 n 7A ‘ ? iV I s ’ I £ " " s& Ur i U an a) UVJ L2) n progressive business enterprise must not only meet its pay rolls overhead and accounts payable but it must also select and provide an efficient organization of trained personnel with the most modern facilities in order to profitably provide the best possible service or product at the lowest possible cost Realizing this fact the Young Electric Sign Company has recently organized the Young Electric Sign Corporation of Utah composed of its key personnel all of whom possess years of sign experience in their respective fields mm J - x J - i i! Blasted shale is loaded onto trucks in this underground operation in Colorado Three- - i " S f f " ' ' 1 1 cubic-yar- d shovel operates in 60x60-f- room in quarry carved out of Book Cliff section L 1 Oi Nja'O T- - r 1 T PJQAUIGHiV ' t( ii I j J 5 i f ’ Jltdt n New nANT NOW UNDU CONST AUCTION I ISO Sevtli 2nd Wert plan provides the cohesive element necessary for on efficient and economical organization In addition the Young Electric Sign Company has designed the first new sign and lighting manufacturing plant in this Intermountain area which is now under construction This plant embodies the latest ideas in layout and facilities for the exclusive production of the best in electrical advertising and custom built lighting Watch for our opening announcement Meanwhile consult us for Ideas and estimates without obligation of course An incentive J3 M Successor to YOUNG ELECTRIC SIGN CO Salt Lake City I ) f condensation process is used in this batch device which may lead to new industry ot F1 155 Motor Ave ' 4 OOO A responsible -- i — 1 - V j 4 C- ir A k I 475-fo- ' 1 i S 3 mectrical advertising - AI ? i ' r : Jnspr-i- retort Is used in gamering oil This from shale at Rifle High heat followed by mining for more than 50 years and has materially added to the nation’s output of strategic metals Under this practice a group of highly experienced miners will lease a portion of a mining property for a fixed period usually six months) and pay the lessor a royalty on ore produced Because of their experience they are able to identify small ore shoots in abandoned workings and mine them carefully to avoid contamination from waste Their overhead is small thus they can operate profitably where the owner of the property would entail a loss Block lessees in Utah in 1948 produced approximately 11000-00- 0 pounds of lead 625000 pounds of copper and 4500000 pounds of zinc worth around In the first eight $5000000 months of 1948 lessees of one Utah operating company purchased about $100000 worth of supplies and in the same period shipped dry tonnage equivalent to 1200 railroad cars of 50 tons each If this Utah production came from one mine i would be the second greatest lead producer in the state imnTT t ’ i a - 2-i- r fr i I j4 1 ' r lj MG-H- S jTi r -- Jt ' Output 15 man-blaste- A $ J- Aids Metal Boyd Guthrie Salt Lake running Rifle Colo shale tests 1 HE Rifle Colo plant is under the direction of a native Salt Laker Boyd Guthrie son of former Postmaster Ralph Guthrie He is considered a top expert in the nation insofar as the production of useful oils from shale is concerned d Here a mammoth 27 some feet high and portal just as wide leads into diggings divided into “productive” and “selective” areas where commercial production costs and various stratas of shale can be explored Explosives knock out a wall at one clip then an electric shovel and “cat” muck it out a top speed Some 2000 tons of shale coulo be removed from the working daily which carry- - l ’ b -- Vii H formation of which 46S0 square miles are in Utah 9192 square miles in Wyoming and 2592 square miles in Colorado The petroleum section of the research laboratory was established at Laramie in 1924 and engaged primiarily with studies connected with production of crude oil from Wyoming fields However with the Increased demand for petroleum in the postwar years research of a different nature has been undertaken This deals with increased efficiency of operation in the fields with chemical and refining research centering on utilization of oils formerly considered inferior because of their sulphur and asphalt content fleet required to retort shale to produce oil is determined In this equipment at the Laramie Wyo experiment station w Jtf A' e ' oil shale 60-fo- ry - w V1 niques and characteristics of the two materials are very different Since petroleum 'production and refining methods in general are not directly applicable to shale oil a successful shale oil industry will depend on the development of new techniques Consequently the principal function of the research and development laboratories is the determination of fundamental chemical physical and engineering data which can be utilized In the development or modification of processes for the recovery of liquid fuels from oil shale Or as the bureau of mines states it: “Our activities on behalf of the public at large and industry in general are designed to meet oil shortages before they may become critical It is entirely possible that within the next few years this section of Utah Wyoming and Colorado wall be dotted with shale quarries as well as drilling rigs NEW PROCESSES oil-sha- Br t4 rlB! &WS& df 254 24th St Ogden Utah -- If Jl |