Norwich bulletin., 1916-12-21
Nitrogen Compounds and Oil.

It has long been known that some of the shale in the Green River for nation in northwestern Colorado and northeastern Utah would yield petro- leum when it was subjected to des- tructive distillation. Petroleum has been obtained from the oil fields, how ever in quantities so great and at a cost so low that it's production from shale by distillation has not seemed to be commercially feasible, despite the fact that in Scotland such an indus try has long been paying dividends on a large investment and in fact, ac- cording to current report, is now SUD- plying fuel oil for the British navy.
 Field investigations made by Dean E. Winchester and others, of the Uni ted States Geological Survey, Depart mert of the Interior, have shown that whenever economic conditions neces- sitate or justify the distillation of oii shales for their products and by products the shades of the Green River formation in Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Wyoming can can be made to yield vast quantities of oil, gas for use in the process of distillation, and fertilizer enough to enrich most of the farms of the Middle West
 In Northwestern Colorado alone there is sufficient shale, in beds at least feet thick and containing more oil than the average shale now mined in Scotland, to yield about 20,000, ,00O,- 900 barrels of crude oil which is more than five times the total amount of crude oil produced in t he United States to date; and in Utah there is probably nearly as much shale just as rich. This shale oil will yield 10 % 15 per cent of gasoline by ordinary methods of refining. The shale in Colorado should produce not only the oil but also, with only a moderate added cost, about 100000, 900 tons of ammonium sulphate, a compound es : pecially valuable as a fertilizer. The industry requires large and costly equipment of retorts, condensers, and oil refneries, as we'll as of mining ma chinery, so that it probably can not be profitably organized on a small scale.
 Rich oil shale is exceedingly tough, resists erosin remarkably. and will burn when ignited. As it bleaches bluish white on weathering, the ranchers in some parts of the region refer to it as white rock that will burn When freshly broken, 1t gives off an odor of petroleum. Although oil may be obtained in large quantities from some of the shale by destructive distillation, it does not appear that more than a small percentage already exists in the shade as oil. Further Hore. OH mas not been round in com mercial quantity in wells that have been drilled into the shale in north western Colorado
 In the area examined there Is a vast quantity of shale that will yield a barrel (42 gallons) or more of oil per ton. and shale from a thin bed at one locality yielded 90 gallons per ton, or nearly four times as much oil as is obtained from an average ton of Scottish oil shale.
 Bulletin 641-F, entitled "Oi1 shale in northwestern Colorado and adjacent areas" by Dean E. Winchester con- tains information relative to the quan- tity and quality of the oil that may be distilled from the richer beds of shale, the number of such beds at the localities examined, and the general distribution of the shale throughout northwestern Colorado and adjacent parts of Utah and Wyoming.