The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1920-10-24
]. S. MAY GET OIL
. BY COOKING SHALE
Western Supply Would Keep
100 Retort Plants Busy 800
Years, Says Professor.

The alarming and rapid depletion OF
,merica's petroleum supply, which
threatens soon to put this country out
Of the running as an oil producer lie
visualized only as temporary en-
barrassment by Prof. Victor G. Alder
son, dean OF the Colorado School OF
Mines, who was in New York yester-
day on his way 10 Europe.
"Our salvation lies not In drawing
petroleum from the nelds, which are
rapidly playing out. but from an In
dustrial process OF cooking petro'
leum from oil shale, which abounds
at the very ground surfrNe in mex
haustible quantity in Colorado and
ether Western States" said Prof.
Anderson.
This country must look its oil
situation in the face" said the dean.
Last year the United States produced
500, 900 900 barrels OF crude petro-
isum and consumed 438. 900 900 barrels.
shortage of 100000, provided in
part by Importation from Mexico and
drawing from reserve storage.
THE price OF crude oil Is today the
highest in history. Before the war
Pennsylvania crude oil sold for SO a
barrel 1t now sells for $40 a bar
rel. MIDI 1tinental oil from the
Kansas and Oklahoma felds sold for
81 cents a barrel before the war and
now brings $3.50. The ratio of in
crease has been about the same all
over the United States. The oil fields
OF Kansas. Oklahoma, and Wyoming
90
production. but elsewhere the supply
is on the down grade.
CRUDE OIL SITUATION ALARMING.
THE crude oil situation in this
country Is alarming. Gasoline, the re.
fined product of petroleum. is now
selling at 80 cents gallon. BY au-
tumn 1t will sell for 40. and higher
after that"
This situation liz not an economic
one. but an exhaustion OF nature. ac-
cording TO Prof Anderson. Nature,
however, has come to the rescue with
oil shale-oil- bearing rock-which
must take the place OF oil fields and
"gushcrs" and which brings oil pro-
duction down to manufacturing
basis.
THE supply Of oil shale in Colorado
and Utah alone" de nared the profess
sOr. exists in tremendous and I'M
limited quantities. In Colorado there
us enough of il Immediately availa BILE
for 100 retort plants using 1000 tons
a day to work 500 years. There is
seven times as much available oil a
square mile from a ten-foot vein OF
oil shale as has been produced or will
be produced from a square mile of
Ill.
out OF the surface OF the ground in
strata form. There is so much, Of II
above the surface that we need not
worry about the lower levels. Digging
for II would be useless expense"
at should not be imag ined that oil
shale produces petroleum by simply
COMPRISING it," Professor Anderson
explained. THE rock does not contain
oil as such, but the constituents of
oil--the carbon and hydrogen.
There already are thirty processes
for heating or cooking shale in ex~
detrimental stages. To use a simple
Illustration, oil shale is the dough
just as the ingredients for bread arc
mixed together, but which do not be-
come bread until they have under
gone the process Of baking. Oil shale
must be treated in retorts which APP
ply uniform heat, and the process is
still having its technical difficulties,
not in the production, but in the best
method OF producing the maximum
amount of good oil"
CAN SELL AT &1.sS A BARREL.
Crude oil produced from shale, he
says. can be sold for a maximum
figure of 81 SIS a barrel. as against the
minimum price of SO so for the prod
uct of the mid fields.
Bearing letters from Sir Auckland
Geddes, British ambassador in Wash
ington, the professor will sail for
England within a few days to confer
with British scientists and study the
oil trade industry in England and
Scotland, and possibly later in
France. Among his British col
laborators will be the Right Hon. w.
F. Getaway, NJ. p, and Sir John Cad
mund. both noted scientists and Brit