New Britain herald., 1921-08-08
MAY Develop OIL
-SHALE INDUSTRY
Rocky Mountains Can Yield
Large Quantities

Washington, Aug. S.-Recent in
vestigations by the U. S. Geological
Survey are held by its experts TO in
dicate that. in the Rocky Mountain
States, there are enormous quaint
ties of oil shales which can be made
u yield hydrocarbon oils to a much
sreater extent than we can hope TO
obtain from our oil wells.
The rs are said to constitute a
| tremendous potential oil reserve
The oil shales of this country"
rays the report, contains enormous
quantities of oil. but large amounts
Of money will have to be invested be-
fore the oil shale industry becom|-
CT commercial importance. Est-
mates by various engineers of the
cost of a complete retorting plant.
handling 1000 tons daily, are be-
| tween 100000 and 100000.
I'm this country the oil shale in
oustry can not be developed over
night and probably can not attain sue
cess until large sums of money have
| been spent perfecting mining retort-
| ing and refining methods. A COM
pany to be successful. whenever oil
shale operation become commercially
| feasible, must be able to employ the
| hest technical business and engin-
| cering skill available, be prepared to
operate on a large scale, and be
/ financially strong enough to wait sew
eral years for any large return On
| the money invested"
The report declares that il is 'tun-
| fortunate that large number Of the
many companies organized to deal
with oil shale are devoting their eff
| forts to stock selling rather than as
| sisting in building firm basis for
the industry."N
| A summary Of the report follows.
There are no comm ercial oil snale
| plants operating in this country at the
present time, although there is a well
| established industry in Scotland
Many American shale deposits are
r;cher in recoverable oil than Scotch
shales now being worked, and prob
ably nearly equal in nitrogen content,
| which, is measure of recoverable
ammonia.
Market conditions for Shale pro-
ducts are less favorable in this coun-
| try than in Scotland.
Great quantities of American shales
are OF greater thickness and better
suited for mining than Scotch shales
| As yet no process for obtaining oil
| from oil shale has been used in actual
| commercial practice in this country.
| Indications are that the United
States can not continue long to de-
pend on domestic petroleum produc-
| ton to supply completely the demand
| for petroleum products. and that
sooner or later our oil shales will
| have to be used to heIp supply the
deficit
The oir shale industry can not hope
to supplant the petroleum industry in
a large way for many years, but will
probably grow up from local indus
1ries in favorable places
Costs of oil shale operations can
not be reliably estimated until COM
mercial practice in this country fur
nishes the necessary basic data
The quantity, quality and value Of
products and by1products to be OBJ
| tanned from oil shale in this country
are not known with any degree of
certainty
The oil shale industry is large
scale, low grade, raw materials man.
ufacturing enterprise, requiring large
ca pital, high technical and business
ability, and probably making slow re-
| turn on the investment. Once eco
| nomic conditions become favora BILE
for the development Of the oil shale
industry and satisfactory mining, re-
torting and refining processes worked
out and marketes established. there
should be only ordinary business risk
| connected with the industry.