The Mt. Sterling advocate., 1922-11-28
KENTUCKY MOUNTAINS
ARE RICH IN OIL sHALE

her oil shale deposits, four times the
amount Of oil that can ever be OBJ
tained from the combined wells of the
entire United, States, according to an
estimate in the Quarterly of the Col
orado School of Mines, devoted to an
article on The Oil Shale of Ken
lucky" by the president, Victor C.
Anderson.
Much of the material for the article
was furnished by work of Professor c.
S. Grouse, of the department of geol-
ogy, University of Kentucky, and e.
E. Hedges, of New York, who work
ed with him. Professor Crouse's pho
tographs of shale hills and cliffs in
Eastern Kentucky, especially on Red
river. illustrate the article.
January /. 1922. there remained in
the ground nine billion barrels of oil
recoverable by methods now in use,
according to an estimate of the Amer
lean Association of Petroleum Geolo-
gists and the United States Geologi-
cal Survey. In the oil shales of Ken
lucky alone there are ninety billion
tons of easily accessible oil shale.
which, yielding seventeen gallons to
the ton, an ultra-conservative figure
given by DR.. Anderson, could produce
thirty-six billion gallons of oil, four
times the amount of the worlds oil
reserve.
While the supply from wells is un-
certain, salt water has entered the
Mexican pools and the peak produc-
tion of many domestic pools has been
reached, the production of shale oil
will not at once supplant the well oil
industry, the writer states. Well oil
is a waning asset, and when the total
supply is less than the demand the
need for oil will place the price at a
figure enabling oil to be produced
from shale at profit, he says, declar-
ing that the changew ill come gradu-
ally, shale oil merely supplementing
we'll oil instead of supplanting it sud-
denly.
Kentucky oil shales will produce not
only gasoline and fuel oil, but ammo
mum sulphate and other products,
probably, when these are established
on a profitable commercial basis, DIR.
Anderson believes. Some of the larger
corporations have purchased large
acreages of oil shale lands, secured
United States patents, tested with
the diamond drill or surface cuts, and
know what they have as potential
oil supply.
While Kentucky oil shale is less pei
ton than some American deposits, the
presence of nitrogen allowing the
manufacture of ammonium sulphatt
| gives the deposit a commercial value
in excess of that for the oil shale
Kentucky has a convenient and ample
water supply. nearby cities providing
home market, labor and Transports
tion, and exposure of shale in bluffs
so that it can be virtually quarried
rather than mined.
The outcrop in some places is zoe
feet high, but the average for the $50
mile exposure is sixty feet. About
1000 square miles of shale is exposed
in the state and available for open cut
and steam shovel methods. There are
available about 9O.6O4. 100000 tons.
The largest oil yield is from Taylor
county shales, 27.7S gallons to the ton,
and the lowest from Rockcastle coun-
ty, eight gallons. The average is
about twenty-one gallons. At the I'm
iversity of Kentucky Professor Grouse
and Mr. Hedges developed a retort
especially adapted to Kentucky shale.
The Devon Oil Shale Products Com
pany, capitalized at $1,250OOO, has ac-
quire da 424-acre tract near Clay City,
Powell county, and is erecting a plant
of 1,500 tons daily production. The
Central Oil Shale Corporation, Pitts
burg, has acquired tract of 500 acres
eight miles east of Mt Sterling.