The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-01-28
OIL SHALE WILL
SOME DAY REPLACE
LIQUID PET R0LEUM
Untapped Reservoirs UnderIie
Enormous Areas of Coun-
try Awaiting Development
AS Power Source

flow of that liquid gold know. as
petroleum gives sign of Stacking, and
as a consequence the nations millions
of automobiles and tractors and motor
! buses seem likely to diminish for
lack of fuel, the far-stretching re-
serves of oil shale in the United
States stand out as the most impor-
| tant resources OF substitutes for
petroleum oils, says the United States
bureau of mines.
These shales, verit lble unt~pped
i reservoirs of oil, underlie enormous
areas of the county. Those of the
most economic Importance occur in
Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Wyom-
ing, Great areas of black sbale &C.
! cur, however, In various eastern
| states, notably Kentucky, Indiana
| and Ohio. and other shales are found
in many states. The great economic
| i'm portance of oil sha1es is that when
i the industry IS "op arly veloped, the
United States will have new dom
este supply of mineral oils. which
carnot be cut off in time of war. and
(which will always be ready to hep
1 meet the nations demand or OIL
I VIII Re Substitute
There is good reason to believe
7 that in the next several years the
4 domestic production of petroleum
will decrease, while the demand for
its production will increase" the
Bureau officials declare, and oil
| shales can well make up for the de-
ficiency of crude petroleum as
| source of refined mineral oil
Il products.
The future of the oil shale in
oustry in this country will depend
! primarily upon the relative supply
j of, and demand for. petroleum. pro-
ducts in the regions remote from the
| seab0ards, according to the bureau.
| However, even under the. most raw
orable conditions. development o.
| American shale oil must be slow, 1t
was added. Although this can be
FASTENED by the employment or spe-
| cialists, the proper kind OF expert
mental work, and sincere co-opera-
ton and mutual helpfulness among
oil shale operators.
To produce oil from shales the IN
dustry would have to approach the
countrys annual coal production, il
a great demand is to be met Nearly
], 100 shale retorting plants, each put
ting through 1000 tons of shale every
day in the year, would be necessary
Ito meet the present rate of petroleum
production. These figures are based
on an assur ption that the shaie
mined would yield an average OF AZ
gallons of oil per ton. The total OF
shale to be mined, then, would
| reach 400,000,000 tons.
Require Great Capital
This would also require investment
of great sums of capital to make the
shale oil industry one of commercial
consideration. 1t is probable that the
investment necessary for an oil shale
retorting4 and refining plant Will
iapproximate $4,000 per barrel of shat9
eil daily capacity. bureau experts
figure. The present annual production
of domestic petroleum is at the rate
of over 400.000.o00 barrels. The in.
vestment in retorts and refineries
alone for an INDUSTRY to approach
this magnitude would be more than
SO. 900 900 900. This does not include
estimated cost of lands, opening and
| developing mines; Tor does t IN
olude the cost of developing sub
si6iary industries, without which q
shale-oil industry could OF exit
Oil shale is a compact, laminated
rock of documentary origin, yielding
over SO per cent OF ash and containing
organic matter that gives oil when
distilled, but not appreciably wner
extracted with the ordinary solvents
for petroleum. The amount OF OIL
extracted per ton of rock varies
considerably also.
Has Proved Successful
However, extraction of oil from
| sbales has proved successful in vari
4 ous countries. the outstanding one
being Scotland, where the Industry
has been developing since 1860, anc
/ where the investment is in excess OF
s12.5OO 900 Production materials mas
been known at least as early as lo49
when, in Shrophire, England, .oyle
from a kind of stone" was distilled
A. early as 1851 also, oils were d.s-
titled from bituminous or oil-shales
70, medicinal PURPOSES, anC in 1915 q
work in England produced oil and
ammonia by the distillatol of coal.
There were in this country. too, as
lr,p ago as 1860, so companies
mostly in the east. where oil was dis
titled from various bituminous sub
stances. The methods were crude ant
materials treated ranged from Dit
luminous coal and camel Goals t
| some true oil shales. The desired
product was Kerosene. or coal OIL
which latter term survives since the
time when most of the Kerosene usee
In this country was really de-
of these companies were only gettins
a started when the American petroleun
Industry came into being. reducing
the price of Kerosene to such an ex
tent that shale oil operations be
came Improbable, and the plants
were alb. ndoned or dapted for us,
in refining petroleum.
Beginning Made
In 1915 there developed in the Unitet
states remarkable interest in OIL
shales and the year marked the be
aiming Of an attempted development
IF an oil shale industry. Since the'
an Increasing amount of work ha
Ibeen done, but no commercial opera
tFtions have vet been started and tn
\ industry does not exist except i'll tn
4 literature Of promotion organiza
tions.
mines warns against fake develop
ments and says the true industr.
r has suffered greatly from the fak
promoter and his companies. 1t
reasonable to say that over 10
, companies have been organized
ostensibly for the purpose of fatten
, Ing the pocket books of the pro
, noters," it was added.
|, Oil shale deposits have been worke
in small way in the county o
. Dorset. England, for centuries. De
! nosits of Importance are found 1
. New brunswick and Nova Scott
proyinces, Canada. and in New Sout
wales and Queensland, Australia. l
the provinces ,of Allier and saon
I ST. Loire, France, deposits have bee
I worked for half century. Other
have been found in -ugo- Siavia, SPAR
sweden, Bulgaria, Germany, Ital,
: Switzerland. Esthonia, Brazil an
& elsewhere.
Il In Rocky Mountains
In this country the largest o