Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-12
DENIES SHALE LANDI
WORTH 40 BILLIONS
Geological Survey Director
Calls KelIey's Estimate
Fantastic Dream"

Branding Ralph S. Kelley's $4,000
100000 estimate of the value of Colo
RADIO oil shale lands as "a fantastic
dream" DR.. George Otis Smith, direc-
tor of the Geological Survey, declared
| in a statement yesterday that some of
the land has grazing value, but that
Its present worth for oil extraction
purposes is nil.'
The statement was prompted by in
ferenceS in Kelleys published attacks
on the Interior Departments oil shale
policy that the lands had been found
of vast value by the Geological Survey.
With the great deposits of coal and
Ignite standing between oil shale and
its future market" DR.. Smith said in
the statement printed in the United
States Daily, 1.-The date of oil shale
utilization becomes remote indeed.
High Cost Only Certainty.
"It is for these reasons that many of
us would not take as a gift the title to
5000 acres of oil shale land to hold
until used for oil manufacture, subject
to State taxes for the long period in
volved."
The statement, issued simultaneously
at the directors Office here and by DR..
Smith himself, who is in Chicago,
pointed out that the present oversupply
OF petroleum 'postpones beyond pres
ent calculations the time when a new
oil industry can be started so far away
from the present centers of demand as
the mountains of Western Colorado and
Eastern Utah, especially as the only
certainty about that venture would be
the high cost of It's establishment and
operation. Oil shale utilization is still
- n ~
many fuel specialists, by the possibility
that coal furnishes a better source Of
oil than oil shale."
Kelley's resignation as field executive
of the Interior Departments branch
Office In Denver was refused by Secre-
tay Wilbur, pending an investigation
by the Department of Justice of Kel-
ley's charges of favoritism to oil inter-
ests in distribution by the Interior De-
partment of patents on oil shale lands.
In his published statements Kelley
charged that lands of huge worth were
being grabbed" by oil companies with
consent of the Government.
Value Seen in Distant Future.
"Ten years ago." DR.. Smith said in
his statement, "a survey specialist on
mineral fuels referred to the 40 bill
lion barrels of oil locked up in the
rocks of the desert hills of the West.
That phrase, locked up best describes
the oil shale situation. The oil in the
oil shale is a reserve to be unlocked
only in the dim future. It is this deal
ing in futures that makes practical oil
men term Mr.. Kelley's billions fam
tastic dreams.
Had the Geolo gical Survey put any
valuation on the 100000 acres of clas-
sified oil shale land in the States of
Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Nevada,
1t would have been on the basis of the
present worth of some expected future
value and following its experience in
valuing coal land the rate per barrel
of estimated oil content would have
been a very small fraction of the 81
price repeatedly given in Mr.. Kelleys
statements and inferentially credited to
the Geological Survey.
THE fact is that at the start the
Geological Survey regarded the very
extensive oil shale deposits as having a
utility value only at some time in the
distant future. The present oversupply
of petroleum, ready to flow from the
wells of California, Oklahoma and
Texas into the pipe lines with relatively
little human effort, postpones beyond
present calculation the time when a
new oil industry can be started so far