Evening star., 1943-09-19
Seek New Oil
By James ID. White,
Associated Press Writer.

Ine trouble, Of course, is getting 1t out
OF the shale cheaply enough to compets
With present crude oil prices.
But the sf1ale oil people are looking
anead. They say we ought to guard,
against letting petroleum sources aet into;
the same Ak that we did with rubber.
tin and zinc when war caught us.
So, they argue. we should start now to-
develop extraction of Oil from shale. =
They're among the first to warn, from
experience. that working up to an eco
nom1cal, large-scale operation of mining.
retorting, and refining is going to be q
long, slow process"
The idea is to provide: :
l. An emergency source OF oil In wars
time, In case something should happenc
to cripple present production. IL
2. A postwar source OF oil, ready de-.
veloped and tested to work into prod,lc.
tion as present sources gradually becoms
exhausted.
Idea Is Not New.
The shale oil idea is not new. The
Scots have been getting oil out OF shale-
for years, but under some favorable conf
ditions {.
For Is years residents Of Colorado
wyoming and Utah, where geologists say
the biggest concentrations of shale exist.
have tried to find a way to get oil from.
their shale on paying basis.
The Government Bureau of Mines got
into the picture in 1925 with an experi!3
mental project, but by 1929 had closed its
down. In the meantime, the Navy reai
served large shale fields In Colorado foI5
possible future use. u
The difficulties found in the test period,
have changed little, the experts say.I
They are: u
l. Location. The big deposits are In.
Northwestern Colorado, Southern Wyo-
ming and Northeastern Utah--all in rela.,
lively wild and undeveloped country. :
2. Heavy equipment is required, includ9
ing much iron and steel, for the shale'
has to be stripped from the earth, cooked
In retorts to extract the oil, after which
ordinary oil refining begins ;
3. Most shale yields about 80 per cent
ash after the oil is cooked out, so the,
disposal Of this ash is a big problem In.
itself
4. Some Government officials now fig-
ure that shale oil production can't COM
pete with ordinary crude unless the lat
ter reaches price Of probably IS pei
barrel. The price now is about 81.
A Tremendous Store. :
Estimates Of the supply OF shale oil
, are staggering. The Government estiS
mated III 1929 that there Is artotaI Of
probably % billion barrels recoverable in
the United States. OF this, rs billions
are in the Colorado Utah-W Wyoming area;
the rest scattered In Kentucky, Indiana,
Pennsylvania and California.
What this means can be put this ways
From 1859 to 1941, the United States pro-
duced Is billion barrels of crude oil. But
the rate we now are using it is indicated
by the fact that third of this was pro-
duced between 1886 and 1941.
Getting gasoline out Of coal, Ignite or
natural gas involves two intricate and
expensive processes developed in Ger
many. They also have been use in Eng@
land and France and by Japan in Man.
churia "a
The first process yields the better gas
oline Cts octane). But it involves big
plants with heavy machinery to get coal
changed over chemically into crude oil.
This Is accomplished by very high pres..
SureS and temperatures, under which
oxygen is removed and hydrogen is in
jected by mixing the coal with a catalyst.
The yield Is about a ton of GASOLINE
from four or five tons of high-grade coai.i
The second process requires less
machinery and can be used in smaller
plants, the experts say. 1t uses a solid
(and therefore simpler) catalyst and
yields about ton of IS octane Glow
grade) gasoline from five or six tons Of
coal. -
Natural Gas Source. -
This second process also will produce,
gasoline from natural gas-at an esti.
mated cost which would become eco.I
nomically competitive, Government men
f1gure, If the market price Of ordinary
crude oil reaches about 81 per barrel
The biggest known reserve of oil in the
world lies in the tar sands of the Atha-
baska region in Canada: Anywhere from'
100 to $50 billion barrels of oiI Fnf
CThe total crude oil discoveries of all
time throughout the world are consid..
cred not to exceed 81 billion barrels ~
For quarter of century Canadians
have been thinking about this rich store
mouse OF petroleum. Dozens of projects
have been started to get the oil out.
Results seem to add up to this:
The oil can be separated from this
hard white sand in which it lies by such
simple processes as boiling or infusir1ga
with steam. An oil with very heavys
base-sometimes resembling asphalt-is
yielded
Yet the fields lie so far north, in such.
cold, desolate and remote regions that
1t has not yet become economically feas-
lble to exploit them on a commercial
basis-despite the fact that new schemes
are advanced frequently, involving claims
OF new cheap processes. ..
High Price to Give Motive. -
Balancing what is known of present
crude oil reserves against the possibili~
ties OF getting it from shale, oil-bearins
sand or coal, the situation, as outlined
by Government men, boils down to this
In spite Of the fact that we are waging
war that is largely powered and ensI
tlrely fabricated with petroleum, we still
seem to be able to get out Of the ground
in crude form all we can use and carry
to points of consumption.