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Quarterly of the Colorado School of Mines, v.20 no.2. ; Includes illustrations. ; Foreword: With all that has been accomplished in the State or Colorado from the results of mining operations, agricultural development, and the sugar beet industry, there looms a new frontier, great in opportunity, in the vast oil shale deposits of western Colorado. During the past decade, government, state, and commercial agencies have demonstrated that in a district of about two thousand square miles, known as the De Beque-Grand Valley district, there exists a potential resource from which oils and other hydrocarbon products may be produced in quantities to create a most important auxiliary supply to the petroleum industry of this country. Conservative estimates give the amount of oil which may be produced from these shales as being equal to about three times the estimated underground oil pools known throughout the world. To realize such statistics, one has only to survey the various canyons resulting from erosion of the beds of this great inland sea leaving cliffs standing fifteen hundred to twenty-five hundred feet above the valley floors. The horizontal stratified layers of shale may be traced for miles with sites available for treatment plants and within convenient distance from the Colorado River which is destined to be the great oil shale center. The United States government has recognized the great importance of this resource by creating a Naval Oil Reserve of about 63,000 acres in the vicinity of Parachute creek and an initial appropriation of $90,000.00 is now available and Government representatives are already in the field completing arrangements for the erection of an experimental plant for the development of efficient and practical operations. Large investments have been made by commercial organizations in perfecting titles and conducting investigations to determine the most efficient technique and equipment. A great amount of research has been conducted by Government agencies, state bureaus, and commercial organizations and a great variety of mechanical equipment constructed proving that several systems of treatment are available for operation on a commercial scale. In the development of its mining and metallurgical operations, Colorado has engineering and administrative talent which is competent to meet the problems and practice of this great industry to be developed from this resource of the oil shales. The Denver Chamber of Commerce realizes the economic possibilities in this resource of oil shales and has created a committee composed of engineering and commercial representatives with experience in such an industry. The steadily increasing demand for oils and other hydrocarbon products makes necessary the development of a great auxiliary supply for the petroleum industry, and the source of such supply is found in the vast oil shale deposits of the west. One of the greatest opportunities of the age lies before us in our own State of Colorado and it is time to apply ourselves to the task. FRANK E. SHEPARD, Chairman, Oil Shale Committee of the Denver Chamber of Commerce.

Quarterly of the Colorado School of Mines, v.59 no.3. ; Includes illustrations, charts, graphs, tables. ; A Synopsis of the Responses Received by the Department of the Interior in Answer to Secretary Udall's Request for Suggestions on the Development of Oil Shale on the Public Lands / John M. Kelly -- Oil from Rock The Gas-Combustion Process / Boyd Guthrie, Sr. -- Conversion of Oil Shale to Refined Products / Harold E. Carver -- Retorting Oil Shale Underground Problems and Possibilities / Bruce F. Grant -- Some Characteristic Properties of Colorado Oil Shale Which May Influence In Situ Processing / V. Dean Allred -- Bureau of Mines Oil-Shale Research / H. M. Thorne -- Oil Shale Development Handicapped by Government Indecision by The Hon. Wayne N. Aspinall -- Memorandum of President Lyndon B. Johnson Concerning Lease Agreement -- News Story Concerning Lease Agreement -- Some Oil Shale Problems / John H. East, Jr. -- Foreign Oil Shale Industries and Their Influence on United States Oil Shale Development / Russell J. Cameron -- Oil Shale and the Depletion Allowance / John B. Tweedy -- Status of Unpatented Claims / Richard M. Schmidt, Jr. -- Physical Background Oil Shale / Frank C. Cooley -- Geology and Oil-Shale Resources of the Green River Formation / John R. Donnell.

Includes illustrations, maps. ; The history of oil shale in the United States since the early 1900's is detailed. Research on western oil shale probably began with the work of Robert Catlin in 1915. During the next 15 years there was considerable interest in the oil shales, and oil shale claims were located, and a few recovery plants were erected in Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana. Little shale soil was produced, however, and the major oil companies showed little interest in producing shale oil. The early boom in shale oil saw less than 15 plants produce a total of less than 15,000 barrels of shale oil, all but about 500 barrels of which was produced by the Catlin Operation in Nevada and by the US Bureau of Mines Rulison, Colorado operation. Between 1930 and 1944 plentiful petroleum supplies at reasonable prices prevent any significant interest in shale oil, but oil shortages during World War II caused a resurgence of interest in oil shale. Between 1940 and 1969, the first large-scale mining and retorting operations in soil shale, and the first attempts at true in situ recovery of shale oil began. Only 75,000 barrels of shale oil were produced, but major advancements were made in developing mine designs and technology, and in retort design and technology. The oil embargo of 1973 together with a new offering of oil shale leases by the Government in 1974 resulted in the most concentrated efforts for shale oil production to date. These efforts and the future prospects for shale oil as an energy source in the US are discussed.

On cover: 14th oil shale symposium proceedings. ; Includes illustrations. ; The Center for Oil Shale Technology, along with the Colorado Energy Research Institute (CERI), the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) and other sponsors hosts the Oil Shale Symposium each year. The Oil Shale Symposium is the premier technical meeting on this resource and Symposium reviews development of oil shale resources worldwide, including research & development, environmental impact analysis, regulatory framework, and project & program status. The program includes both oral and poster presentations. From the foreword: If one word had to be chosen to describe the oil shale situation, I believe that word would be "change." From one year to the next, there are significant changes in the political, economic, environmental, and social aspects of the industry. In the early 1970s, the environmental viewpoints not only changed 180 degrees but their impacts on oil shale development became more significant by many orders of magnitude. In addition to this, the political atmosphere changed from one of encouragement to one of laws and regulations designed to prevent development. There was a slow amelioration of these impacts during the latter part of the 1970s, and, in the last year of the Carter administration, programs were initiated to provide economic support for programs to commercialize shale oil production. The change in administrations caused a change in emphasis and the apparent direction now is to greater reliance on private funds and development. The continued increases in fuel costs and inflation have had mixed influences on the economic viability of shale oil production, but present indicators point strongly to expansion of pilot plant processes to commercial size operations. Unless there are major unforeseen impacts on the construction and development phases now underway, there should be a production of 50,000 to 90,000 barrels per day of shale oil by the mid-1980s. Only then will the real problems associated with commercial shale oil production be known. Major problems, if any, may be entirely unexpected while those predicted today may turn out not to be problems at all. If the latter is the case, the papers presented at this symposium may have been a major factor of prevention because many deal with potential problems and their solutions. As is usually the case, the values of the symposium and its proceedings are due to the efforts of the participants: the authors presenting papers, their companies who encouraged them in their work, and the attendees who participated in discussions. These efforts are very much appreciated. James H. Gary Professor of Chemical and Petroleum- Refining Engineering.

On cover: 13th oil shale symposium proceedings. ; Includes illustrations, charts, graphs, tables. ; Foreword: For many years the commercial production of shale oil in the United States has been "just around the corner." Perhaps the 13th Oil Shale Symposium will signify the approach of the turn because everything is now favorable for proceeding except for the resistance of the no-growth groups. It is essential that the initial phases of the industry be established to provide answers for many unanswered questions regarding the environmental, economic, social and political impacts of shale oil production at a commercial scale. Although shale oil production costs are site, deposit and process specific, the production costs of $20 to $50 per barrel look promising compared to the 1980' s costs of $100 per barrel to find and develop a new barrel of conventional crude oil and $25 to $50 per barrel to produce crude oil from existing fields by enhanced recovery methods. It still remains to be seen whether the predicted temporary glut of world oil and U.S. and world economic recession* together with the dire predictions by no growth groups of environmental, social and economic disasters if a commercial shale oil operation is established in Western United States, will stop the present impetus of oil shale development or whether now is the time. This year's papers dealt with many of the above aspects of oil shale development and the authors are to be commended on their work. I also wish to thank Dr. R. E. Poulson and the Laramie Energy Technology Center for their support as well as the Session Chairmen and the many others who made things run so smoothly. James H. Gary Professor of Chemical and Petroleum- Refining Engineering

On cover: 11th oil shale symposium proceedings. ; Includes illustrations. ; From the foreword: The papers presented at the 11th Oil Shale Symposium reflect the promises and concerns of the present with respect to the commercial development of oil shale. It is both significant and of great concern that there is little to report in the area of development policy. The Federal Government has been wrestling with an overall energy policy for the past five years and, as of this moment, has not produced a policy statement of merit. Until federal and state policies are implemented, there can be no significant commercial development of oil shale. There are many very worthwhile and thought-provoking papers in these proceedings. As always, the success and value of these symposia are due to the efforts of the authors of the papers and the willingness of the organizations for whom they work to share their experiences with others. All of us owe them a strong vote of thanks. In addition, Dick Poulson and I wish to thank the session chairmen and paper reviewers. Especially, we wish to express our appreciation to John B. Reubens for his assistance in editing the material. James H. Gary Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Colorado School of Mines

On cover: 15th oil shale symposium proceedings. ; Includes illustrations, charts, graphs, tables. ; From the foreword: At the time of the 14th Oil Shale Symposium in 1981, everything was going well for the shale oil program and it was thought that barring unusual circumstances there would be a production of 50,000 to 90,000 barrels per day of shale oil by the mid-1980s. However, the fledgling industry seems to be plagued with "unusual and unforeseen" circumstances and, only six months after the symposium, most of the active projects scheduled for commercial production reduced their activity. In last November, Multi- Minerals Corporation announced it was stopping development operations and laying off most of its employees. This was followed in December by Cathedral Bluffs Oil Shale announcing it was stopping most of its development operations to make a reassessment of the economic feasibility of proceeding. On the Monday after the 15th Oil Shale Symposium in 1982, Exxon abruptly announced it was stopping work on the Colony Project with the subsequent loss of almost 2000 jobs in the Colorado Western Slope area. In all cases, the reasons given for the stoppages were a soft crude oil market and lower world crude prices, a greater than expected decline in crude oil consumption, escalating costs, and high interest rates. A non-friendly attitude by the state and federal governments did not help the situation, with movements in the legislatures to increase sharply severance taxes and talk at both the state and local levels to stiffen environmental restrictions. Many people have been saying the industry will truly get underway when shale oil can be produced competitively with crude oil and does not need government support. This would be true if crude oil and shale oil were on an equal basis. Unfortunately, this is not true. There is significant bias to the petroleum industry with special tax credits permitting expensing of substantial portions of the front-end money required to find and develop new crude oil and a significant depletion allowance on crude oil produced. Instead of putting roadblocks in the way to prevent production, similar support should be given to shale oil rather than constantly increasing the disincentives to development. Fortunately, plans of the Union Oil Company of California are still active, and, apparently within budget. Construction is scheduled to be completed during the latter part of 1983 with production of about 10,000 barrels per day of syncrude to follow soon afterwards. This operation does have federal support with the guarantee of purchase of 9000 barrels per day of jet and diesel fuel. Hopefully this project will demonstrate the feasibility of commercial production of shale oil at a competitive price. We all have the feeling "we have been here before." Always circumstances have changed and activity has picked up again. Each time projects have come closer to final production and, barring more "unusual and unforeseen circumstances," perhaps 1983 will mark the beginning of a sustained commercial industry even though it will be a much slower start than hoped. James H. Gary Professor of Chemical and Petroleum- Refining Engineering

On cover: 19th oil shale symposium proceedings. ; Includes illustrations, charts, graphs, tables. ; From the Foreword: The oil shale industry is at the same level of activity it was in the late 1960's. With crude oil in plentiful supply and at low prices there is no feel of urgency to develop a viable synfuels program. In addition, most petroleum companies are severely restricting their research and development programs and the federal government is concerned with cutting spending. As a result most programs have been phased out and the only program still active for western oil shales is that of Union Oil Company at Parachute, Colorado. These conditions affected the 19th Oil Shale Symposium in both attendance and the number of papers available for the sessions. To maintain the quality of the program, it was necessary to restrict the program to two days but the resulting program was exceptionally good. The total attendance was 97 which compares with 389 for the best attended symposium and 83 for the smallest. Unfortunately, both government and industry have very short memories and resort to short-term planning. This has resulted in the rollercoaster history of the shale oil industry. Whenever there is a shortage of petroleum, crash research and development programs are initiated and everyone gets into the act. Later, when crude oil becomes more available, these programs are phased out and the expertise developed is allowed to dissipate. In the long run this is very costly to industry and the government because much of the same work is repeated and new people have to be educated to the needs of the industry. Hopefully, the Oil Shale Symposia will ameliorate some of this loss of expertise by making available the results of much of this work to future workers. Even so, many companies do not permit the presentation of the results of their work because of their concern for divulging proprietary information to their competitors. In many cases this concern is unwarranted and later may work to their disadvantage because it is not available for their own use. Unless there are definite reasons for withholding data, it is to everyone's benefit to publish as much as possible. Once again thanks are due to Richard Poulson and John Dyni who assisted in obtaining papers, the Western Research Institute, and the U.S. Department of Energy who cosponsored the Symposium, and those authors and their employers who provided the papers and presentations which made the 19th Oil Shale Symposium worthwhile. If sufficient good papers are forthcoming, the 20th Oil Shale Symposium will be held on the Mines campus on April 21-22, 1987. I hope to see you here. James H. Gary Director of Symposia and Professor of Chemical Engineering and Petroleum Refining

On cover: 12th oil shale symposium proceedings. ; Includes illustrations, charts, graphs, tables. ; From the foreword: Each year since 1972, the dependence of the United States with respect to liquid and gaseous fuels has increased. Since 1972 the amount of this country's imported needs has increased almost 300 percent. Present and past government policies encourage importation of needs over domestic production. The distortion of the industry position by news media has created a crisis with respect to industry credibility and a chasm between those dependent upon petroleum fuels and those most able to supply their needs. A viable synthetic fuels industry would not only produce sufficient motor fuel to mean the difference between a supply adequate for essential needs and long waiting lines at service stations, but could serve to tip the scales to our advantage in negotiations with OPEC countries. Exchange of technical information with respect to all aspects of shale oil production serves to increase the effectiveness of everyone working in this area. This Symposium's presentations covered the spectrum from environmental, socioeconomic, and public policy issues to the technical and theoretical aspects of shale oil processing. The authors and their sponsors are to be commended for the quality of the presentations. To speedup the publication process, the authors were requested to supply their papers in a publication ready mode and to use both metric and English units of measurement. Fortunately, most of the authors were very cooperative and the majority of the papers met good journalistic criteria. In one or two instances, I made the decision that it was more important to publish the paper and make the results available in written form as soon as possible than to delay the Proceedings and insist on the desired form. Two papers were not available at the time of going to press and will be included in the next Proceedings. One paper has been added to complete a series started in the Symposia. Acknowledgment is given to the American Institute of Chemical Engineers for permission to publish the paper by Arvids Judzis, Jr. This year, especially, I wish to acknowledge the help of R. E. Poulson in putting the environmental session together and editing the papers, of J. K. Richmond for setting up the safety portion of the program, and of Mrs. Ruth Jarnagin and Mrs. Marjorie Rinehart in doing the follow-up necessary to put the Proceedings into print. James H. Gary Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Colorado School of Mines

Oil shale utilisation losses reach 70% in some cases. These are closely related to legislation, backfilling and waste rock usage. Much smaller sections include production of oil, electricity and chemicals in which most of the research and development is performed today. Current urgent topics for investigating, testing and developing of oil shale mining related questions are backfilling, mechanical extracting of shale, fine separation, selective separation and optimised drilling and blasting. Reducing oil shale losses will be more actual in the future, because the depth of mining increases and the taxes for resource and pollutants are increasing as well.

Quarterly of the Colorado School of Mines, v.18 no.3. ; Includes illustrations. ; In view of the fact that the domestic supply of oil well petroleum In the United States is being consumed at a rapid rate, and that probably within a period of twenty or thirty years will have been largely consumed, the problem of our future oil supply becomes acute. The United States will either be forced to import petroleum at a much higher cost than exists at present, or else she must find some suitable substitute which may be obtained in this country. In connection with the great demand for petroleum and the ever decreasing supply, much interest has been taken in the production of oil from the carbonaceous shales of the western part of the United States, particularly throughout Colorado, ,Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California. With the fact in mind that possibly within the present generation this country may depend upon shale for its source of oil, and also because of the fact that no courses in oil shale are given in this University at the present time, we have chosen this work for our thesis in order that we might acquaint ourselves with some of the fundamental problems connected with the retorting of oil shale. We have, therefore, approached this subject for the purpose of studying such retorting problems as: (1) Effect of beat and rate of heating shale. (2) Size of shale. (3) Effect of pressure and vacuum. (4) Quality of oil produced from shale. We will plan our experimental procedure as best suited for the apparatus and in accordance with the time allotted, and will draw our own conclusions according-to the results or the experiments and attempt to explain them from our own viewpoint. Robert J. Stewart, John Trenchard.

Quarterly of the Colorado School of Mines, v.17 no.3. ; A legal contest: Articles on oil shale that have been written thus far may be divided into three classes. A. Technical articles devoted chiefly to the chemistry of retorting and refining; b. Informative articles devoted to a survey of the progress that is being made; and c. Propaganda to sell stock. In the early stages of any new industrial enterprise of wide scope, errors of judgment are sure to be made, fake promotions will inevitably appear, and misstatements become current. Rarely does it happen that opportunity is given to secure data submitted virtually to a court of justice, given by competent experts under oath, subject to cross-examination, and involving large financial considerations. Such an opportunity recently occurred before the Register of the Government Land Office at Glenwood Springs, Colo., Jan. 27 and 29, 1922. The Government brought suit to cancel certain locations of oil shale land in the Debeque district on the ground that the land was not mineral and not valuable for oil shale, that the locations were not made according to law, and that the annual assessment was not legally performed. The mining law requires that, to make a valid placer location, the lands included in the location must be valuable chiefly for the minerals for which the land is located. The case is known as United States, contestant, versus Bailey, Krushnic et al, contestees, and Earnest Wight, transferee. It appeared that the transferee had purchased the interests of the contestees prior to the commencement of the suit, and the expert witnesses who were called, aside from those called by the Government, were called by the transferee. The Government was represented by R. R. Duncan, as its attorney, and the transferee was represented by Robert D. Hawley as his attorney.

On cover: 23rd oil shale symposium proceedings. ; Includes illustrations. ; The following is a partial foreward by James H. Gary, Director of Symposia and Professor of Chemical Engineering and Petroleum Refining: The 23rd Oil Shale Symposium was made possible by the support of the U.S. Department of Energy and those authors and their companies who provided the papers and made the presentations at the Symposium. Although there were fewer papers than in the past years, the quality of the presentations was excellent and the material covered was very valuable to those attending. The attendance was better than that for the 22nd Oil Shale Symposium even though there has been no renewal of interest in alternate liquid fuels by the U.S. The United States has become increasingly dependent upon imported crude oils and, during 1989, imports averaged over 46% of the total crude demand. Also, U.S. crude oil reserves fell for the 19th straight year. In spite of these trends, the low prices and easy availability of crude oils have prevented the reawakening of interest for a synthetic fuels program and the reopening of research and development programs in the fuels and energy industry.