BRODIE FARQUHAR Star-Tribune correspondent | Posted: Thursday, June 16, 2005 12:00 am
LANDER - The Rocky Mountain West has up to 1 trillion barrels of oil bound in 1,000-foot-thick oil shale formations in northwestern Colorado, southwestern Wyoming and eastern Utah.
Don't expect much development of this resource any time soon in the Cowboy State.
"The quality of the oil shale deposits in Wyoming just isn't as good as those in Colorado," said Cindy Wertz, spokeswoman for the Wyoming office of the Bureau of Land Management.
That assessment was echoed by Jennifer Miskimins, a petroleum engineer professor at Colorado School of Mines, who grew up in Wyoming, graduating from high school in Torrington.
"Wyoming shale is not near the quality (as Colorado)," measured in terms of recoverable energy, Miskimins said. "I expect industry will go after the best quality shale first, to prove up the technology."
Steve Wiig, geologist for the Rock Springs BLM office, said Wyoming oil shale, on average, would produce 15 to 30 gallons of oil per ton of oil shale rock. He said the Colorado and Utah deposits could produce 30 to 40 gallons, with some sites capable of producing 60 gallons of oil per ton of oil shale.
Last week, the Bush administration announced plans to accelerate oil shale development in the West by offering industry research sites that can later be converted into 5,100-acre production leases if companies figure out how to economically convert oil shale into fuel.
The Interior Department and BLM are specifically looking at the Green River and Washakie basins in Wyoming, the Piceance Creek Basin in Colorado, and the Uinta Basin in Utah as areas considered to have the most easily recoverable deposits in the United States. The BLM is accepting proposals for 160-acre, 10-year research projects until Sept. 7.
Wiig said the Green River basin had 2.6 million acres of oil shale withdrawn by Congress, while the Washakie Basin had 1.2 million acres.
Professor Miskimins said it was something of a misnomer to even call the resource "oil shale," as it doesn't actually contain oil. What's bound up in the shale is "kerogen," a not-quite-ready-for-prime-time precursor of oil - in other words, a waxy hydrocarbon that hasn't experienced enough pressure or heat to convert it into honest to goodness petroleum.
The technological challenge is to help Earth along by applying heat to oil shale deposits in-situ, deep in the ground, Miskimins said. The key issue is how to heat the oil shale efficiently and economically, so as to get the most product for the least cost.
"That's the conundrum," Miskimins said. Industry is interested in oil shale because regular oil prices are so high, yet it will take a considerable investment of energy to convert oil shale into useful product.
The problems are so significant that a common saying in the energy industry is that oil shale is the fuel of the future - and always will be. Twenty-three years ago, Exxon pulled the plug on its massive $5 billion project near Parachute, Colo., laying off 2,200 workers when the company couldn't find a cost-effective way to develop oil shale.
Miskimins said Shell is the only major oil company actively researching the economic viability of oil shale development. The Shell Oil Mahogany Research Project in western Colorado involves drilling holes in a grid and inserting to slowly heat the shale layers.
Once the shale is sufficiently heated, a chemical reaction starts and releases the lighter hydrocarbons, almost a gasoline-type product, which are pumped out of the ground through conventional means. Heavier hydrocarbons remain behind. Shell officials say it will be the end of the decade before a decision is made on whether oil shale development is commercially viable.
Wiig said the Anadarko oil company has been "poking around" in Wyoming's oil shale country, but hasn't expressed anything other than a broad interest in the topic.
News Tracker
* Last we knew: The Bush administration announced plans to accelerate oil shale development in the West.
* The latest: Officials said development will likely take place first in Colorado and Utah.
* What's next: The BLM is accepting proposals for 160-acre, 10-year oil shale research projects until Sept. 7.