BILLIONS OF BARRELS OF OIL LOCKED 



UP IN ROCKS 



By Guy Elliott Mitchell 



Of the United States Geological Survey 



IS THE United States facing a gaso- 

 line famine? Shall we be required 

 to forego automobiling except to 

 meet the stern necessities of war and of 

 utilitarian traffic? Are our petroleum 

 fields showing signs of exhaustion? 



The output of petroleum has not yet 

 begun to diminish; statistics show that 

 it is still increasing; yet the downward 

 trend of production from the present oil 

 fields is plainly in sight. 



The war has made a sudden and enor- 

 mously increasing demand on the oil fields 

 of America, and though the industry has 

 never been so feverishly active as it is 

 now and the output never so large, the 

 truth is that the demand has not been 

 entirely met. And during the next year 

 and as long as the war lasts the demand 

 will be ever increasing, ever more press- 

 ing. 



Many of the host of larger vessels that 

 we are now building will be equipped 

 with oil-burning furnaces, and the vast 

 swarm of airplanes that we are building, 

 as well as the thousands of war automo- 

 biles and trucks that we are turning out, 

 will consume an enormous quantity of 

 gasoline. Yet no great new oil regions 

 comparable with the mid-continent or 

 California fields are being discovered, and 

 it is questionable whether any will be, 

 for our oil geologists have pretty thor- 

 oughly combed the accessible oil areas. 

 What, then, is the answer? 



It is just at this juncture that we have 

 made a discovery that has disclosed what 

 is undoubtedly one of our greatest min- 

 eral resources — one that should supply 

 the needs of the war, and that for gen- 

 erations to come will enable the United 

 States to maintain its supremacy over the 

 rest of the world as a producer of crude 

 oil and gasoline and incidentally of am- 

 monia as a highly valuable by-product. 

 We have discovered that we possess 

 mountain ranges of rock that will yield 

 billions of barrels of oil. 



For many years travelers going west 

 through the Grand River Valley of Colo- 

 rado and into the great Uinta Basin of 

 eastern Utah have looked from the win- 

 dows of their Pullman cars on the far- 

 stretching miles and miles of the Book 

 Cliff Mountains, little realizing that in 

 these and adjoining mountains, plainly 

 exposed to view, lay the greatest oil res- 

 ervoir in the country — the oil shales of 

 Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Nevada. 



ROCKS THAT BURN FREELY 



These shales, it is true, were known to 

 yield oil. Campers and hunters in build- 

 ing fires against pieces of the rock had 

 been surprised to find that they ignited 

 and burned, and investigation showed 

 that they contain oil. This fact was 

 looked upon, however, as only another of 

 the natural curiosities of the great West 

 and little or no attention was paid to it 

 because of the seemingly inexhaustible 

 pools of crude petroleum found elsewhere 

 under great areas. 



In connection with its investigations 

 of the undeveloped mineral resources of 

 the country the United States Geological 

 Survey has recently made special studies 

 and tests of these oil rocks and has 

 brought to light two important facts : 

 First, that our western shales are phe- 

 nomenally rich in oil, and, second, that 

 in foreign countries, particularly Scot- 

 land, much inferior shales are today suc- 

 cessfully mined and worked as a source 

 of oil and other commercial products. 

 The industry in Scotland is 70 years old 

 and is still in a highly flourishing condi- 

 tion. 



OIL PROFITABLV DISTILLED EROM SHALE 

 IN SCOTLAND 



The Scotch shales run only about 25 

 gallons of oil to the ton ; yet the principal 

 operating companies competing with the 

 petroleum industry pay annual dividends 

 averaging 18 per cent. Rock producing 



T95 



