Word: shale
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...most dramatic sign that shale had finally arrived came from Exxon (now ExxonMobil), the world's largest oil company. In May 1980 Exxon bought control of the Colony Oil Shale Project, a promising pilot venture near Parachute. Exxon paid $300 million up front and said it would invest at least $2 billion. The plant was supposed to produce 47,000 bbl. a day by 1985. And that was only the beginning. An internal corporate report predicted that by the mid-1990s Exxon would be producing 2 million bbl. a day from shale--enough to slice U.S. imports 20%. To accommodate...
Battlement Mesa, the company town that was to be the hub of the new industry, still exists, but not for oil-shale workers. It has become a retirement community. Against a backdrop of majestic mountains, retirees pump iron, hike scenic trails, swim and play golf. There's no trace of the Exxon project that was supposed to be shale oil's breakthrough. All vestiges of the mine and outbuildings are gone. The road leading to the plant site is still there, but it abruptly ends at the top of the hill. The land has been reclaimed and today looks much...
...what does Parachute look like today? The building where Unocal started converting shale to oil is still there, but it's not doing much to wean the nation from foreign oil. After sitting idle for years, the building was acquired in 1999 by American Soda, which began producing baking soda and soda ash from nearby deposits...
...shale projects of the 1980s were scrapped. Exxon spent $1 billion within two years of its much ballyhooed plunge into shale, then abruptly abandoned the project in 1982, citing market conditions and escalating costs. The Unocal plant actually did begin producing a modest amount of oil in the 1980s, but then in 1991 it too shut down, after heavy losses...
...decline in crude-oil prices was partly responsible, but a larger factor was a government policy reversal. Although bullish on shale, coal and other synfuels in 1980, Washington soon cooled to the idea, as it had done in the past. After 1980, the Reagan Administration thought private industry, not government, should shoulder all the costs. Subsidies were reduced, and in 1985 the Administration killed the entire program, except for the synthetic-fuels tax credit. "The Administration no longer believes continued funding of the Synthetic Fuels Corp. serves any useful purpose," Budget Director James Miller told Congress. Former Colorado Governor Richard...