Word: shales
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...reason why the Stanford trustees had not already approved Dr. Wilbur's application for another year's leave of absence. The Secretary was described as "particularly loth" to resign from the Cabinet until the disposition of charges against him and his department's administration of Colorado shale oil lands by Field Chief Ralph S. Kelley (TIME, Oct.13...
Some 800,000 acres of shale oil land in western Colorado, owned by all the U. S. people and said by the U. S. Geological Survey to contain 40 billion barrels of petroleum (value: $1 per barrel, minimum), loomed more and more clearly in the public prints last week as an interesting national possession, also as the focus of an alleged national scandal. Ralph S. Kelley, the Interior Department's field chief at Denver, last fortnight resigned his post, loudly protesting that Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur was not taking proper care of all the people's great...
...charges as "reckless and false," called him a "clerk." While Field Chief Kelley talked only of oil land sales, Secretary Wilbur confused the issue by talking chiefly of oil leases, none of which have been granted under the Hoover conservation policy. As to sales he said: "These oil shale lands aren't worth anything now. You couldn't sell a strip of it to save your life...
...Work's Decree. In the Colorado shale fields, traces of oil appear on the surface of the ground. Were these enough, without drilling, to fulfill the law's "discovery" requirement? In 1924 the Interior Department ruled that surface traces were not sufficient, that their connection with underground oil supplies was not proved. Potent oil companies?Pure Oil, Union of California, Prairie, Continental, Midwest?massed their legal forces against this decision. Three years later with the aid of Colorado's Senators they induced Secretary of the Interior Hubert Work, a Coloradoan, to reverse the Department's position. By Dr. Work...
Worthless? Because no cheap method has yet been devised for extracting oil from the tough dark shale of Colorado, geologists estimate the production cost of such oil at $3 per barrel, as compared with current petroleum prices of $1 per barrel. Oil companies with foresight, however, have bought up Colorado shale land from original prospectors on the theory that eventually a cheap extraction process will be found. Denver records show the following holdings: Standard Oil of New Jersey, 20,000 acres; Union of California, 18,000; Continental, 10,000; Texas, 10,000; Prairie, 7,000; Deep Rock, 4,000; Pure...