2 Million Acres Proposed for Oil Shale

“The potential of America’s oil shale resources to meet future U.S. demand for fuel is significant,” said BLM Director Jim Caswell.

The catch is extracting the oil from the rock, something that’s been tried on and off for nearly a century. The shale, or kerogen, is a petroleum precursor that wasn’t buried deeply enough or naturally processed long enough to complete the transformation to oil.

Companies working on oil-shale technology have said commercial development is likely years off. Shell Frontier Oil & Gas has been researching ways to tap oil shale for more than a quarter century, and has been running tests since 1996 on private land in northwestern Colorado.

AP