![]() ![]() (Consider the fact that the recovery rate in Shell’s experiment was 62 percent, compared with 25 percent for the average conventional oil field.) It’s a fundamentally different approach from the one that guided the failed efforts of Exxon here in the 1980s, producing an unconventional hydrocarbon - technically a form of synthetic oil - that is higher in quality and concentration even than conventional oil. On one hand, there is little doubt among experts that Shell’s technology represents a breakthrough. At the White House in June, President Bush blasted Democrats for “standing in the way” of oil-shale development and hurting ordinary Americans. Senate race as well as a regular talking point for Republicans nationwide. The fight over oil shale has become a major issue in Colorado’s U.S. Now that and similar technologies have become fodder in the increasingly contentious energy debate, holding out the possibility that, in an era of $4-a-gallon gasoline, America might just be sitting on oil reserves equal to a 100-year supply of the country’s imports. “Now we know we have a technology that works.” “It was our ‘eureka’ moment,” said Tracy Boyd, a spokesman for Shell, smiling as he showed off the historic spot. Out flowed an abundance of high-quality shale oil. But beginning in 2002, Shell drilled a honeycombed series of wells, then lowered in giant heating elements, raising the temperature of the shale to 650 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 months. ![]() Over five years here, Shell Oil conducted a series of secretive experiments that have the potential to blow open the status quo of North American oil production, unlocking the vast reserves of oil shale that underlie Colorado’s Western Slope.Įarly attempts failed miserably. GARFIELD COUNTY - The ramshackle collection of wellheads and electric cables hidden in a pine-covered draw west of Rifle doesn’t look like much now, but until three years ago it was the home of the oil industry’s equivalent of the Manhattan Project. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu ![]()
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