Development of oil shale in the Green River Formation

journal articleIn the last two decades, U.S. petroleum demand has increased at a rate greater than that of domestic production. Concern has been expressed on the future of the Nation's energy supply if reliance must be placed entirely on increasing imports from foreign sources of questionable dependability. A domestic energy source that is under serious consideration to augment present supply is oil shale. The Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming represents a potential resource containing about 2 trillion barrels of oil in shale that averages IS gallons per ton or more than 400 billion barrels in 30-gallon-per-ton shale. This report considers the technological and environmental aspects of developing this resource for use by the people of the United States