Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
According to one estimate, there are 29 billion barrels of untapped oil in Utah. Oil that lies within the earth is called tar sands deposits.
Just outside the city of Vernal on a ridge, what looks simply like dirt, contains billions of dollars worth of oil. A South Korean company is soil washing, and if it works, it will be the first time oil has been extracted from tar sand deposits in this country; oil that will be used as gasoline, jet fuel or other petrochemicals.
Tom Bachtell, vice chairman of Korea Technology Industry America (KTIA), says, "This is a risk that's being taken here with a great amount of money." It's a risk because the effort could fail. It's been tried here before in the late ‘90s.
Extracting oil from this sand is a complicated and incredibly expensive process. A few years ago, Korean investors bought the private land called Asphalt Ridge.
The company, Korea Technology Industry, bought it because they believe they've come up with a different, exclusive technology that will capture the oil. Soung Kim, COO of Korea Technology Industry America, says, "Our end goal, really, is to be able to become one of the first companies to succeed in producing unconventional sources of oil."
KTIA pumped more than $40 million into refurbishing the plant, and next week they'll begin first production. Bachtell says, "This could be very significant for many, many years for the production of oil in Utah to help our nation's need for oil."
Significant because there's an estimated one billion barrels of oil within this ridge alone.
Soung Kim says despite Korea's own dependence on oil, this oil will stay here. He said, "The oil we produce here will have to stay here. On the cover, we may be a Korean or foreign investor, the business itself is American. The resource is American."
If next week's production proves successful, commercial production will start sometime in the spring. "Once we succeed, we know where the tar sands are. This will be less risky than other types of oil production in the United States," Bachtell says. That means no drilling what's found to be a dry hole because all you have to do is look down to see the oil.
Despite the current drop in the price of oil, officials at KTIA say they're moving forward. They are also looking at other uses for the tar sands, particularly asphalt. There are an estimated 2,500 barrels of potential asphalt at, as its name suggests, Asphalt Ridge.
E-mail: lprichard@ksl.com
