Estimated read time: Less than a minute
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 Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information.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.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah has 77 billion barrels of recoverable shale oil.
It's the first reliable estimate from state geologists who calculated that the Uintah Basin south of Vernal contains a total of 292 billion barrels of shale oil, but that only about a quarter of that is economically recoverable.
The rest is too deep or of poor quality.
Utah state geologist Michael Vanden Berg says 77 billion barrels still is a lot of shale oil, which can be refined into petroleum products.
Vanden Berg says a resource that big warrants closer study and a research-and-demonstration project.
An Alabama-based partnership has a federal lease on the old White River oil shale mine. It's testing new technology before setting up a furnace-like retort to heat up the rock. Other companies also are experimenting.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
