Oil Shale in the Green River Formation

Inside more than 16,000 square miles of rock and sand, an area called the Green River Formation, sits a gargantuan supply of oil. This land covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. What lies in this region is what geologists call oil shale.

Oil shale is a black rock feeling grainy to the touch and greasy. When heated, oil shale oozes bubbling crude. This precious resource is rare and found only in a few select countries like China, Brazil, Estonia, Morocco, and Australia. But all these countries’ oil shale resources pale in comparison to the supply here. The United States dominates the oil shale market with possessing over 72% of the world’s oil shale resources. World-renowned geologist Walter Youngquist calls the oil beneath the Green River Formation, “a national treasure.”

This region holds the largest known oil reserve on the planet. Congress calls this area, “the next Saudi Arabia.” In 1930, the federal government placed protective legislation on this land forbidding anyone to use it. The government owns 80% of the reserved area. Wisely, knowing its potential value, they kept it for a “rainy day”.

Restricted for 76 years, it is now open for drilling. Extracting the oil from shale has always been cost prohibitive. But now it has become way too expensive to keep buying foreign oil. Coupled with the price of gasoline constantly rising, the “rainy day” has arrived. There will be certain challenges that will surface, as they do with using any unfamiliar resource. Oil shale processing can be made energy efficient. It is necessary to work out any problems so we can take advantage of this huge resource. We now have more proven discoveries and have developed more technological advances than we knew about in 1930. Companies are coming up with economical ways to get oil from the Green River Formation. Scientists and engineers continue working on ways to recover oil shale for a reasonable cost. Dozens have stepped forward with claims that they can extract the oil for as little as $10 a barrel. With oil prices approaching $70 a barrel, these pretty significant breakthroughs have convinced the government that it is time to start extracting the oil from the shale in the Green River Formation.

The protective legislation on the Green River Formation was lifted on August 8, 2005 by President Bush and signed into law. This mandate is called The Energy Policy Act of 2005. It calls for the opening phases of oil extraction in the Green River Formation, the world’s most concentrated energy source. We’re are now ready to tap the largest oil reserve on the planet located right here in America.

Oil companies like Triple Diamond Energy Corporation are watching the development of the opening of this reserve and how it affects the nation’s energy supply and economy. According to the RAND Corporation (a public-policy think tank for the government), this small region has the potential to produce three million barrels of oil per day which translates into more than $20 billion a year.