Oil-shale mine may be reopened in Utah

The federal government has taken a step toward approving the reopening of an oil-shale mine in Utah, one of four experimental works on Western lands that are intended to boost domestic oil production.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management posted a report late Monday on an agency Web site that suggested the White River Mine could be reopened without any environmental problems.

"We are committed to being in the oil shale business for years and years to come. We know we can open the mine," said Dan Elcan, managing partner for Oil Shale Exploration Co., backed by Twin Pines Coal Co. of Alabama.

The BLM's 241-page assessment, however, stops short of clearing the mining project for approval. That decision will come after a 30-day public comment period, said James F. Kohler, solid minerals chief for the BLM in Utah.

In Colorado, three oil companies won environmental clearance in August for their plans to start producing shale oil by heating layers of rock using electric oven-like elements, steam injection or hot natural gas.

Utah's is the only mining project where oil shale will be brought to the surface, crushed into gravel and fed into a furnace-like retort. The White River Mine was abandoned by three major oil companies in 1985 when falling crude prices made shale oil — long an elusive bonanza in the West — uneconomical.

The White River Mine reaches a relatively thin layer of oil shale 1,000 feet underground. The richest layer is only 58 feet, compared with zones 1,000 feet thick in Colorado that are closer to the surface, where heating the ground is thought to be more practical.

In Colorado, the BLM declared projects by Shell Frontier Oil and Gas Inc., Chevron USA Inc. and Midland, Texas-based EGL Resources Inc. would have no significant environmental impact.

Kohler, however, said there was little doubt approval would follow in Utah because sections of the report found little or no environmental damage would result from reopening a working mine.

Oil Shale Exploration Co. first plans to send 1,000 tons of crushed oil shale to a plant in Calgary, Alberta, operated by a division of UMA Engineering Ltd., whose retort was judged by Oil Shale Exploration to be the best in the business.

UMATAC Industrial Process will ship one of its portable retorts to the White River Mine to process shale oil from a stockpile of oily rock left outside the mine's entrance.