Oil shale resource in the United States is enormous.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has recently increased its estimates of the amount of shale oil contained in the Piceance Basin of Colorado by 50% bringing the total to 1.5 trillion barrels. This is an amount exceeding the proven reserves of conventional petroleum in the Middle East. Not all the resources are recoverable, but current estimates that exceed 500 billion barrels could sustain our current consumption of petroleum for over 70-years. It is the magnitude of this resource that makes it so important to the energy security of the United States.

However, the technical, economic, regulatory and legal challenges of bringing oil shale into commercial production have eluded developers for decades. The technologies of the past could not complete with conventional petroleum. Now, technology is being developed that has the potential to be successful.

Commercial production of shale oil is occurring in Estonia, China and Brazil.  Demonstration scale oil shale plants have been operated in the United States, but none are active at this time.  However, experimental scale activities are currently under way in Colorado and Utah to test new and innovative technologies that are expected to be environmentally acceptable, economic and sustainable.