By John Rogers
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Vernal office released its final environmental impact statement (EIS) in late May that paves the way for a proposed utility corridor to support what could be the country’s largest commercial oil shale mining project. The ramifications of the project’s impact on Utah’s energy future are mammoth, according to industry watchers.
Ever since 19th century settlers discovered that they could burn the viscous kerosene-like liquid that oozed from the shale in parts of eastern Utah, entrepreneurs have tried to figure out a way to commercially extract the oil from the vast deposits that lie trapped in the rocks beneath the land. All attempts have proved fruitless. The failed efforts even spawned a cynical tagline in a Colorado newspaper that pointed out the futility of the pursuit: “Oil shale, fuel of the future — always has been, always will be.”
But Eesti Energia, an Estonian state-owned energy company, hopes to break the mold. Enefit American Oil, a subsidiary of Eesti, is in the process of exporting its oil shale-mining technology to Utah and establishing what would be the first successful commercial oil shale operation in the United States. Enefit plans to construct a large oil shale mine and power plant in northeastern Utah, near the Colorado border.
Oil shale is a sedimentary rock that contains up to 50 percent organic matter rich in hydrogen known as kerogen. The extracted rock can be processed to produce shale oil, which can be refined into gasoline, diesel or jet fuel.
Eesti Energia operates two successful oil shale mines — one underground and the other a quarry mine — in Estonia, where it produces commercial petroleum products and operates an oil-fired electricity-generating plant. The company is in the process of constructing an oil shale extraction plant and a generating station in Jordan.
In order to build its project, Enefit needs to run utilities — most notably a water line — to the site. The actual utility corridor includes some land controlled by the BLM, which has reviewed the potential grant of five rights-of-way to Enefit and the Moon Lake Electric Association. The corridor would supply natural gas, electrical power, water and other needed infrastructure through one or more passageways to produce and deliver oil shale. Last month’s EIS report opens the way for the rights-of-way to be granted.
Under the proposal, project developers would construct 19 miles of water supply pipeline, 9 miles of natural gas supply lines, 11 miles of oil product line and 30 miles of 138-kilovolt power lines. The BLM noted that full build-out of the project would likely occur regardless of the proposed utility corridor because Enefit already has vehicle access to its land. Water can be trucked into the site and product can be trucked out.
The BLM is expected to issue a final ruling on the utility corridor permitting after July 2. The agency is currently accepting comments on the proposal. The BLM only has jurisdiction regarding the utilities corridor. Actual permitting for the mine will come from the state.
Enefit plans to set up shop on 7,000-9,000 acres of commercial oil shale mining in eastern Uintah County, near the Colorado border. The project is about 40 miles south of Vernal and 25 miles southwest of Rangely, Colorado. The land is privately-owned or controlled by the Utah Schools and Institutional Trust Lands Administration. Enefit anticipates producing 50,000 barrels of oil per day over the 30-year life of the mine site, which is in the Green River Formation, believed to hold the world’s richest, most concentrated oil shale deposits, according to energy industry reporting.
Enefit owns or is in the process of securing mineral rights to a large tract of the property within the “South Project,” a 30,000-acre oil shale property which is one of the largest tracts of privately owned oil shale property in the U.S., according to the BLM. The area contains about 1.2 billion barrels of shale oil, Enefit estimates. As much as 1 trillion barrels of oil-equivalent product are within the Green River formation, although not all of it is recoverable, according to industry estimates.
Western Resource Advocates is part of a coalition of conservation groups that are opposing the corridor proposal and Enefit’s shale project more generally. “At its peak, this proposal will likely produce more climate changing pollution than any other plant in America, will use tremendous amounts of precious water and will generate massive amounts of air pollution in an area already shown to be out of compliance with federal clean air regulations,” the group said on its website.
In a news release on its website, Enefit hailed the completion of what it called the “long-awaited” environmental impact statement. It also projected that, “assuming there are no unforeseen, last-minute issues raised in the public comments,” the corridor will be approved.
Enefit said a 30-day period will then follow for appealing the decision, which it expects environmental groups and others will do. “To date, however, all concerns raised by third parties throughout the EIS process have been resolved to the BLM’s satisfaction, so we’re optimistic that any appeals will not be successful,” the company said in its release.
In 2017, the BLM granted Enefit a five-year extension of its oil shale research, development and demonstration lease on 160 acres of federal land next to the private property where the proposed mining project would sit.