Dutch firm awaits results of testing in pilot program
By Gargi Chakrabarty,
June 16, 2007
Energy behemoth Royal Dutch Shell PLC withdrew an application for a state permit for its hyped oil shale project on Colorado’s public land.
The surprise move raises doubts about the viability of the energy resource and concerns by its competitors.
The Hague-based Shell says it has no plans to abandon the project, spokeswoman Jill Davis said Friday.
It will resubmit the application for the state permit to build a pilot oil-shale project after more data is available from tests on privately owned land, she said.
“By no means are we exiting oil shale,” Davis said. “This is a minor correction like you’d see with any large-scale research and development project.”
Last year, Shell received federal approval to lease three, 160-acre plots in Rio Blanco County to test its proprietary oil shale technology.
The company announced plans to drill 200 wells in the first plot beginning next year, and was mulling over building temporary living quarters for 600 workers near its drilling site. The status of those plans is unclear.
Randy Udall of CORE, a nonprofit energy company in Aspen, said Shell’s decision underscores the difficulty of extracting oil from oil shale in Colorado.
The United States holds more than 50 percent of the world’s oil shale resources – the equivalent of 2.6 trillion barrels of oil – of which 1.5 trillion barrels are recoverable. Most of the oil shale is in the Green River Basin in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
Oil shale provides just one-ten-thousandth of global energy, Udall said.
“Regarding oil shale, we have been in two modes: hype and hysteria,” Udall said.
Shell’s process calls for using heating rods buried underground to heat the organic matter for about four years until it turns into oil and flows to the surface through wells.
Two other companies, EGL Resources and Chevron USA, each leased one 160-acre federal plot for oil shale research.
“Shell was on the forefront of the technology, and its decision is a setback to all of us,” said Glenn Vawter, EGL’s manager of oil shale at EGL Resources. “We are certainly concerned.”
Rocky wire services contributed to this report.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/energy/article/0,2777,DRMN_23914_5588887,00.html
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
