BLM to Hold Open Houses on Oil Shale RD&D Lease Process

In an effort to keep the public informed of the Bureau of Land Management’s oil shale research, development and demonstration (RD&D) process, the White River Field Office and industry representatives will be hosting a series of public open house meetings on the Western Slope.

The open house meetings will provide an opportunity for the public to comment, learn about the BLM’s environmental review process for each of Colorado’s six RD&D proposals, and speak to representatives from each of the four nominating companies.

The open houses will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. at the following locations:

Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Rangely High School
234 South Jones Avenue
Rangely

Thursday, March 30, 2006
Fairfield Center
200 Main Street
Meeker

Tuesday, April 4, 2006
Garfield County Fairgrounds Event Hall
Rifle

Thursday, April 6, 2006
DoubleTree Hotel
743 Horizon Drive
Grand Junction

“We want to make sure that the public is a part of the environmental review process, and ultimately that their input is considered when we make final leasing decisions on these oil shale proposals,” said Kent Walter, White River Field Manager.

A total of six RD&D nominations for 160-acre parcels in Colorado are moving forward for further consideration: three nominations from Shell; one nomination from Chevron Shale Oil Co., EGL Resources, Inc., and Exxon Mobil Corporation.

Each of the proposals involve in-situ (in-place) retorting, which does not permanently modify the land surface. All current methods for processing oil shale require heating the rock to mimic the geologic processes that produced conventional deposits of oil and natural gas. The environmental analysis on each proposal will help the BLM determine whether current technologies will result in less surface disturbance than earlier methods.

No RD&D lease will be awarded without certainty that the technology used will operate at environmentally acceptable levels.

-BLM-