phate content that are adapted to low-cost strip mining may eventually be of economic interest.

In terms of resources the Piceance Creek Basin alone contains potentially extractable aluminum, sodium, and shale oil in amounts that tax the imagination. Figure 3 shows you the composition quantitatively from one drill hole for which we have permission from the operator to disclose this quantitative information.

The lacustrine environment of this basin was truly unique by virtue of its persistence through geologic time in allowing such great thicknesses of oil shale and other resources to accumulate. Continued investigations of these Green River deposits in the several States will

shed much light on the geological processes involved and perhaps lead to the discovery of additional mineral resources as yet unknown.

THE ACREAGE IN FEDERAL OWNERSHIP

If we take into consideration only those lands containing oil shale beds that are at least 15 feet thick and would yield at least 15 gallons of oil per ton, acreage figures have been estimated. You have before you these acreages estimates and these are the same estimates that were given by Director Pecora to the hearings of the Senate and Interior and Insular Affairs Committee. I will not read them unless you wish me to.

Senator HART. The record will reflect them.

(The table referred to follows:)

Estimated total reserves of this 15-foot, 15-gallon-per-ton oil are, in billion barrels:

Mr. WAYLAND. The estimated total reserves, that my text shows, would be better designated as "estimated total oil in place" because the term "reserve" is a more precise term than I meant it to be here. Estimated total reserves of this 15-foot, 15-gallon-per-ton oil are in billions of barrels, and totals, as you see, 1,744 billion barrels, mostly in Colorado, of which the Federal share is 78.9 percent. That is of this grade.

These estimates do not take into account the shale that would be left behind in mining operations, or lower grade shales ultimately minable of less than 15 gallons per ton.

The Executive Order No. 5327 of April 15, 1930, was issued at the time when the state of knowledge of the extent of the oil shale deposits in this three-State area was such that the withdrawal of oil shale deposits from lease or other disposal was made to apply to federally owned oil shales within the following area:

Colorado, 1,496,000 acres; Utah, 2,755,000 acres; Wyoming, 4,007,000 acres; total of 8,258,000 acres. Today the following acreage is classified as oil shale land: That is this map on your left over here. That is the current status of classification of oil shale lands in this part of the world, these three States.

The acreage now has increased in Colorado to 1,826,00, Utah, 4,971,000, and Wyoming, 4,260,000, total, 11,003,000. I should say this is not the only oil shale we feel comes under this Executive order but there is not much excitement about some of the other oil shales. We recognize oil shale in Montana and there is increasing interest in the oil shales that we have now discovered in Alaska. The latter is still pretty much of scientific interest only however.

(The table referred to follows:)

Total acreage of oil shale land covered by withdrawal order of 1930

This withdrawal order simply provides that lands valuable for oil shale shall be withdrawn, without specifying minimum quality or quantity. It, therefore, involves somewhat larger acreages as you see than those tabulated above for 15-foot thick, 15-gallon-per-ton oil shale.

That is my statement.

Senator HART. Thank you very much, Mr. Wayland. This may not be true of Senator Fong and Senator Hansen, but I think I will have to reread this a couple of times before I am at all comfortable knowing how much we are talking about where.

Let me see if I can clarify just a couple of things on the first pass. You say that about 80 billion barrels of shale oil is considered recoverable by demonstrated mining and retorting methods. And then, you cite the American Petroleum Institute's release indicating about 40 billion barrels are proved recoverable reserve. Relate those two figures for me.

Mr. WAYLAND. Outside of the obvious doubling of one to the other, certainly the 80-million-barrel figure is not a firm figure like the API figure. It is a figure which we would say with some poetic license we in the Geological Survey feel is the most likely target for the type of research which is foreseen by the Bureau of Mines and by the Secretary's five-point program, leading perhaps to leasing.

Senator HART. You say that the 80 billion is the target figure you and the Department anticipate would be the result of the program.

Mr. WAYLAND. Yes; because this is the higher grade, more accessible shale, and this is the key phrase in that sentence there. There is a tremendous total resource and obviously the companies that are allowed to get into production will wish to get into that where they have more margin, economic margin, for making a mistake and will begin here if they are permitted to.

Senator HART. Well, I know we are cautioned first that we are overestimating and then that we are underestimating but in any event you could at least make the case that the 80 billion is within reach under the circumstances you anticipate.

Mr. WAYLAND. Yes, sir. I think this is-this figure is a reserve figure in essence. If you assume, as we have here, that there are demonstrated mining and retorting methods they can get at the best of this, which is the accessible acreage.

Senator HART. Now, then, you have two tables and I hope you will help me with the second of the tables. This reflects the estimated oil in place in the 15-foot stratum or whatever you call it.

Mr. WAYLAND. Yes, sir; 15-foot, 15-gallon.

Senator HART. Now, in totals of billion barrels there, you show 1,744 billion? Is that it?

Mr. WAYLAND. Yes, sir.

Senator HART. A trillion, 744 billion is the total. And the Federal property contains-if that is the word for it-1,376 billion of the total. Now, if you take one from the other, the Federal, from the total, you get 368 billion barrels?

Mr. WAYLAND. It looks like it; yes, sir.

Senator HART. 368 billion barrels? Is that right?

Mr. WAYLAND. Yes, sir. Of this 15-gallon, 15-foot.

Senator HART. Well, that is a lot of oil and it is currently in private lands: is it not?

Mr. WAYLAND. Yes.

Senator HART. Or is it because I am an easterner that I react that way?

Mr. WAYLAND. It is a lot of oil, sir. Whether it is technologically and economically reached is only a possibility.

Senator HART. I am told we consume about 3 million barrels a year. Mr. WAYLAND. Yes, it would be that.

Senator HART. That is how many years?

Mr. WAYLAND. A century.

Senator HART. It is a century. And, that is just on the private land. Mr. WAYLAND. These figures, of course

Senator HART. Are you comfortable with these estimates? I meanMr. WAYLAND. I am more comfortable, sir, with the estimate the 80 billion figure.

Senator HART. The figures I have been quoting are developed from your records or from the Institute's?

Mr. WAYLAND. The total acreage figures, that is, the estimates of 15-gallon, 15-foot, are Geological Survey estimates based on available knowledge. The acreage in Federal ownership is based on our knowledge from or through the Bureau of Land Management as to which lands actually are in Federal ownership or not as to their mineral resources. We have in the Geological Survey no need to know this other than as we get this type of information from the Bureau of Land Management. So, we have simply applied in a gross way for a yardstick these percentage figures of Federal ownership to total ownership. against our reserve estimates in order to give you these percentage figures on the right-hand side.

Senator HART. Well, then, I do, I think, understand that table. It represents an awful lot of oil if it can be economically extracted.

Mr. WAYLAND. Yes, sir; it certainly does. But these are the figures— now, the best part of it that you noted earlier, is not quite proportionately 7 to 3, so to say, or even 8 to 2 probably in Federal ownership. It may be more than that. I think you heard some estimates of 85 percent. In other words, the center of the basin is also the center of the Federal holdings.

Now, in these figures, however, we are talking about all three States so there is a tendency for us to apply figures to one basin that we derive from all three States. There is more room for refinement of these figures. These are simply yardstick figures.

Senator HART. In addition, however, to what you tell us as to the value of the oil in the shale is this extractable aluminum and sodium. You make the point in your statement that in terms of resources this creek basin alone contains potentially extractable aluminum, sodium, and shale oil in amounts that tax the imagination.

Mr. WAYLAND. Yes, sir. This is the way it seems to us at this time. Senator HART. So, when we talk and evaluate and anticipate these properties, we are not putting a proper appraisal on them if we limit our thinking to oil and the shale itself. Added to it must be the value which I do not pretend to understand of these additional extractable items.

Now, how far along is the Department in determining the extent and the location of these other minerals?

Mr. WAYLAND. Sir, in the Wyoming trona area we have a pretty good idea where the trona beds are. We have less of an idea as yet of where the saline minerals are in the Piceance Creek Basin and we have a very limited idea of the real extent of them in the Uinta Basin where the formation is thicker and the drilling is limited and the overburden is greater.

Senator HART. You are much further along, I take it, in the estimates you are able to give us on the amount and the range of shale oil in the area, but here again, you have cautioned us that you are still gaining knowledge.

Mr. WAYLAND. Yes, sir. We certainly lack knowledge in broad areas here. We are miles apart on some of the core drilling information which is available to us. Some of this is not available. For example, an oil company may be drilling through this formation to get to some of the underlying oil and gas structures. They do not necessarily core it, or if they did, they would have no particular-well, they simply do not core it. We just get mud information from them and usually it does not help us very much in a resource appraisal of this nature. Drilling for this type of resource should be done by methods which are designed to produce useful information for appraisal purposes. It is not sufficient that there might be an oil well or water well through here. You do not always learn from this. We would like to know more in order to really appraise the entire resource. And, the drilling, of course, for the sodium minerals in the Piceance Creek Basin began not too long ago and most of that was core information and only some of it is repeatable here. But, we have made some use of it.

Senator HART. How long will it take you to be in a position confidently to estimate the value and the content of the land?

Mr. WAYLAND. The term value

Senator HART. Well, perhaps I should not use value. Assume, if you know, the content, there is a figure against which you can develop the values. I guess it is the content of the land I am interested in.

Mr. WAYLAND. So far we do not have enough quantitative data in the Piceance Creek Basin to make a sodium or an aluminum estimate across the basin. What we simply have done as here in figure 3 in my statement, is to give you what you might call the vertical section in one of the best drill holes where we have the authority from the driller to make this information available.

Senator HART. What is

Mr. WAYLAND. This is a figure