Green River oil shale potential in Utah

The Green River formation of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming contains the greatest potential reserves of oil in the world. The problem has been that of finding an economical method of extraction. The first economic study of the oil shale in Utah started in 1913 (Woodruff and Day, 1914). Since that time sporadic attempts have been made to establish oil shale as an economic source of liquid fuels. Much activity took place during the interval from 1914 to 1920. D. E. Winchester (1923) published a comprehensive account of the oil shale deposits and the efforts to exploit them. Immediately after Winchester's bulletin was published, the discovery of rich petroleum fields in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas flooded the market with abundant oil and dampened enthusiasm for further research on shale oil for a generation to come.