By David A. Hill, Executive Editor

Last week the U.S. Department of Energy released a detailed report that addresses a topic of significant import to Coloradoans. The study is essentially an oil shale primer for regulators, policymakers, and the general public, and it acknowledges the key challenge for future extraction will be protecting and conserving water resources.

In recent months energy companies have purchased water shares from the Yampa River and other water sources, alarming environmentalists and natural resource advocates in Colorado who worry what it will mean for future area water supplies if, and when, full scale oil shale development takes place.

Their concerns have added weight after a study from the Western Resource Advocates was released earlier this year. Water on the Rocks concludes that state water supplies, from the Western Slope to the Front Range, could be put in jeopardy if oil shale extraction takes place on a broad scale. The study notes that energy companies have already bought up the rights to nearly 2 million acre-feet of stored water in Colorado, as well as the right to divert more water from the state’s western rivers. It also says that large quantities of water would be needed to support major infrastructure development and the influx of new workers.

WEA’s David Abelson said “Despite a significant investment, industry remains years away from establishing the economic viability, technical efficiency, and environmental performance of the technologies. It is vital that policy makers understand the water, economic, and environmental impacts before committing to a commercial development program.”

The DOE’s Fossil Fuel Office says the primer is designed to be an objective source of credible, factual information on the technology advances and challenges accompanying deep shale gas development. Production of natural gas from hydrocarbon-rich deep shale formations holds great promise because the deposits in the tri-state region of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming are so vast and extensive.

However, perfecting the technology to economically extract oil from the shale deposits is proving elusive for developers. In addition, much of the potential extraction would take place in areas with little or no oil and gas experience, the DOE noted.

The Federal agency office said that it developed the primer with urging from the Ground Water Protection Council, a national association of state groundwater and underground injection agencies.

DOE said that it recognized the need for a report that addresses questions about the nature of shale gas development, potential environmental impacts, and the ability of current regulatory structures to deal with the resource’s development.

Improved horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies have played a key part in shale gas production’s emergence as a major new domestic energy source, it continued. This has enabled producers to recover more gas economically and with less surface disturbance from deep shale formations, it said.

The primer’s publication comes at an important time, according to the Independent Petroleum Association of America. It shows that the current state-federal hydraulic fracturing regulatory partnership is working despite suggestions from some members of Congress that the US Environmental Protection Agency should take over enforcement, said IPAA President Barry Russell on Apr. 14.

“For energy resources that were once considered too deep to find, too expensive to produce, in rock too hard to access, this report from [DOE] shows just how far America’s independent natural gas producers have come in converting the potential of shale into the reality of clean-burning American energy,” he maintained.

“More than that, though, the report underscores the lengths to which these businesses and state regulatory officials go every day to ensure that the energy development process is as safe, efficient, and transparent as possible,” Russell said.

The primer is available online at here.