Reported by Staff

DENVER — It may have flown below your news radar last week, but Shell Oil Company announced it would be abandoning  its quest for water rights from the Yampa River to develop oil shale production.

The energy giant cited project delays because of the global recession as the primary reason, but left open the possibility of pursuing the project down the road.

Although industry estimates of the potential yield of recoverable oil in the massive shale deposits found in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah are as high as 800 billion barrels, water rights advocates and other environmentalists warn the extraction process would require too much of the precious resource.

“The exact scale and timing for development will depend on a number of factors, including progress on our technology development, the outcome of regulatory processes, market conditions, project economics and consultations with key stakeholders,” the company said in a statement.

Shell said the ultimate goal is to create an operation that is economically viable, environmentally responsible and socially sustainable. Theo Stein of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources said the state was notified of Shell’s decision last Tuesday.

Nearly 2 million acres of public land was made available for oil shale development by the Bush Administration in 2008, although some of the acreage  has since been removed by the Department of Interior headed by former Colorado Senator, Ken Salazar.

Commercial production of oil shale has proved an elusive goal for a handful of energy companies.They continue to wrestle with R&D issues, hoping to find an economically viable approach with as little environmental impact as possible. It is a tall order and one that may still be years away from fruition.