Estonian company Enefit is giving up its federal oil shale leases in eastern Utah, signaling once again that Utah shale may never overcome the obstacles to becoming a commercial source of energy.
Enefit in August notified the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Vernal office that it intends to relinquish its leases, and it proposed a reclamation plan to mitigate the impacts of its work there.
“Upon extensive consideration of business plans regarding federal oil shale leasing and development, EAO has elected not to prepare an application to BLM to trigger the conversion process from the RD&D Lease to a commercial lease, and thus is voluntarily relinquishing the RD&D Lease,” wrote Ryan Clerico, Chief Executive Officer Enefit American Oil, in an August 9 letter.
The withdrawal came as the Grand Canyon Trust and the owners of the Bonanza coal-fired power plant near Vernal entered into a settlement agreement regarding water rights that may have gone to the Enefit project. Oil shale is essentially petroleum embedded in sedimentary rock. Separating the petroleum from the rock makes it more difficult and water-intensive than traditional oil drilling....