Grand Junction – Exxon Mobil could use its long-idle Colony Project site to begin new research into extracting oil from shale, government regulators and industry experts say.
News of the possible revival at the site comes nearly 25 years after Exxon Mobil predecessor Exxon Corp. shut down its oil-shale research at the Colony Project and threw thousands of western Colorado residents out of work. May 2, 1982, became known as “Black Sunday.”
Jim Edwards, a minerals manager for the federal Bureau of Land Management, told The Daily Sentinel in Wednesday’s editions that Exxon Mobil plans “research and development with its own technology on its own land.” Jeremy Boak, project manager of the Colorado Energy Research Institute at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, said the tests “presumably” would be at the Colony Project site.
Exxon Mobil declined to comment on specifics of its oil- shale research, including whether any would be done at the Colony Project.
The site is near Parachute, about 150 miles west of Denver and 35 miles northeast of Grand Junction.
In an e-mail, the company told The Sentinel that developing viable alternatives to conventional oil technology requires a long-term commitment and that Exxon Mobil “has the world-class technology and the financial strength to pursue such resources.”
