Nominations for three more leases of federal land in Colorado and Utah for oil-shale research are advancing for more review, the Bureau of Land Management said Wednesday.
The announcement raised an outcry from an environmental group that says an initial round of six leases awarded in 2007 has yet to produce meaningful research.
Oil-shale deposits in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming hold an estimated 1.5 trillion barrels of recoverable oil, the BLM has said, but companies are still trying to find a commercially viable way to extract the petroleum.
The latest round of potential research leases involves nominations by Exxon Mobil and Natural Soda for land in Colorado and by AuraSource for land in Utah. A team of representatives of the governors of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming; the Colorado School of Mines; and the Department of Energy evaluated the nominations for economic viability, technical ability and plans for managing environmental impacts before recommending that all three advance, the BLM said.
The amount of land shrank from 5,120 acres to 640 acres under a 10-year lease term. Gov. Bill Ritter said the process would help answer questions about the feasibility of technologies for recovering shale oil.
