SHALE OIL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 174, 25 July 1928, Page 4

SHALE OIL.

HARTLEY REOPENED. AMBITIOUS X.S.W. PROJECT. PETROL FOR 6,1 A GALLON. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 20. A serious attempt to establish a motor spirit industry in Australia is to be made at the famous Hartley shale fields near Lithgow in the near future. Evidence given in the Warden's Court at Lithgow on Monday last disclosed that a company is being formed which has for its object the redemption of petrol from shale and the sale of it within the Commonwealth at a much reduced price than than of the British and American varieties now on the market. The evidence came out in the course of an application for a miners' right for a big tract of land in the Hartley Vale district, which was formerly leased bv the John Fell Proprietary. This company had made an attempt to break into the oil business many years ago, but their nrocess of treating the shale was too expensive and the oil could not be handled at a commercial profit. The new company, which is known now as Shale Retorts. Ltd., claims to have installed a £.30.000 plant, which will produce petrol equalling, if not proving better. than the brands now on the market. They claim that they can produce the petrol from the shale at a cost of approximately sixpence a gallon. This, with the Commonwealth Government's bounty of 3 , '2u for every gallon of petrol produced in the Commonwealth, makes the cost of production i'isd a gallon. The new plant, it is claimed, can extract petrol from the shale in three processes. whereas Fell's process took thirteen or more stages. There arc millions of tons of shale on the ground at Hartley Yale, and with very little preliminary shaft sinking, the initial cost will be practically nil. The announcement of the formation of the new company caused a stir in the city and though many are as yet inclined to be sceptical of the production of good petrol from shale, the company's experts, who have recently returned from Germany, where they have studied the German shale oil industry, are optimistic. Tests made from shale already extracted from the field have proved that from 125 to 174 gallons to the ton have been extracted. The promoters of the company have only oue difficulty to surmount and that is the problem of transportation. Though close to the railway line, the shale field is situated at the bottom of a deep mountain ravine, from which it is considered that it will be extremely difficult to bring the shale out.