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<br />275 <br />900 <br /> <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />ultimately prove to be in excess of 500 billion metric <br /> <br />tons or over 4 trillion barrels, <br /> <br />For comparison, the table below gives recent petro- <br />leum reserve estimates for the United States and for the <br /> <br />world as a whole, <br /> <br />TABLE 2 <br /> <br />PETROLEUM RESERVE ESTIMATES <br />Billions of barrels <br /> <br />Proved Reserves, 1959 <br />Ultimate Future Production <br /> <br />U.S.A. <br />37 <br />200-250 <br /> <br />World <br /> <br />Source: Oil and Gas Journal (38), Chase Manhattan Bank (11) <br />Wallace Pratt (41). <br /> <br />Historical Sketch <br /> <br />Throughout the world, shale oil has been produced <br /> <br />when petroleum has been scarce or expensive, In fact, <br /> <br />shale oil predates the discovery of petroleum and shale <br /> <br />industries have operated in Europe for more than 100 years. <br />For the past 50 years or so, owing to the abundance of <br /> <br />low-cost petroleum, shale oil has been relatively unimportant <br /> <br />except in special circumstances. However, during \1orld \1ar <br />II, shale oil supplied critically needed fuels for Japan, <br /> <br />Sweden, Austrailia, and other countries cut off from their <br /> <br />normal source of oil, <br /> <br />Shale oil has never been of great importance in the <br />United States, despite our large reserves, Small quanti- <br />ties of oil were distilled from cannel coal and oil shale <br />in the Appalachian region early in the history of our <br /> <br />-10- <br />