History of the oil shale industry in the United States Act of 1985 which among other things abolished the United States' Synthetic Liquid Fuels Program. Union finally bowed to continued low oil prices and closed the project in 1991, rather than complete the US$2 billion project. Over several decades, some of the world's largest oil companies (Amoco, Arco, Chevron, Exxon, Gulf, Phillips, Shell, Sohio, Sunoco, Texaco, Union Oil) had spent billions of dollars to start an oil shale industry in the Green River Formation, the world's largest oil shale resource. But in the end, cheap petroleum prices drove oil shale out of business. Even after the oil shale bust, some
Oil reserves in the United States volumes of heavy oil in the oil sands of northeast Utah. There has yet to be any significant production from these deposits. Oil reserves in the United States Proven oil reserves in the United States were of crude oil as of the end of 2014, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The 2014 reserves represent the largest US proven reserves since 1972, and a 90% increase in proved reserves since 2008. The Energy Information Administration estimates US undiscovered, technically recoverable oil resources to be an additional 198 billion barrels. US proven oil reserves were as of 2011. The 2011 data represent