While Enefit American Oil still owns private land and state leases with shale deposits, The Salt Lake Tribune reported on Wednesday that they have relinquished their federal oil shale leases in the Uintah Basin. The article cites a letter from Enefit CEO Ryan Clerico to the Bureau of Land Management Vernal Field Office dated last month and outlines the intention to relinquish leases as well as a plan to reclaim the land. The announcement ultimately comes after Enefit failed to receive needed water rights to make the oil shale projects viable and after several years of lawsuits from environmental agencies fighting to keep water away from the proposed Enefit project. They originally aimed to develop a 50,000 barrel-per-day facility south of Vernal. Enefit actively began working in 2012 with the BLM and federal, state, and local agencies on the appropriate environmental review processes for their proposed projects. In 2018, after a six-year review process, the BLM approved applications for Enefit to connect to a utility corridor project in Uintah County which was a huge step in seeing the Enefit oil shale project move forward. Just months later in the spring of 2019, environmental groups made good on their promise to challenge the BLM decisions related to the Enefit oil shale project by filing a lawsuit focused on the project’s water needs. Now in 2023, it appears a combination of circumstances has provided those opposing the projects with their desired result as Enefit relinquishes their federal oil shale leases. Early in their pursuit, the company was highly involved in the successful effort to establish a conservation agreement to protect two sensitive plant species, the Grahams and White River Penstemon, voluntarily donating nearly 2000 acres of land to serve as a penstemon conservation area. As of yet, Enefit has made no announcement on any plans they may still have in the Uintah Basin, if any.
