Oil from a Stone

Oil shale -- a sedimentary rock rich in kerogen, a fossil fuel, is now the focus of Royal Dutch Shell's single biggest R&D investment. Shell chief scientist Harold Vinegar is the energy industry's leading expert on the complex petroscience of transforming solid oil shale into synthetic crude -- a liquid fuel that can be refined into diesel and gasoline. The breakthroughs this 58-year-old physicist has achieved could turn out to be the biggest game changer the American oil industry has seen since crude was discovered near Alaska's Prudhoe Bay in 1968. Vinegar has developed a cutting-edge technology that, according to Shell, will produce large quantities of high-quality oil without ravaging the local environment, and be profitable with prices around $30 a barrel. Now that oil is approaching $90, the odds on Shell's speculative bet are beginning to look awfully good.