[1][2] It was named after the Rio Blanco County, Colorado, the location of the company's oil shale tract.
In 1974, it won a bid for Federal Oil Shale Lease C-a in the Rio Blanco County.
The demonstration program included construction of two in-situ retorts using company-developed techniques for rubbling and ignition of the oil shale deposit, and operation the process through surface drill holes.
[1] The mining and blasting (3 simultaneous, underground, nuclear explosions [3]) used in this process created a bed with close to 40% porosity.
This enabled to retort the chimney at a substantially faster rate achieving higher oil yields.