The University of Kansas Center for Research, inc. was commissioned by the Kansas Energy Office and the United States Department of Energy to conduct a review of certain oil shale's in Kansas. The purpose of the study focused on making an inventory and assessing those oil shale's in close statigraphic proximity to coal beds close to the surface and containing significant reserves. The idea was to assess the feasibility of using coal as an "economic window" to aid in making oil shale's economically recoverable. Based on this as a criterion and the work of Runnels, et al, (1952) five eastern Kansas black shale units were selected for study and their areal distribution mapped. The volume of recoverable oil shale in each unit was calculated and translated to reserves. The investigation results indicate that an estimated 33.2x10^9 tons of oil shale are available for extraction. These shale's have an estimated reserve of oil of 33.5x10^8 barrels at 75% recovery.