Gas and Oil in Utah: Potential, New Discoveries, and Hot Plays

Author: Thomas C. Chidsey, Petroleum Section Chief, Utah Geological Survey, Salt Lake City, UT.

Venue: International Oil Scouts Association’s 84th annual meeting, Stein Eriksen Lodge, Park City, UT, June 17–20, 2007, (http://www.oilscouts.com/index-main.html [external site]).

Abstract: Utah’s natural gas and oil exploration history extends back more than 100 years, fluctuating greatly due to discoveries, price trends, and changing exploration targets. During the boom period of the early 1980s, activity peaked at over 500 wells per year. After slowing in the 1990s, drilling activity has again increased, reaching an all-time peak of 1,058 wells spudded and over 2,000 APDs (application for permit to drill) filed in 2006. This increase in activity has been spurred by high prices for both natural gas and oil and by the perception that Utah is highly prospective and underexplored. In recent years, the proportion of new wells exploring for gas has increased greatly. Total cumulative natural gas production from Utah fields now exceeds 8 Tcf. Recent successful drilling has been expanding reserves by about 10 percent per year, one of the highest rates of gas reserves increase in the country. Although gas production from some fields declined during the late 1990s, two factors caused overall gas production to increase. The development of coalbed natural gas (CBNG) accumulations in the Cretaceous Ferron Sandstone play, in particular Drunkards Wash field in central Utah, has increased the State’s annual gas production by 20–30 percent. Also, deeper exploratory and development drilling in the eastern and southern Uinta Basin during the past 5 years has led to discoveries of substantial gas accumulations in tight-sand reservoirs of the Tertiary Wasatch Formation, Cretaceous Mesaverde Group, and Jurassic Entrada and Wingate Sandstones. Significant potential exists for other coalfields (Book Cliffs, Sego, and Wasatch Plateau) around the Uinta Basin to yield CBNG, and the extent of deeper conventional and tight-gas plays remains to be explored. In addition, shale gas reservoirs in the Mississippian Manning Canyon Shale, Pennsylvanian Hermosa Group, and Cretaceous Mancos Shale of central, southeastern, and northeastern Utah, respectively, have tremendous untapped potential. Utah oilfields have produced a cumulative total of 1.3 billion barrels (bbl) of oil. Although annual production decreased from a peak of 41 million bbl in 1985 to 13 million bbl in 2003, the trend has since reversed, and 2005 production reached nearly 17 million bbl. A component (about one-third of the increase) of this turnaround has been the 2004 discovery of Covenant field in the central Utah thrust belt, or "Hingeline." This new field has already produced 3 million bbl of Mississippian-sourced oil from the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone in a thrusted anticline formed during the Sevier orogeny. This new oil play is the focus of extensive leasing and exploration activity—comparable to the late 1970s and early 1980s in the Utah-Wyoming salient of the thrust belt to the north.

Related NETL Projects: The presentation is related to two separate NETL projects. The goal of the related NETL project DE-FC26-02NT15133, “Major Oil Plays in Utah and Vicinity/PUMP 2,” is to increase recovery of oil reserves from existing reservoirs and from new discoveries by providing play portfolios for the major oil-producing provinces (Paradox Basin, Uinta Basin, and thrust belt) in Utah and adjacent areas in Colorado and Wyoming. The overall objectives of this study are to 1) increase recoverable oil from existing reservoirs; 2) add new discoveries; 3) prevent premature abandonment of numerous small fields; 4) increase deliverability through identifying the latest drilling, completion, and secondary/tertiary recovery techniques; and 5) reduce development costs and risk. The goals of the related NETL project DE-FC26-03NT15424, “The Mississippi Leadville Limestone Exploration Play of Utah and Colorado—Exploration Techniques and Studies for Independents,” are to 1) develop and demonstrate techniques and exploration methods never tried on the Leadville Limestone; 2) target areas for exploration; 3) increase deliverability from new and old Leadville fields through detailed reservoir characterization; 4) reduce exploration costs and risk, especially in environmentally sensitive areas; and 5) add new oil discoveries and reserves.

NETL Project Contacts
NETL - Virginia Weyland (virginia.weyland@netl.doe.gov or 918-699-2041)
UGS - Thomas Chidsey, Jr. (tomchidsey@utah.gov or 801-537-3364)