Is There Oil in Your Backyard?
The United States - Southern Rockies
Above: All of the regions that have produced oil
and natural gas in the Southern Rockies of the United States
The four corners region of the U.S. (Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico) is an important oil producing area. Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico rank within the top 15 oil producing states. The lack of vegetation in this region allows geologists the opportunity to study in greater detail petroleum producing formations and traps as they are exposed at the surface.
New Mexico, the top oil producer in the region, currently is producing from the San Juan Basin and Permian Basin (SW New Mexico and West Texas). Coal beds and sandstone are the primary producing reservoirs. Utah has large, relatively unexplored possible petroleum areas, and already produces oil from the Paradox and Uinta Basins, the Ferron coalbed methane fairway, thrust belt, and Uncomphgre Uplift. These areas have a variety of reservoir rocks ranging in age from Pennsylvanian to Tertiary.
The Piceance Basin, located in Colorado, is an important oil shale reserve. Northwestern Colorado has numerous oil and gas seeps, spotted by early explorers of the Rocky Mountains. The Pennsylvanian Weber Sandstone is the oldest developed and most prolific oil reservoir in the state (including the very large Rangely Field). Major petroleum producing areas of Colorado also include the Great Plains in the eastern part of the state, the Denver Basin, and the Plateaus of western Colorado.
The Paradox Basin is an important oil producing region of Utah as well as Arizona. All of Arizona's oil production has been from the Paradox and Holbrook basins in northeastern Arizona. Exploration, however, continues throughout the state, including the Chuar, Black Mesa, Pedregosa and Bisbee Basins, as well as the Cordilleran shelf (which extends through Utah, New Mexico, and Nevada).
| Below: Some of the sedimentary basins in the Southern Rockies. Compare this illustration with the one at the top of this page to see which sedimentary basins have produced the most petroleum, and which ones have produced none. |
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1-Uinta Basin |
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