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U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2011–3063 June 2011 Oil Shale Assessment Project Fact Sheet Assessment of In-Place Oil Shale Resources of the Green River Formation, Greater Green River Basin in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah Printed on recycled paper Introduction The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently (2011) completed an assessment of in-place oil shale resources, regardless of grade, in the Eocene Green River Formation of the Greater Green River Basin in southwestern Wyoming, northwestern Colorado, and northeastern Utah (fig. 1). Green River Formation oil shale also is present in the Piceance Basin of western Colorado and in the Uinta Basin of eastern Utah and western Colorado, and the results of these assessments are published separately (Johnson and others, 2010a, 2010b). No attempt was made to estimate the amount of oil that is economi- cally recoverable because there has not yet been an economic method developed to recover the oil from Green River Formation oil shale. ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!!!! ! ! ! !!! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! !!! ! ! ! ! !! ! !! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!! !! ! ! ! ! !! !! ! ! ! !!! ! !!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! !!! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!!! ! !! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! !! ! ! !! !! ! !! !!! ! !!!!!! ! !! ! ! !!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!!! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! !! !! ! ! !! ! !! !! ! !! !! ! ! ! ! ! !!!! ! !! !! ! ! ! ! ! !!!!!! ! !! ! !!! ! ! !! !! ! ! !! ! ! !! ! ! !! ! !!!!! !! !! !!! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! !!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!!! !! !! ! ! ! !! !!! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! !!!! ! ! ! ! ! !! !!!!! !! !!!! ! ! ! ! ! !!!! ! !! ! !! ! !! ! !! ! !! ! ! !!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! !!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! !!! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! !! ! ! ! !!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! CARBON GRAND GARFIELD FREMONT DAGGETT EAGLE JACKSON LINCOLN MOFFAT NATRONA RIO BLANCO Routt Sublette SUMMIT Sweetwater TETON UINTA UINTAH DUCHESNE 0 -2000 -4000 -2000 0 2000 4000 0 2000 -2000 -4000 -6000 4000 6000 -8000 -6000 -4000 -2000 -2000 -8000 -6000 -4000 0 -2000 0 2000 0 2000 4000 -2000 -4000 -8000 -6000 -4000 -2000 0 4000 2000 4000 6000 2000 6000 110° 111° 109° 108° 107° 40° 41° 42° 43° UTAH WYOMING COLORADO Sandy Bend arch Hoback Basin SAND WASH BASIN WASHAKIE BASIN Great Divide Basin RIVER BASIN GREEN RIVER BASIN Cherokee ridge Wamsutter arch Moxa arch Rock Springs uplift GREEN A A’ Figure 2 WYOMING THRUST BELT Granite Mountains Rawlins uplift SIERRA MADRE PARK RANGE Uinta Mountains Mountains AXIAL BASIN UPLIFT Wind River Mountains La Barge platform Pinedale anticline Pinedale anticline Oil shale-bearing rocks Greater Green River Basin Outcrop of Mesaverde Group Contours on top of Mesaverde Group (in feet) County boundaries Drillhole with oil shale information ! 0 10 20 30 0 10 20 30 40 MILES 40 KILOMETERS EXPLANATION Figure 1. Map showing boundary (in red) of the Greater Green River Basin in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah, which incorporates the Green River, Great Divide, Washakie, and Sand Wash Basins. Boundary of the Greater Green River Basin is the same as that for the Southwest Wyoming Province (Southwest Wyoming Province Assessment Team, 2005). Also shown are county lines, townships, major structures and uplifts, drill holes with oil shale information, areas underlain by oil shale-bearing rock, and location of cross section in figure 2. Structure contour map on the top of the Mesaverde Group is from Finn and others (2005).

Oil Shale Assessment Project Fact Sheet Assessment of In ... · River Basin, about 5,500 mi. 2, is about 1.4 times larger than the assessed area of the Uinta Basin (3,834 mi. 2) and

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Page 1: Oil Shale Assessment Project Fact Sheet Assessment of In ... · River Basin, about 5,500 mi. 2, is about 1.4 times larger than the assessed area of the Uinta Basin (3,834 mi. 2) and

U.S. Department of the InteriorU.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2011–3063June 2011

Oil Shale Assessment Project Fact Sheet

Assessment of In-Place Oil Shale Resources of the Green River Formation, Greater Green River Basin in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah

Printed on recycled paper

IntroductionThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently (2011)

completed an assessment of in-place oil shale resources, regardless of grade, in the Eocene Green River Formation of the Greater Green River Basin in southwestern Wyoming, northwestern Colorado, and northeastern Utah (fig. 1). Green River Formation oil shale also is present in the Piceance Basin

of western Colorado and in the Uinta Basin of eastern Utah and western Colorado, and the results of these assessments are published separately (Johnson and others, 2010a, 2010b). No attempt was made to estimate the amount of oil that is economi-cally recoverable because there has not yet been an economic method developed to recover the oil from Green River Formation oil shale.

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CARBON

GRAND

GARFIELD

FREMONT

DAGGETT

EAGLE

JACKSON

LINCOLN

MOFFAT

NATRONA

RIO BLANCO

Routt

Sublette

SUMMIT

Sweetwater

TETON

UINTA

UINTAHDUCHESNE

0-2

000

-4000

-2000 0

2000 4000

0

2000-2

000

-4000-600

0

40006000

-8000-6000-4000

-2000

-2000

-8000-6000

-4000

0-2

000

0

2000

02000

4000-2000

-4000

-8000-6000

-4000-2000

0

4000

20004000

6000

2000

6000

110°111° 109° 108° 107°

40°

41°

42°

43°

UTAH

WYOMING

COLORADO

SandyBend

arch

HobackBasin

SAND WASHBASIN

WASHAKIEBASIN

Great DivideBasin

RIVE

RBA

SIN

GREE

NRI

VER

BASI

N

Cherokee ridge

Wamsutter arch

Moxa

arch

Rock

Sprin

gsup

lift

GREE

N

AA’Figure 2

WYO

MIN

G

THR

UST

BELT

GraniteMountains

Rawlinsuplift

SIERRA M

ADREPARK

RANGE

Uinta MountainsMountains

AXIALBASIN

UPLIFT

Wind

River

MountainsLa Bargeplatform

Pinedale

anticline

Pinedale

anticline

Oil shale-bearing rocks

Greater Green River Basin

Outcrop of Mesaverde Group

Contours on top of Mesaverde Group (in feet)

County boundaries

Drillhole with oil shale information!

0 10 20 30

0 10 20 30

40 MILES

40 KILOMETERS

EXPLANATION

Figure 1. Map showing boundary (in red) of the Greater Green River Basin in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah, which incorporates the Green River, Great Divide, Washakie, and Sand Wash Basins. Boundary of the Greater Green River Basin is the same as that for the Southwest Wyoming Province (Southwest Wyoming Province Assessment Team, 2005). Also shown are county lines, townships, major structures and uplifts, drill holes with oil shale information, areas underlain by oil shale-bearing rock, and location of cross section in figure 2. Structure contour map on the top of the Mesaverde Group is from Finn and others (2005).

Page 2: Oil Shale Assessment Project Fact Sheet Assessment of In ... · River Basin, about 5,500 mi. 2, is about 1.4 times larger than the assessed area of the Uinta Basin (3,834 mi. 2) and

MethodologyOil yields were measured using the Fischer assay method,

a standardized laboratory test for determining the oil yield from oil shale that has been almost univer sally used to determine oil yields for Green River Formation oil shales (Stanfield and Frost, 1949; American Society for Testing and Materials, 1980). Fischer assay does not necessarily measure the maximum amount of oil that an oil shale can produce, and there are retorting methods that yield more oil. However, the oil yields achieved by other methods typi cally are reported as a percentage of the Fischer assay oil yield; thus Fischer assay still is consid ered the standard by which other methods are compared. In this assessment, a spatial interpolation and extrapolation method for producing resource maps and computing resource volumes was used—the Radial Basis Function (RBF) in ArcGIS GeoStatisti-cal Analyst [(Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI), Redlands, Calif., 2006, version 9.2)].

Resource SummaryThe three units of the Green River Formation assessed

here, in ascending order, are the Tipton Shale Member, the Wilkins Peak Member, and the LaClede Bed of the Laney Member (fig. 2). Note that the boundaries of the assessment units, particularly those for LaClede Bed and Wilkins Peak assessment units vary stratigraphically across the basin. Total in-place resources are estimated at 1.44 trillion barrels of oil divided among the three assessed units as follows: (1) Tipton Shale Member, 362,816 million barrels of oil (MMBO); (2) Wilkins Peak Member, 704,991 MMBO; and (3) LaClede Bed of the Laney Member, 377,184 MMBO. Figure 3 shows total in-place oil in each 6-mile-square township for all three assessed units combined. This result compares with in-place resource estimates of 1.53 trillion barrels for the Piceance Basin of Colorado and of 1.32 trillion barrels for the Uinta Basin of Utah and Colorado. The assessed area of the Greater Green River Basin, about 5,500 mi2, is about 1.4 times larger than the assessed area of the Uinta Basin (3,834 mi2) and more than four times larger than the assessed area of the Piceance Basin (1,335 mi2). Thus, the oil shale deposits of the Greater Green River Basin are the lowest grade of the three basins that contain Green River Formation oil shale.

1.400

1.600

1.700

1.800

1.900

1,300

1,200

1,100

Tipton ShaleMember

0

0

0

0

0 0500

500

500 500

500 500

1,0001,000

1,0001,000

1,000

1,000

11.5 Miles

5.7 Miles

1.0 Miles9.5 Miles

50.5 Miles 5.3 Miles

1,500

1,500

1,500 1,500

1,500 1,500

2,000

2,500

2,000

2,0002,000

2,000

2,000

2,500

3,000

2,500

3,000

3,500Wilkins

PeakMember

CathedralBluffs

Tongueof

WasatchFormation

CathedralBluffs

Tongueof

WasatchFormation

?

?

?

?

LaClede Bed of LaneyMember LaClede Bed of Laney Member

Hartt CabinBed of

Laney Member

GREENRIVER

FORMATION

Mixed tan or gray freshwater lacustrine and sandstone deposits and gray or green flood-plain mudstone andsandstone deposits. Some volcanic debris in Hartt Cabin Bed

EXPLANATION

ROCKSPRINGSUPLIFT

WASHAKIE

BASIN

GREEN RIVER BASIN

A

A

Red flood-plain deposits Cyclic salt water lacustrine oil shale, evaporite, and mudflat deposits

Scheggs BedRife Bed

Saltwater lacustrine (rich) oil shale deposits

Freshwater lacustrine (lean) oil shale deposits

Trona bed in Wilkins Peak Member

Figure 2. East-west cross section showing stratigraphic boundaries of the three oil shale units assessed (heavy black outlines) and related stratigraphic units. Note that the boundaries of the Wilkins Peak Member and the LaClede Bed of the Laney Member of the Green River Formation assessment units vary stratigraphically across the basin. Vertical lines are drillholes showing depths, in feet.

Page 3: Oil Shale Assessment Project Fact Sheet Assessment of In ... · River Basin, about 5,500 mi. 2, is about 1.4 times larger than the assessed area of the Uinta Basin (3,834 mi. 2) and

R 117 W R 116 W R 115 W R 114 W R 113 W R 112 W R 111 W R 110 W R 109 W R 108 W R 107 W R 106 W R 105 W R 104 W R 103 WR 102 W R 101 W R 100 W R 99 W R 98 W R 97 W R 96 W R 95 W R 94 W R 93 W R 92 W

R 115 W

T30N

T29N

T28N

T27NT26NT25N

T24NT23NT22NT21N

T20NT19NT18NT17N

T16NT15N

T14N

R 118 W

T13N

R 91 W

R 95 WR 100 W

R 105 W

R 110 W

475530708717304,814 3,2485,2002,064 2,652

801,1885,1487,76411,34112,13011,3085,6691,3334,448 4,59116,929 18,1055,203 11,9036,392

5725,0055,5906,80211,98513,80413,41912,3313,6205,861 7405,32218,89114,868 16,59819,15810,5097,862

1,3814,1395,60110,80813,76714,34214,0317,551425964,2366,052 13,04118,81118,50017,25213,3688,655

223212,7707,46710,915 10,63011,02810,0004,93511,81411,44319,02319,05817,78713,7978,5397,005

6,7988,030 5111,5387,3015,1642,0152472,85118,07523,09921,16718,39113,2039,2766,963

6,004 3,286 1562,3014,104372136,51012,45320,86517,318 20,67612,0678,9926,942

1,734 2,167 1,0013731,73414,52817,10921,97713,298 19,2409,6878,6726,324

20,943 78711,56415,71816,21010,4487,0176,5345,401

5,54512,97113,54212,65610,5658,0256,0485,053

9,044 11,069 12,273 12,129 5,9807,2525,0124,035

10,8444,362 8,957 9,437 6,2536,608 9,0453,762

6,111 4,625 7826,0287,5746,5644,5393,4932,872

4,916 1894,286 3,1195,9896,6524,2313,1152,5941,480

4742,9653,1813,1563,2333,6882,7751,541501

1221,7731,5271,7981,5082,9282,8101,350219

6357651,7231,5501840

47118

107°30'108°00'108°30'109°00'109°30'110°00'110°30'

42°30'

42°00'

41°30'

41°00'

0 6 12 MILES

WYOMING

0 5 10 KILOMETERS

COLORADO

WYOMING

UTAH

Assesssment boundary for the Tipton Shale Member

Assesssment boundary for the Wilkins Peak Member and LaClede Bed

EXPLANATION

> 20,000

15,000 – 20,000

10,000 – 15,000

< 5,000

Township summaries, oil yield—in millions of barrels per township

5,000 – 10,000

Figure 3. Map showing total in-place oil, in millions of barrels, for each township assessed in the Greater Green River Basin, Wyoming.

Page 4: Oil Shale Assessment Project Fact Sheet Assessment of In ... · River Basin, about 5,500 mi. 2, is about 1.4 times larger than the assessed area of the Uinta Basin (3,834 mi. 2) and

REFERENCES CITED

American Society for Testing and Materi als (ASTM), 1980, Standard method of test for oil from oil shale: Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Part 25, Designa tion D 3904–80, p. 513–515.

Finn, T. M., Johnson, R. C., and Roberts, S. B., 2005, The Mesaverde-Lance-Fort Union composite Total Petroleum System, Southwestern Wyoming Province: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-69-D, Chapter 10, 33 p.

Johnson, R.C., Mercier, T.J., Brownfield, M.E., Pantea, M.P., and Self, J.G., 2010a, An assessment of in-place oil shale resources in the Green River Formation, Piceance Basin, Colorado, in U.S. Geological Survey Oil Shale Assessment Team, eds., Oil-shale assessment of the Piceance Basin, Colo-rado: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS–69–Y, chap. 1, 197 p.

Johnson, R.C., Mercier, T.J., Brownfield, M.E., and Self, J.G., 2010b, Assessment of in-place oil shale resource of the Green River Formation, Uinta Basin, Utah, in U.S. Geological Survey Oil Shale Assessment Team, eds., Oil-shale assess-ment of the Uinta Basin, Utah and Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS–69–BB, chap. 1, 162 p.

Southwest Wyoming Province Assessment Team, 2005, The Southwestern Wyoming Province—Introduction to a geologic assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-69-D, 36 p.

Stanfield, K.E., and Frost, I.C., 1949, Method of assaying oil shale by a modified Fischer retort: U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 4477.

For Additional InformationSupporting geologic studies of the oil shale-bearing units,

assessment units, oil shale analyses, and the methodol ogy used in assessing the oil shale resources in the Greater Green River Basin are in progress. Assessment results are available at the USGS Central Energy Team website: http://energy.cr.usgs.gov/ other/oil_shale/.

Contact InformationFor further information contact Ronald C. Johnson

([email protected]), T.J. Mercier ([email protected]), and Michael E. Brownfield ([email protected]).

LaClede Bed of the Laney Member of the Green River Formation, north rim of the Washakie Basin, Wyoming. Photograph by John R. Donnell.