Uinta National Forest Oil and Gas Leasing Environmental Impact Statement Reasonably Foreseeable Development Scenario Prepared for Uinta National Forest Last updated September 2010 Appendix C: RFDS This Page Intentionally Left Blank Appendix C: RFDS TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 2.0 GENERAL GEOLOGY ......................................................................................... 4 3.0 HISTORICAL EXPLORATION .............................................................................. 6 3.1 Currant Creek RFOGD ................................................................................... 6 3.2 Strawberry RFOGD ......................................................................................... 6 3.3 Diamond Fork RFOGD ................................................................................... 6 3.4 Other ............................................................................................................... 7 4.0 OIL AND GAS POTENTIAL .................................................................................. 8 4.1 Uinta Basin ................................................................................................... 10 4.1.1 Green River TPS ....................................................................................... 12 4.1.2 Mesaverde TPS ......................................................................................... 13 4.1.3 Mancos/Mowry TPS .................................................................................. 14 4.1.4 Phosphoria TPS ........................................................................................ 15 4.1.5 Other Hydrocarbon Accumulations ............................................................ 17 4.1.6 Tar Sand and Oil Shale Deposits .............................................................. 18 4.1.7 Eastern Great Basin - Paleozoic-Tertiary Composite TPS ........................ 18 4.2 North End Central Utah Overthrust Belt ........................................................ 20 4.3 Past Exploration Drilling ................................................................................ 21 4.4 Oil and Gas Reservoirs in the Vicinity of UNF .............................................. 22 4.5 Potential Reservoir Rocks within the UNF .................................................... 23 4.5.1 Sevier Overthrust Belt................................................................................ 24 4.6 Types of geophysical exploration .................................................................. 25 4.7 Authorization of geophysical exploration ....................................................... 27 5.0 OIL AND GAS DEVELOPMENT SCENARIO ..................................................... 28 6.0 REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 31 7.0 FIGURES ........................................................................................................... 34 Figure 1. Reasonably Foreseeable Oil and Gas Development Groups Figure 2. Oil and Gas Fields and Oil Shale in UNF and Surrounding Areas Figures 3-6. Location of Assessment Units in Relation to Uinta National Forest Figure 7. Coal and Tar Sands in Uinta National Forest and Surrounding Areas Appendix C: RFDS LIST OF ACRONYMS APD application for permit to drill AU assessment units EIS Environmental Impact Statement MMBO million barrels of oil mya million years ago RFDS reasonably foreseeable development scenarios RFOGD reasonably foreseeable oil and gas development groups TPS total petroleum system UDOGM Utah Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining UNF Uinta National Forest USGS United States Geological Survey WUB Western Uinta Basin Appendix C: RFDS 1.0 INTRODUCTION This Reasonably Foreseeable Development Scenario (RFDS) is an analysis of the oil and gas resources known or suspected to be present on the Uinta National Forest (UNF). Its purpose is to assess the potential for development of those resources that can be reasonably anticipated over a 10-15 year planning period. The RFDS is based on the assumption that all potentially productive areas can be open under standard lease terms and conditions, except those areas designated as closed to leasing by law, regulation, or executive order, as required by the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which is responsible for leasing all federally owned mineral rights for all oil and gas (BLM, 2004). Based on this assessment, UNF will prepare an analysis of impacts that may occur under a proposed action and range of alternatives. The RFDS considers several factors that influence the potential for “reasonably foreseeable” development. These include historical drilling information, economics, applied science, and the existence of favorable subsurface geology. Subsequent sections of the RFDS analyze these factors in more detail. Information regarding the inferred oil and gas occurrence potential that leads to leasing is kept confidential by lessees. Given current and foreseeable economic demand for oil and gas nationally, interest by the oil and gas industry in acquiring additional Federal leases on the UNF is likely to be high during the planning period. Whether or not exploration of these leases for oil and gas will occur during this planning period is uncertain and dependent upon several economic factors, including the assessment of potential for discovery of new oil and gas fields as perceived by the oil and gas exploration industries. Even more uncertain is the potential for future oil and gas production on the UNF. The RFDS looks at all lands within the boundaries of the UNF, regardless of ownership. The UNF encompasses 983,670 acres, of which approximately 898,360 acres are National Forest System (NFS) lands. Of the NFS lands, approximately 161,410 acres are in active oil and gas leases. Within the area encompassed by the UNF, there are another 61,340 acres of privately held mineral rights beneath the Strawberry Reservoir Lands, and approximately 32,660 acres of split estate (Federal mineral underlying private surface). Historically, 29 exploratory wells have been drilled on the UNF, but there has never been any oil or gas production (see Section 3.0 for more detail). For the purpose of evaluating the potential for oil or gas occurrence and foreseeable exploration on the UNF during the planning period, the Forest was divided into 9 analysis groups based upon surface geology, past exploration activities, and geography. These groups are called reasonably foreseeable oil and gas development groups (RFOGD) and have been named American Fork, Currant Creek, Deer Creek, Diamond Fork, Payson, Spanish Fork Canyon, Strawberry, Upper Provo, and Vernon (Figure 1). This allows the UNF to illustrate how much development and what type of 1 Appendix C: RFDS development is likely to occur in different parts of the Forest. The following is a list of each RFOGD and associated management areas. RFOGD Management Areas American Fork ...................American Fork Currant Creek ....................West Fork Duchesne, Currant Creek Deer Creek ........................Deer Creek Reservoir, Lower Provo, Hobble Creek Diamond Fork ....................Diamond Fork Payson ..............................Thistle, Payson, Mona, Nephi Spanish Fork Canyon ........Upper Spanish Fork Canyon Strawberry .....................Strawberry Reservoir, Willow Creek, White River Upper Provo ......................Upper Provo Vernon ...............................Vernon, West Sheeprock 2 Appendix C: RFDS Figure 1. Reasonably Foreseeable Oil and Gas Development Groups. 3 Appendix C: RFDS 2.0 GENERAL GEOLOGY The UNF is underlain predominantly by rocks of two distinctly different ages: Tertiary formations that, in the Uinta Basin to the east, are known to contain oil and gas reservoirs; and older Paleozoic-age sedimentary rocks in highly structurally complex terrain that are part of the exposed northern segment of the Central Utah Overthrust Belt (Figure 2, inserted at end of document due to size). The Paleozoic and younger rocks of the Overthrust Belt may conceal Mesozoic or even Paleozoic rocks that have the potential to contain oil and gas reservoirs. Oil and gas reservoirs have been found in the southern part of the Central Utah Overthrust Belt in Sevier County, Utah, and the next segment of the Overthrust belt to the north of the UNF in southwestern Wyoming and to the southwest in Utah on the north flank of the Uinta uplift. The reservoir rocks in both of these areas are of Jurassic age. The Overthrust Belt dominates the surficial structural geology in the entire UNF. The stratigraphy of the exposed Overthrust Belt rocks is disrupted by this complex structure, and as a result sedimentary rocks of early and late Paleozoic, and the Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary periods are exposed on the UNF. In addition, Tertiary volcanic and intrusive igneous rocks occur in the northern UNF in the American Fork, Deer Creek, Payson, and Upper Provo RFOGDs as well as in the southern edge of the Diamond Fork RFOGD. The eastern limit of the Overthrust Belt in the UNF has been mapped as reaching Strawberry Reservoir on the Geologic Map of Utah (Hintze 1980) and to the east of Strawberry Reservoir by Willis (1999). Recent geologic mapping of the east part of the Provo 30’ x 60’ Quadrangle, issued as a Progress Report Geologic Map (Constenius and Coogan 2004) does not show the