UINTAH AND OURAY RESERVATION Currently, the Ute Tribe, Ute Allottees, and the Ute Distri- Introduction bution Corporation in joint management hold 102,000 acres under lease, and more than 490 wells in production. The Utah Oil, Gas, and Mining Board conduct conservation spacing in cooperation COUNTY DAGGET The Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation is located in the Uinta Ba- UINTAH COUNTY with the Ute Tribe. Spacing rules for the Altamont-Bluebell field COUNTY DUCHESNE sin, in northeast Utah (FIGURES UO-1 and UO-2). The terrain is High COUNTY Mountain desert in the central part of the basin, which is surrounded are set at a multi-well level allowing two wells per section, while undesignated field spacing is 40 acres for oil and 640 acres for gas. by mountain ranges on the edge of the basin. Elevation varies from SUMMIT approximately 5,600 feet to over 11,000 feet above sea level. The Some variations or exceptions exist by special ruling and order (Anderson, 1995). WASATCH area's main transportation conduit is U.S. Highway 40, which leads COUNTY east to Salt Lake City, Utah, and west to Denver, Colorado. The ba- STARR FLATS sin covers approximately 11,500 square miles, and Ute Indian Tribe COTTONWOOD WASH Vernal jurisdiction comprises just over 4 million acres of this area, reaching BLUEBELL from the Utah-Colorado border west to the Wasatch Mountain range. ROOSEVELT WEST ALTAMONT TREND GUSHER ALTAMONT EAST GUSHER Mineral Ownership Fort Duchesne HORSE SHOE BEND FLAT MESA BLUE CEDAR BRENNER BOTTOM The Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation is a checkerboard owner- RIM BENCH RANDLETT GYPSUM WONSITS ship reservation containing Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Indian Allotted, HILLS VALLEY CEDAR Duchesne STARVATION RED WASH Ute Indian Tribe and Ute Distribution Corporation Jointly Managed DUCHESNE REFUGE INDIAN WEST PLEASANT Ouray Indian Trust minerals, along with fee (privately owned) and federal RIDGE VALLEY WASATCH PARIETTE SOUTH CHAPITA minerals. Indian properties cover approximately 1.2 million surface- NUTTER BENCH WELLS CANYON CASTLE OURAY PEAK MONUMENT UTE TRAIL owned acres, and 400,000 mineral-owned acres within the 4 million- BUTTE RIVER CHOKECHERRY BITTER acre jurisdictional boundary. Ute Indian Allottees, the Ute Indian CANYON CREEK Tribe, and the Ute Distribution Corporation own both surface and COUNTY UINTAH mineral properties in joint management. UTAH COUNTY DUCHESNE COUNTY CARBON COUNTY PETERS POINT 112O 111O 110O 109OO 108O 107O 41O WYOMING GREEN Price FLAT MOUNTAINS ROCK UINTA RANGE AHUT CARBON COUNTY UINTAH COUNTY MERY COUNTY GRAND COUNTY MOON RIDGE TCH ASA TCH 40O COLORADO SEGUNDO W UINTA BASIN CANYON LEGEND ARCH CREEK DOUGLAS N U BOOK ASIN Oil Field TCH UNCOMP B TEA Gas Field AEL ASAW UPLIFT Reservation Boundary PLA AHGRE CLIFFS PICEANCE CREEK SWELL O 39 SAN RAF 0 5 10 20 30 0 50Miles Scale, miles 0 80Kilometers Figure UO-2. Index map showing the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in yellow (modified after Anonymous, 1995). Figure UO-1. Location of Uinta Basin and surrounding structural and physiographic features. Yellow area shows approximate boundary of Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation (modified after Cashion, 1992). UINTAH AND OURAY INDIAN RESERVATION Overview 1 UTAH Uintah and Ouray Reservation north, and northeast into the basin. The northwest-southeast trending major faulting, steep to overturned beds, and multiple unconformi- Petroleum Exploration and Development salt folds of the northern Paradox Basin plunge beneath the Book ties that allow youngest Eocene rocks to lie unconformably on top of Cliffs in the southernmost part of the basin, and the two downwarps Precambrian rocks. The basin axis is close to the mountain flank merge imperceptibly in this area. On the east, the Uinta Basin is sep- and moves northward with depth. The Uinta Basin is a rich source of many energy-producing minerals. arated from the Piceance Basin of northwest Colorado by the Doug- The Uinta Basin formed in Late Cretaceous and Paleocene time The greatest portion of the energy resources is hydrocarbons in the las Creek Arch, which parallels the Utah-Colorado border (FIGURE when, in response to rapid uplift and formation of the Uinta Moun- form of coal, oil, gas, oil shale, and bituminous sandstone and lime- UO-3). tains, the dominant north-south tectonic and sedimentation patterns stone. The basin is quite asymmetric. Beds on the north flank dip 10 to of Cretaceous time shifted to west-east. The Uintas impose a domi- Resources contained within the Uintah and Ouray Reservation Figure UO-3. Location and structural 35 degrees south, whereas beds on the south flank dip only 4 to 6 de- nant west-east trend through most of the basin; however, structures include conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon deposits of oil element map of the Uinta and Piceance grees north (Chidsey, 1993). The north flank is highly complex, with in the southeast portion have a strong northwest grain, reflecting the and gas, oil shale, and tar sands in major quantity; coal, uranium, sil- Basin Provinces (modified after Gautier et older buried Uncompahgre and Paradox trends. ver, copper, gold, gypsum, and phosphate are also present in minor to al., 1995). mid-economic quantities. o o 110 106o Cretaceous and older rocks contain many productive oil and gas UT WY 108 zones. However, the major portion of the energy production from the CO Uinta Basin is from Tertiary rocks, and the distribution of the hydro- MTNS. UPLIFT SANDWASH carbons and minerals is directly related to their depositional environ- UINTA BASIN ment. Uinta Basin production of oil and gas began in the late 1940's, with major development commencing in the late 1960's and expand- Vernal AXIAL ing in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Over 300 million barrels of UPLIFT Craig oil (MMBO) have been produced from the Greater Altamont-Blue- PROVINCE bell field alone. Conventional oil and gas deposits have been exten- BOUNDARY sively explored and developed. The Green River and Wasatch For- UINTA Rangely mations contain the bulk of the producing zones, with depth to these 40o BASIN zones ranging from 6,000 to 18,000 feet. This has resulted in the de- velopment of the Greater Altamont-Bluebell oil field, and numerous undesignated smaller fields (FIGURES UO-2, UO-6). BOOK PICEANCE The oil produced is high in paraffin content (pour point = 120 de- CLIFFS CREEK WHITEUPLIFT RIVER grees F), making it an excellent gasoline refining feedstock. It is ex- BASIN EAGLE tremely rich with associated natural gas, with values falling between Price 900 and 1700 British thermal units (Btu). Only one natural gas field Glenwood BASIN has been developed, and it is located east and south of the Green and DOUGLAS CLIFFS Springs White Rivers. It is bordered by the Natural Buttes Gas Field Unit, CREEK ARCH BOOK SAWATCH RANGE which covers 76,000 acres. Total Ute Indian oil production approximates 1,250 barrels per Grand Junction day, a level that has held for the last 10 years. New well development UNCOMPAHGRE UPLIFT and workover activity has been sufficient to offset the normal decline SAN RAFAEL of the many oil and gas fields within the basin and the reservation SWELL Green area (Anderson, 1995). River 0 25 50 MILES GUNNISON Geology of the Uinta Basin UT CO UPLIFT 0 2550 KILOMETERS The Uinta Basin is a major sedimentary basin in the western-central Rocky Mountain province. It is bounded by the Uinta Mountain Up- EXPLANATION lift on the north and by the Wasatch Mountain Uplift and the eastern faulted margin of the Wasatch Plateau on the west. On the southwest o Upper Cretaceous rocks present and south, the San Rafael Swell and the Uncompahgre Uplift border 38 UPPER the basin (FIGURES UO-2 and UO-3). The southern basin edge is gen- Upper Cretaceous rocks absent CRETACEOUS erally considered to be the Book and Roan Cliffs, escarpments of Up- ABSENT BY per Cretaceous and Lower Tertiary formations which dip northwest, Thrust fault EROSION UINTAH AND OURAY INDIAN RESERVATION Geology 2 UTAH The Uinta Basin is filled with 30,000 to 32,000 feet of sediment in its northern and deepest portion (Figs. UO-4 and UO-5). Although the majority of the rocks exposed on the reservation are of Tertiary age, some UTAH COLORADO pre-Tertiary age rocks are exposed on the northern and northwestern boundaries. Percentages of basin strata are subdivided as follows: UINTA BASIN DOUGLAS CREEK PICEANCE BASIN AXIAL UPLIFT ARCH Tertiary (Eocene - Paleocene) - 55% Browns Park Fm. Upper Cretaceous - 25% YTIARTER Duchesne River Fm. Uinta Fm. Triassic - Lower Cretaceous - 10% S Green River Formation Fm. Paleozoic - 10% tch Colton Fm. Wasa Wasatch Flagstaff Limestone S Fort Union Formations Currant Creek North Horn Conglomerate Lance Formation Formation S Lewis Shale Price Mesaverde Gp. River Fm. S Sego Sandstone S GEOLOGIC THICKNESS (ft.) GROUP AND CHARACTER OF BEDS Castlegate Sandstone TIME FORMATION EAST WEST Blackhawk Fm. S Mancos "B" S Quaternary Alluvium Alluvium, gravel surfaces, talus deposits, and Emery Sandstone Mancos Shale other windblown deposits S Pleistocene Glacial Deposits Glacial drift, alluvium, and terrace deposits 0-70 0-70 Ferron Sandstone Frontier Formation CRETACEOUS Tununk Shale S Miocene Bishop Conglomerate Conglomerate, boulders 1 to 6 feet in diameter, 0-500 0-500 sand and gravel S Mowry Shale S y y Oligocene Duchesne River Formation Varicolored shale, sandstone, and conglomerate 1370 1500 Dakota Sandstone Significant oil production tiar Eocene Uinta Formation Shale with sandstone interbeds 700-1650 1800-5400 Cedar Mountain Formation erT Green River