U.S. Geological Survey

Digital Data Series DDS–69–BB

National Oil and Gas Assessment Project:

Oil Shale Resources of the Uinta Basin, Utah and Colorado

By U.S. Geological Survey Oil Shale Assessment Team 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

KEN SALAZAR, Secretary

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

Marcia K. McNutt, Director

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Denver, CO 80225-0086

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Introduction

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently completed a comprehensive 

assessment of in-place oil in oil shales of the Eocene Green River Formation of 

the Uinta Basin of eastern Utah and western Colorado. The oil shale interval was 

subdivided into eighteen roughly time-stratigraphic intervals, and each interval 

was assessed for variations in gallons per ton, barrels per acre, and total barrels 

in each township. The Radial Basis Function extrapolation method was used to 

generate isopach and isoresource maps, and to calculate resources. The total inplace resource for the Uinta Basin is estimated at 1.32 trillion barrels. This is only 

slightly lower than the estimated 1.53 trillion barrels for the adjacent Piceance 

Basin, Colorado, to the east, which is thought to be the richest oil shale deposit 

in the world. However, the area underlain by oil shale in the Uinta Basin is much 

larger than that of the Piceance Basin, and the average gallons per ton and barrels 

per acre values for each of the assessed oil shale zones are significantly lower in 

the depocenter in the Uinta Basin when compared to the Piceance Basin. These 

relations indicate that the oil shale resources in the Uinta Basin are of lower grade 

and are more dispersed than the oil shale resources of the Piceance Basin.

Contact Information

This volume is one of a series of products resulting from the National Oil and Gas 

Project of the U.S. Geological Survey. Inquiries about this CD–ROM or the project 

should be addressed to:

Ronald C. Johnson, Project Chief

U.S. Geological Survey

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Box 25046, Mail Stop 939

Denver Federal Center

Denver, CO 80225-0046

Telephone: (303) 236-5546

E-mail: rcjohnson@usgs.gov

Disclaimer

This Compact Disc-Read Only Memory (CD–ROM) publication was prepared by an agency of the 

United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of its 

employees, make any warranty, expressed or implied, or assume any legal liability or responsibility for 

the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed in 

this report, or represent that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference therein to any 

specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise 

does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United 

States Government or any agency thereof. Although all data and software published on this CD–ROM 

have been used by the USGS, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the USGS as to the accuracy of the data and related materials and (or) the functioning of the software. The act of distribution shall 

not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the USGS in the use of these data, 

the software, or related materials.

Using This CD

The descriptive and interpretive text chapters of this volume are in PDF format. Use Adobe Acrobat 

Reader, version 7.0 or later to access these chapters.

Contained on this CD–ROM are tabular data and graphical data in support of the assessment. The 

chapter text PDF contains links to the data and images. Data-table files in various formats are presented, 

usable in spreadsheet and database software. Graphical and summary-table files are presented as portable document format files (.pdf files) and spreadsheets.

GIS information is presented in the Spatial folder and its subfolders that contain the spatial data and 

documentation. The Spatial folder may be downloaded at DDS–69–BB in Spatial.zip.

The Spatial folder contains ArcView/ArcGIS shapefiles, GRIDs, TINs, and various tables in .dbf and 

.xls formats.

Contents of This CD–ROM 

When the CD–ROM is opened, the following folders appear on the screen:

OPEN_FIRST—from OPEN_FIRST.pdf in this folder, navigate to the 

ReadMe file, assessment reports plus support data, and spatial data.

READ_ME—you can access the ReadMe file from this folder also.

REPORTS—listing of, and links to, the chapters, plus the supporting data. 

SPATIAL—folder contains the Readme_Spatial.pdf file for the GIS data 

that may be downloaded at DDS–69–BB in Spatial.zip.

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