U.S. Geological Survey

Digital Data Series DDS–69–V

National Oil and Gas Assessment Project:

Petroleum Systems and Geologic Assessment of Oil and Gas in the Bighorn Basin 

Province, Wyoming and Montana

By U.S. Geological Survey Bighorn Basin Assessment Team 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

KEN SALAZAR, Secretary

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

Marcia K. McNutt, Director

For sale by U.S. Geological Survey Information Services

Box 25286, Building 810

Denver Federal Center

Denver, CO 80225-0086

Telephone (303) 202-4200

For more information about the U.S. Geological Survey and its products:

Telephone 1-888-ASK-USGS

URL: http://www.usgs.gov/

Introduction

The purpose of the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Oil and Gas Assessment is to 

develop geologically based hypotheses regarding the potential for additions to oil and 

gas reserves in priority areas of the United States. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 

recently completed an assessment of the undiscovered oil and gas potential of the 

Bighorn Basin Province which encompasses about 6.7 million acres in Wyoming and 

Montana.

The assessment is based on the geologic elements of each total petroleum system 

(TPS) defined in the province, including hydrocarbon source rocks (source-rock maturation, hydrocarbon generation, and migration), reservoir rocks (sequence stratigraphy 

and petrophysical properties), and hydrocarbon traps (trap formation and timing). 

Using this geologic framework, the USGS defined two TPSs: (1) Phosphoria TPS, and 

(2) Cretaceous–Tertiary Composite TPS. Within these systems, eight Assessment Units 

(AU) were defined, and undiscovered oil and gas resources were quantitatively estimated for all AUs. 

Contact Information

This volume is one of a series of products resulting from the National Oil and Gas Assessment project of the U.S. Geological Survey. Inquiries about this CD-ROM or the 

project should be addressed to:

Christopher J. Schenk, Project Chief

U.S. Geological Survey

Box 25046, Mail Stop 939

Denver Federal Center

Denver, CO 80225-0046

Telephone: (303) 236-5796

E-mail: schenk@usgs.gov

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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 

Acrobat Reader 7.0 (installer for Mac and Windows provided on this CD–ROM) to access and bring up these chapters.

Contained on this CD–ROM are tabular data and graphical images in support of the assessment. The chapter text PDF contains links to the data and images. Data-table files 

are presented as tab-delimited text files (.tab files), usable in spreadsheet and database 

software. Graphical and summary-table files are presented as portable document format (.pdf) files.

The USGS Central Energy Resources Team has developed an Internet Map Service 

to deliver the GIS data to the public. The spatial data that formed the basis of the GIS 

are provided online at the USGS National Oil and Gas Assessment Web site (NOGA 

Online: http://energy.cr.usgs.gov/oilgas/noga) and are also contained on this CD-ROM 

in the spatial folder. GIS information is presented in the Spatial folder and its subdirectories that contain the spatial data, documentation, and export files. The Spatial/

Doc folder contains metadata for the Bighorn Basin Province spatial data in .htm 

format. The Spatial/Export folder contains Arc/Info export files (.e00). The Spatial/

Shape folder contains ArcView/ArcGIS shapefiles used in the GIS project. Most of 

the base cartographic data layers used in the GIS project were obtained from the U.S. 

Department of the Interior National Atlas Web site, www.nationalatlas.gov or the U.S. 

Geological Survey National Map, http://nmviewogc.cr.usgs.gov/viewer.htm.

Contents of this CD–ROM 

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

ACROBAT—contains installer for Acrobat Reader 7.0.

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

ReadMe file, Executive Summary, and Assessment Reports.

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

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

SPATIAL—folder containing files for the GIS data and metadata.

There are several routes to the information in this volume.
iii

System Requirements

MAC OS X

Adobe Reader 7

• Power PC G3, G4, G5 processor

• Mac OS X v.10.2.8 or 10.3

• 128 MB of RAM

• 80 MB of available hard disk space (110 MB required for the full version)

• 800 x 600 screen resolution

WINDOWS

Adobe Reader 7.0 MS Windows

• Intel Pentium-class processor

• Windows XP Professional or Home Edition with SP1 or SP2, or Tablet 

PC Edition

• Microsoft Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2 (SP2)

• 128 MB of RAM

• 90 MB of available hard-disk space for the full version

• 800 x 600 monitor resolution

Requirements for ArcReader 9.2 for Windows:

• 1.5 GHz Intel Pentium or Intel Zeon Processors

• Windows XP Home and Professional Editions

• 256 MB RAM Minimum, 512 MB recommended

• 410 MB Disk Space

Requirements for ArcView 8.x for Windows:

• 450 MHz Pentium minimum, 800 MHz recommended

• Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6a or Windows 2000 or 

Windows XP Home and Professional Editions

• 128 MB RAM, 256 Recommended

Note: Installers for Acrobat Reader 7.0 for Macintosh and Windows platforms are provided on 

this CD–ROM.

The USGS Central Energy Resources Team has developed an Internet Map Service to deliver 

the GIS data to the public. The spatial data that formed the basis of the GIS are provided online 

at the USGS National Oil and Gas Assessment Web site (NOGA Online: http://energy.cr.usgs.

gov/oilgas/noga) and are also contained on this CD-ROM in the spatial folder. GIS information 

is presented in the Spatial folder and its subdirectories that contain the spatial data, documentation, and export files. The Spatial/Doc folder contains metadata for the Bighorn Basin Province 

spatial data in .htm format. The Spatial/Export folder contains Arc/Info export files (.e00). The 

Spatial/Shape folder contains ArcView/ArcGIS shapefiles used in the GIS project. Most of the 

base cartographic data layers used in the GIS project were obtained from the U.S. Department 

of the Interior National Atlas Web site, www.nationalatlas.gov or the U.S. Geological Survey 

National Map, http://nmviewogc.cr.usgs.gov/viewer.htm.

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