105° 104°

41°

38°

39°

40°

WELD

LARIMER

ADAMS

ARAPAHOE

DOUGLAS ELBERT

EL PASO

PUEBLO

BOULDERJEFFERSON

COLORADO

DENVER

ALBANY LARAMIE WYOMING FRONT

RANGE

Greater

Wattenberg

area

Introduction—Energy Resources

 Oil, natural gas, and coal (energy resources) have been produced from rocks in the Front 

Range of Colorado and Wyoming for more than a century, and significant quantities of oil and 

gas continue to be developed in the study area of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Front 

Range Infrastructure Resources Project (fig. 1). As an infrastructure resource, energy 

resources helped to fuel past development of (1) urban areas in the Front Range as well as 

(2) some of the manufacturing and mining upon which the urban centers were built and 

thrived. At present, much of the oil and gas extracted from rocks beneath the Front Range 

urban corridor is used locally; the people living in the urban area provide a need and viable 

marketplace for these commodities.

 How long oil and gas will continue to be developed from rocks along the Front Range 

depends largely on economics, particularly the closeness of the marketplace and availability 

of quality resources. The oil and gas market is a function of the worldwide supply and demand 

of these resources (Seba, 1998), so whether or not oil and gas will continue to be developed 

along the Front Range is largely controlled by the level and stability of worldwide oil and gas 

prices. Nevertheless, with a nearby marketplace for produced energy resources (principally 

Front Range urban centers) and with estimates of significant additional resources in the region 

(see Gautier and others, 1995), the oil and gas industry likely will continue to operate in the 

area, assuming stable prices and continued demand.

USGS Oil and Natural Gas Research

 Because intense growth is occurring throughout the Front Range urban corridor, questions 

remain as to how urbanization will affect the future availability of oil and gas. USGS scientists 

on the Front Range Infrastructure Resources Project, using geologic and engineering data to 

model processes leading to oil and gas generation and accumulation, are focusing research 

efforts on estimating how much 

additional oil and gas can be developed 

and on identifying areas in the Front 

Range urban corridor where oil and gas 

resources are likely to be found in the 

future. Although oil and gas have been 

extracted in many places along the Front 

Figure 2. Photograph of an oil-well pump, one of many in the 

study area.

Range (fig. 2), current interest lies within the greater Wattenberg area, which lies just north of 

the Denver metropolitan area and extends through-out much of the northern part of the Front 

Range Infrastructure Resources study area (fig. 1).

 Most of the oil and gas in the area is being developed from Cretaceous rocks that range in 

age from 68-95 million years. Oil generation probably began about 65 million years ago, and 

gas was generated subsequently (Weimer, 1996). Formations from which most production 

occurs in the greater Wattenberg area (fig. 1) include the Muddy (“J”) Sandstone (Dakota 

Group), the Codell Sandstone Member and “D” sandstone (Benton Shale), Niobrara 

Formation, and sandstones in the Pierre Shale (Weimer, 1996). Depths to oil and gas 

reservoirs generally range from about 4,000 to more than 9,000 feet. The apparent association 

of faults with accumulations of natural gas (Higley and others, 1997) suggests that faulting 

may control, in a regional sense, sites favorable for gas production. 

Figure 1. Map showing the locations of the Front Range 

Infrastructure Resources Project study area (yellow) and the 

greater Wattenberg area.

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

USGS Fact Sheet FS–109–98

October 1998

FRONT RANGE INFRASTRUCTURE RESOURCES PROJECT

Energy Resources Activities

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Printed on recycled paper
effects on the environment of past extraction of energy 

resources. For example, studies are underway to determine 

whether saline waters produced along with oil and gas may 

have been a source of saline minerals deposited in soils in 

small (typically < 10 acres) areas (fig. 3) scattered throughout 

the Front Range. Detailed mapping of salts in addition to water 

and soil studies will help to establish if there is any causal 

relationship between produced waters and salty soils. Another 

example of USGS research on topics related to past energy 

extraction is the study of coal mining in the Front Range, 

including the Boulder-Weld coal field, the Foothills district, 

and an area near Colorado Springs. Given that much of the 

coal was mined from depths of < 500 ft beneath the surface, 

post-mining problems, including subsidence, can affect how 

land is used in the future. USGS scientists, along with 

colleagues from the Colorado Geological Survey, are creating 

digital maps that will be used to readily determine where coal 

mining took place and the depth to old coal mine workings. 

Finally, USGS scientists are estimating the area of land used 

for the infrastructure required for oil and gas production 

(pumps, access roads, tank batteries, etc.). While producing oil 

and gas, this land cannot be used for other purposes (e.g., 

agriculture, urbanization, extraction of other infrastructure 

resources). With more than 6,000 oil and gas wells in the study 

area, the necessary access roads, pumps, and storage tanks 

cover a large amount of land and can significantly restrict its 

use for other purposes, including agriculture—this is especially 

important in the greater Wattenberg area, which includes some 

of the most productive agricultural land in Colorado. 

References Cited

Higley, D., Quinn, J., and Bergamaschi, A., 1997, 3-D 

distribution of gas production across the Wattenberg field, 

Denver Basin, Colorado: American Association of 

Petroleum Geologists Rocky Mountain Section Meeting, 

Abstracts with Program, p. 79.

Gautier, D.L., Dolton, G.L., Takahashi, K.I., and Varnes, K.L., 

eds., 1995, 1995 National assessment of United States oil 

and gas resources—Results, methodology, and supporting 

data: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-30 

[CD-ROM].

Seba, R.D., 1998, Economics of worldwide petroleum 

production: Tulsa, Oklahoma, Oil and Gas Consultants 

International Publications, 575 p.

Weimer, R.J., 1996, Guide to the petroleum geology and 

Laramide orogeny, Denver Basin and Front Range, 

Colorado: Colorado Geological Survey Bulletin 51, 127 p.

Petroleum Engineering Studies

Troy Cook

USGS

Box 25046, MS 939

Denver Federal Center

Denver, CO 80225

(303) 236-6594

tcook@usgs.gov

Project Chief and

Land-Use Studies

Neil Fishman

USGS

Box 25046, MS 939

Denver Federal Center

Denver, CO 80225

(303) 236-1542

nfishman@usgs.gov

Oil and Gas Studies

Debra Higley

USGS

Box 25046, MS 939

Denver Federal Center

Denver, CO 80225

(303) 236-5791

higley@usgs.gov

Origin of Saline Mineral Studies

Jim Otton

USGS

Box 25046, MS 939

Denver Federal Center

Denver, CO 80225

(303) 236-7788

jkotton@usgs.gov

Coal Mine Studies

Steve Roberts

USGS

Box 25046, MS 939

Denver Federal Center

Denver, CO 80225

(303) 236-7788

sroberts@usgs.gov

For Information Please Contact:

Figure 3. Photograph, taken in the spring, of a plowed field in the study area where salt minerals have 

formed on the soil surface. Photograph from Jim Otton, USGS.

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