Our region has an enormous untapped natural gas and oil source, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
A says there鈥檚 about 27 trillion cubic feet of natural gas 鈥� close to what the U.S. consumes in a year 鈥� and 473 million barrels of oil under southwest Wyoming, northwest Colorado and a sliver of Utah. But all those resources may not actually be recoverable.
They come from a prehistoric ocean now known as the Mowry Shale, which provides energy through silica-rich shells. The shale rock isn鈥檛 too hard to drill into on its own since it鈥檚 very breakable, but it鈥檚 embedded with clays called bentonite that are hard to get through.
鈥淚 kind of picture it as a peanut butter cracker sandwich, so the crackers are very brittle and the peanut butter is very squishy,鈥� said Scott Quillinan, senior director of research at University of Wyoming鈥檚 School of Energy Resources.
Supported by state funding, Quillinan is helping lead a team how to unlock these resources, largely in northeast Wyoming in the Powder River Basin, where the Mowry Shale also exists.
Horizontal drilling, or fracking, has helped some companies access oil and gas within this rock layer, but production is still in its infancy. Tim Fischer, the university鈥檚 oil and gas program manager, says it鈥檚 one of the most complicated rocks to drill.
鈥淭he ultimate oil recovery is not usually as high as the oil in place,鈥� Fischer said. 鈥淎nd so that's always the challenge. It's the extraction.鈥�
It remains to be seen how the discovery will interact with the Bureau of Land Management鈥檚 for 3.6 million acres around Rock Springs in southwest Wyoming. The plan seeks to balance energy development and conservation. It's currently by the Trump administration.
鈥淸These are] incredible resources that are being identified,鈥� Quillinan said. 鈥淭his information should be considered as that process continues to move forward.鈥�
Fischer said exploring new sources of oil and gas is important to avoid an energy crisis as AI data centers consume more and more of it.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a that 鈥淲e Map, Baby, Map鈥� these resources to support domestic energy production. Now the question is whether companies will invest and drill, baby, drill.
This story was produced by the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau is provided in part by the .