Wyoming Thrust Belt

Commentary

The WTBB remains largely overlooked as investors see easier basins to access. This is further compounded by concern at the Federal level, and to what extent the Biden Administration will use Federal powers to override State legislation to prevent oil & gas development.

Updated

June 18, 2024

Location

Description

In the WTBB, structures are typically Precambrian-cored uplifts with bounding thrust systems where mountain-front thrust faults overrode basin margins, or thrust-faulted anticlines. The primary source rocks in the WTBB are phosphatic shales of the Permian Phosphoria Formation, shales and calcareous mudstones of the Cretaceous Thermopolis and Mowry Shales, Frontier and Niobrara Formations, and Steele Shale, and the coals and mudstones of the Upper Cretaceous Mesaverde Group and Medicine Bow Formation, Upper Cretaceous and Palaeocene Ferris Formation, and Palaeocene and Eocene Hanna Formation.

Summary

The basin has been widely explored, but modern exploration technology still produces commercial accumulations. While undiscovered sizes are generally small, the availability of infrastructure makes the commerciality threshold relatively low.