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Wyoming's Oil & Gas Facts


Oil

  • In 2021, Wyoming ranked eighth nationally in crude oil production.
  • Wyoming produced 85.43 million barrels of crude oil in 2021, down from 89.06 million barrels in 2020.
  • The Mike Murphy #1 well was the first oil well drilled in Wyoming. It was drilled in 1884 next to a natural oil seep and was the discovery well for the Dallas field, which is still an active oil field today.
  • Since its 1889 discovery, Salt Creek field has produced more than 735 million barrels of oil from its estimated 1,680 million barrels of oil originally in place.
  • Quealy field was the first field in the Rocky Mountain region to be discovered using seismic methods. The California Company used reflection seismic surveys to delineate the Quealy Dome anticline and drilled the first productive well in Quealy field in 1934.
  • The first refinery in Wyoming was built in Casper and began processing crude oil in 1895. It had an initial capacity of 50–100 barrels of oil per day. In comparison, Casper’s modern-day Little America refinery has a total operable capacity of 25,500 barrels per stream day.
  • In 2021, 92 percent of the approved oil well permits in Wyoming were for horizontal wells.

oil production



To view the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission's state oil production graph, click here.






Natural Gas

  • In 2021, Wyoming ranked ninth nationally in natural gas production.
  • Wyoming produced more than 1.37 billion Mcf (Mcf — 1,000 cubic feet) of natural gas in 2021, down from 1.47 billion Mcf in 2020.
  • Through 2021, coalbed natural gas wells in the Powder River Basin have cumulatively produced more than 6.6 billion Mcf of gas from shallow Fort Union and Wasatch coals.
  • Jonah field was discovered in 1975, but most of the development of the field did not begin until 1992 when multi-stage hydraulic fracturing was used by the McMurry Oil Company to release the tight gas. These innovative techniques were then used to exploit the tight gas and oil from the nearby Pinedale anticline in the late 1990s.
  • The Rocky Mountain completion depth record was set by the Bighorn 1-5 (API 49-013-21362). This well was completed between 23,758 and 23,902 feet in the Madison Limestone and had an initial production rate of 20,000 Mcf of gas per day. The subsequent Bighorn 2-3 well (API 49-013-21510) was completed between 23,579 and 23,852 feet in the Madison with an initial production rate of 38,000 Mcf of gas per day. These two wells established the deepest commercial gas production in the Rocky Mountain region as part of the Madden field.
  • The LaBarge-Shute Creek treating facility processes gas from wells within the Madison Limestone. This gas is rich in carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen sulfide, and commercial quantities of helium. Excess carbon dioxide is transported via pipeline to the Rangely field in northern Colorado and several fields in Wyoming for enhanced oil recovery operations.

gas production



To view the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission's state gas production graph, click here.






Wyoming's Oil & Gas Reserves

  • Wyoming had 703 million barrels of proven oil reserves in 2020, which accounted for nearly 2 percent of the U.S. total reserves.
  • Wyoming had an estimated 12,484 billion cubic feet of proven reserves of dry natural gas, or 2.8 percent of the U.S. total, as of 2020.

Sources: Interactive Oil and Gas Map of Wyoming
U.S. Energy Information Agency
Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission

Oil & Gas Prices

For information on historical, current, and future prices, please refer to the following:


Oil & Gas FAQ

►How do I obtain information on oil or gas wells drilled in Wyoming?
All oil and gas well information is maintained in a database by the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC). The database is accessible at the WOGCC website.
►Who regulates the oil and gas exploration and production industry?
Drilling and production on Wyoming State Lands and on private lands are regulated by the WOGCC. Drilling on federal land is regulated primarily by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management or the U.S. Forest Service.
►I own property in Wyoming with mineral rights. How can I learn if oil, gas, or other minerals may be on my land?
The WSGS is not in a position to evaluate properties. However, there are many consulting geologists throughout the state that can help answer this question. Consulting geologists can be found locally or often advertise in the newsletter published by the Wyoming Geological Association. Certified professional geologists are licensed by the Wyoming Board of Professional Geologists and a list is maintained at their website.
►I hear so much about “fracking” in the news but don’t really understand what it is. Where can I find more information?
Fracking is another term used for "hydraulic fracturing.” Hydraulic fracturing involves pumping a mixture of water, proppant (sand or artificial material), and chemicals under very high pressure into an oil or gas reservoir to create a network of connected fractures that increases hydrocarbon production. More information on hydraulic fracturing can be found on websites by the Association of American State Geologists, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Watershed Council, Geological Society of America, and American Petroleum Institute.
►Is there a repository for cores and/or cuttings in Wyoming?
No. All publicly available cores and cuttings for Wyoming (as well as other states) are stored either at the USGS Core Research Center in Lakewood, Colorado or at the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology in multiple locations in Texas. Contact these agencies for more information.
►Do you have any information on historical oil production in Wyoming?
WyoHistory.org published an article on “The Oil Business in Wyoming” by Phil Roberts detailing how oil production in Wyoming began and evolved.

The Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission maintains scans of individual well production prior to 1978 in their database.
►Where can I find more information on statistics for Wyoming’s oil and gas industry?
Further information on oil and gas statistics, including production, prices, and more, can be obtained from the following downloads or website:
►What other agencies might have useful Wyoming oil and gas information?



Contact:
Rachel Toner, rachel.toner@wyo.gov
Derek Lichtner, derek.lichtner@wyo.gov