Conoco Drilling Results Validate Scientific Hypothesis, Increase Potential of Monument Resources, State Geologist Says

Calling Conoco's exploratory well results from the Rees Canyon site "exciting and gratifying," State Geologist Lee Allison characterized the findings as a "significant scientific discovery for Utah, with important economic implications."

"For nearly a decade, the Utah Geological Survey has been predicting that there were hydrocarbon deposits at a far deeper level in that region than anyone has ever tried to reach," Allison added. "The Conoco results validate that theory. Far from being a dry hole, Conoco's well is more a Christmas present for the schoolchildren of Utah because it increases the value of resources in the monument.

"In our initial assessment of the monument's commodities, which I emphasize was very conservative and very preliminary while remaining scientifically accurate and technically valid, we indicated there could be millions of dollars worth of oil recoverable from School and Institutional Trust Lands within the monument. Conoco's discovery can only push the initial estimation up. That means the school trust land, which President Clinton has already agreed to trade out for equal value elsewhere, has to be worth more."

Since 1989, the UGS has maintained that oil resources could be trapped in rocks older than ever before produced in Utah. Since then, only three other wells have reached as deep in the geologic record as the Conoco well, about 12,000 feet down into rock formations of Precambrian age. Those wells did not find evidence of petroleum. Conoco's well revealed substantial deposits of gas in two separate deep formations, the Muav and the Tapeats, but the deposits were not extractable. This is the first time evidence of hydrocarbon deposits has been found at such levels.

"It is always gratifying to have our science validated," Allison said. "We first proposed drilling into the Precambrian layer nearly 10 years ago, and Conoco and a couple of other oil companies acquired multiple leases in the region on the basis of our theory. Politics and commercial viability aside, this is a significant find because it confirms the Precambrian-Cambrian province as a new exploration ‘play,' or target."