In the past fifteen years, technology has struggled in the battle to exploit more restricted and difficult-to-extract parts of the resource base. As graphically shown on a gas resource pyramid, in the past five years, technology has been winning the battle. The result has been the discovery and exploitation of at least five giant fields (one oil and four gas) in the Rocky Mountains.

The greater Rocky Mountain petroleum province contains a large number of high-potential, unconventional, Cretaceous and Tertiary oil and gas plays. Many thousands of feet of interbedded source rock and tight sand potential reservoir rocks are currently within the gas-generating window.

One gas field, with an estimated ultimate recovery of between 1 and 5 TCF, is a sweet spot in a basin-center gas deposit and will be discussed in detail. Recognizing similar sweet spots with geophysics will play a large role in future discoveries. Another field was discovered under a thrust fault. New hydraulic fracturing technology has been important to the success of both fields. Three other giant fields will be discussed along with another potential giant accumulation in a basin-center oil deposit.

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