Abstract

Wyoming's natural gas industry was the largest contributor among mineral commodities to state income during 1999. Yearly production first reached 500 billion cubic feet (BCF) in 1983, one trillion cubic feet (TCF) in 1992, and should top 1.5 TCF in 2001. Most of the recent production increase is from development of gas fields in southwestern Wyoming, Jonah Field in the northern Green River Basin, Madden and Cave Gulch fields in the Wind River Basin, and coalbed methane in the Powder River Basin. Cumulative natural gas production for Wyoming was 26.6 TCF through the year 2000. The five most productive reservoirs, in terms of cumulative production from fields where these reservoirs have produced at least 5 BCF, starting with the most productive, are the Frontier Formation, Madison Limestone, Muddy Sandstone, Nugget Sandstone, and Almond Formation. The Madison Limestone will pass the Frontier Formation in several years to become thetop producing formation. Coalbed methane from the Powder River Basin should eventually become the top producer of natural gas since there are about 25 TCF of recoverable gas in the coal beds and the play is developing rapidly.

There are very large carbon dioxide resources in the Madison Limestone as well as in several other Paleozoic formations at La Barge anticline in southwestern Wyoming. The Madison at Madden Field in the Wind River Basin also contains large resources of carbon dioxide. These two sources have the potenticl to supply large quantities of carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery projects in Wyoming and could help slow the annual decline in oil production. Carbon dioxide floods in the state could add 400 million to 1.2 billion barrels of additional oil production that would otherwise be left in abandoned fields.