Powder River Basin

It is no secret that the Powder River Basin is home to abundant sources of energy including oil, natural gas, and coal. Gillette is proud to be the “Energy Capital of the World” and Casper has long been known as the “Oil City.” The residents of the Powder River Basin understand the importance of the industry to their livelihoods and the success of businesses, education and the non-profit communities that make their homes places in which we all want to live.

Production in the Powder River Basin spans private, state and federal lands with split estate, where one entity owns the surface estate and another owns the mineral estate, often being the norm. When developing obtained oil and natural gas leasing rights, the industry is required to comply with applicable federal and state laws and regulations. When there is a “federal nexus” – occurring when the federal government is either the surface or mineral estate owner – federal regulations take precedent over state regulations.

What’s Under Your Feet?

Current production in the Powder River Basin is mostly associated with oil. While coalbed methane production saw a boom in the PRB in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with a peak in 2009 at 584 billion cubic feet of natural gas, natural gas production in the basin has since continued to decline.

Production

In 2019 oil production in the Powder River Basin totaled 231,000 barrels a day. Despite a 30% drop in production in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, production is rebounding and is expected to surpass 2019 levels by 2025. The Powder River Basin’s output is approximately 1% of total oil consumption in the U.S. During that year natural gas production in the Powder River Basin totaled 992 mmcf (million cubic feet per day). Most natural gas produced in the PRB is “associated gas” meaning it is captured during the production of an oil well.

Continued advancements in drilling technology have allowed for an increase in production capabilities while reducing surface disturbance. Horizontal wells, directional drilling, and hydraulic fracturing all contribute to increased production from a single well site – dramatically reducing the industry’s impact at the surface. Today’s horizontal wells can reach more than 3 miles while directional drilling allows multiple wells to be drilled from a single well pad. Reducing surface disturbance better protects wildlife habitat and lowers associated drilling costs.

Geology

According to the Wyoming State Geological Survey (WSGS), much of the oil in the Powder River Basin was deposited by the Jurassic time in western Wyoming and migrated east, eventually being trapped by the geologic formations in the area. Further deposits were created during the Cretaceous era and represent the other major hydrocarbon reservoirs in the PRB. Major producing formations in the PRB include the Niobrara, Shannon, Frontier, Turner and Parkman formations.

Scroll over the interactive graphic below to learn more about what’s under your feet in the Powder River Basin

Future development in the PRB will continue to focus on “thick, stacked, unconventional reservoirs” according to the WSGS. This is evident in the Converse County Oil and Gas Project that was approved by the BLM in 2020. Technology will continue to play a major role in unlocking production in the Powder River Basin as more complex formations are tapping into it in the future.

Oil and natural gas wells are drilled far below the surface – often 7,000 to 12,000 feet. That is the equivalent of between 8 and 14 Devil’s Towers stacked on top of one another. By comparison, most water wells in Wyoming are less than 1000 feet below the surface. The water table is generally separated by greater than a mile of impermeable rock from the oil and natural gas reservoirs being produced.

WATER

Water is important to the health, social and economic well-being of communities. Proper management and protection of the state’s water is essential to all Wyoming residents. Industry strives to responsibly manage this precious resource while finding ways to reuse and recycle the water utilized for drilling.

In addition to the natural geological barriers that separate oil and natural gas reservoirs from groundwater, state and federal regulations state that each well must be encased in multiple layers of protection, which include industrial-grade steel casing surrounded by cement to create redundant layers of protection for underground freshwater supplies.

There is no mistaking the fact that when oil and natural gas are thriving, our economy thrives and our communities benefit. The industry fuels Wyoming. But while the economic activity and tax revenues that the oil and natural gas industry contribute are vitally important, they are not the whole story.

The industry is also the people who live and work in our communities, the charitable gifts of time, treasures and talent to non-profits, and the way in which the industry operates in order to preserve our outdoor opportunities, wildlife and the environment around us.

The men and women who work in the oil and natural gas industry care about the communities in which they live and want to see them succeed so they are around for their kids and grandkids.

The people of Wyoming value education which is why Wyoming’s public education system is the highest-funded K-12 education system in the Rocky Mountain Region and in the top 10 nationally. And that is thanks in large part to Wyoming’s oil and natural gas industry.

In 2020, the industry paid approximately 542,000,000 in taxes and royalties to help fund K-12 education and another 26,000,000 for the University of Wyoming and the community college system.

The oil and natural gas industry is proud to be Wyoming’s largest contributor to education funding in Wyoming – Powering Wyoming’s Potential.