Economic potential of state-owned lands in the Sunnyside Special Tar Sand Area Carbon County, Utah

The Sunnyside oil-impregnated (tar sand) deposit is located in the southwestern portion of the Uinta Basin, approximately 25 miles east of Price, Utah (fig. 1). The tar sands are located in the Wasatch Formation and in the Douglas Creek Member of the Green River Formation, with up to 32 individual beds being identified. The impregnation of the individual beds is controlled by the lateral extent of the bed, its porosity and permeability, and the distance the oil has migrated within the bed. The degree of saturation varies both laterally and vertically. The Sunnyside Special Tar Sand Area (STSA) is one of 11 such areas in Utah designated by Congress as containing recognizable deposits of tar sands. The purpose of this report is to outline potential tar sand presence on state-owned lands in the Sunnyside Special Tar Sand Area by integrating the available data on the area with new data resulting in the generation of three measured sections (appendix 1). This report is not conclusive in that it is only an outline of the potential of tar sand presence. Further work, in the form of core drilling and extensive surface reconnaissance, is needed to adequately determine the extent and grade of the tar sand on the state-owned lands.