| Description |
Rocky Mountain Exploration Company (hereafter called Rocky) of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Houston, Texas, holds a 240-acre federal combined hydrocarbon lease in Sections 17 and 18, T 2 N, R 1 E, UE5SM, Uintah County, Utah. The lease lies in the Ashley National Forest. Road distance is 27 miles north of Roosevelt and 30 miles northwest of Vernal, the county seat. Roads are largely blacktop and negotiable year-round. The lease covers part of a "tar sand" deposit in the Navajo formation. The area is near the mouth of Whiterocks Canyon on the south flank of the Uinta Mountains. The Whiterocks River, a perennial stream, has formed a small valley in the lower canyon. The steeply dipping Navajo tar sand is exposed on both sides of the canyon and underlies the valley alluvium. The Navajo is near 1000 feet thick and strikes westsouthwest and east-northeast. Limits of the asphalt impregnation along trend are undetermined. Prilling one-half mile southwest of the canyon edge found more than 500 feet of tar-bearing sand. In the two wells fartherest northeast, more than 600 feet of tar sand was shown. The average thickness is about 500 feet in the 11 wells believed to have penetrated the entire deposit along its 1.8-mile proven extent. |
