Abstract: Black Trona Water, Green River Basin, Wyoming

G. F. Dana

Black water has been found in 22 boreholes drilled since 1949 in an area around Farson and Eden, Wyoming, in the northern Green River basin. The black water is produced from unusually porous and permeable oil shales of varied richness in the Wilkins Peak Member of the Green River Formation. The black-water color is caused by organic acids dissolved in a sodium carbonate solution. Because of minimal core information, the explanation for the presence of the porosity, permeability, and black water in a normally impermeable shale is difficult and requires further study. However, it is postulated that the black water is original lake water incorporated in the sediments in a low place in the lake bed during recessions of the lake. Further deposition created closed aquifers or p ds which, when penetrated by drilling, produce artesian water because of overburden pressure rather than by the more common mechanisms of gas pressure of hydrodynamic drives. Since 1949, attempts have been made to produce the water for commercial exploitation, but no economic use has been made of it. From the study of several wells, an average artesian flow of 6,856 bbl/day would bring to the surface 130 tons of organic matter representing 560 bbl of oil and 62 tons of sodium carbonate in the form of trona.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90979©1975 AAPG – SEPM Rocky Mountain Sections Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico