Is Utah's “Jurassic Wedge" a major petroleum province?

The recent discovery and development of a new oil field in the central Utah fold-and-thrust belt has put Utah in the spotlight for renewed onshore exploration in the Rocky Mountain region of North America, Fig. 1. This would not have been surprising a few decades ago, but after major oil companies drastically reduced their ventures in the Rockies, the discovery, by the Wolverine Oil & Gas Corp., has amplified significance. REGIONAL FRAMEWORK Utah is divided into four physiographic regions: Central Rocky Mountains (northwest), Colorado Plateau (east), Basin and Range province (west) and the High Plateaus (Transition Zone) in central Utah. The Central Utah Fold-and-Thrust Belt is largely included in the Transition Zone, although it does extend westward. The Transition Zone is structurally complex, having being affected by the compressional Sevier orogeny of Late Jurassic-Eocene, as well as Basin-and-Range extensional tectonics and volcanism of Oligocene-Neogene.