WGA In-Person Luncheon ~ Mark Milliken, Triangle G ~ Topic: Salt Creek Field Revisited

SALT CREEK FIELD REVISITED

Abstract

Mark Milliken

WGA, May 9, 2025

Salt Creek Field is located about 40 miles north of Casper, WY. It is currently under CO2 tertiary recovery operations by Contango Resources LLC, whose field office is in Midwest, Wyoming. WOGCC production in 2024 was 3 MMBO and 36 MMBW. Cumulative WOGCC production is 744 MMBO.

Salt Creek is the largest of several asymmetrical Laramide-aged oil-bearing structures aligned along a blind reverse fault system extending roughly 62 miles southeast to the Big Muddy uplift near Glenrock in the Powder River Basin

Salt Creek represented several firsts in U.S. oil filed history. It was once one of the largest fields in the U.S. if the not the world. It was one of the first U.S. fields to be unitized and electrified.

With nearby discoveries in the late 1880s, Salt Creek quickly expanded. Soon it was served by a railroad, a “super highway,” and several pipelines and refineries. Several reservoirs have produced, but most production then (as now) came from the 1^st and 2^nd Wall Creek Sandstones of the Frontier Formation. Unitized operations began in 1936 with Midwest Oil Company as operator.

In 1924, there were 200 labor camps and towns housing 59,000 people. Midwest camp was the largest at 17,000 population. Daily oil production was about 132 MBOPD. The field could have produced more, if not for the limited capacities of pipelines and refineries. Refined Salt Creek gasoline was being shipped to Europe by ocean tankers.

The field went into decline during the depression and World War II. Waterflooding began in the mid-1950s, offering a glimmer of hope. After building a CO2 pipeline from Baroil, WY, Anadarko Petroleum restored Salt Creek’s fortunes with a significant tertiary recovery project in 2004. Despite the engineering challenges of a 117-year oil field, and geological challenges of unpredictably discontinuous reservoirs, Contango continues to carry on the operations and history of Salt Creek Field.  

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