Oil and Gas Exploration in Great Basin

The Great Basin has geographic areas with developed oil and gas production, but even larger areas considered frontier. "Frontier" is a term of art in the oil and gas industry meaning that an area with potential is largely unexplored for oil and gas. Specifically, most of the Nevada part of the Great Basin has not been explored, yet there are wells that have yielded large production there. 

All four of the essential elements for giant oil and gas production exist in this Nevada part of the Great Basin, that is, source, structure, seal and reservoir. As the diagrams above and below illustrate, the Great Basin geology can be complex. This has defeated or discouraged major exploration efforts in the Great Basin in the past as most were greatly underfunded. New innovations, with proper funding, will assist in unlocking the great potential of the Great Basin. The group which prepared the diagram below acquired 2 million acres of mineral rights and applied some new innovations, but simply ran out of funds after spending $25 Million. Even Noble abandoned its efforts to produce from the enormous shale deposits after spending $300 million. Both found oil in their wells, but for mechanical reasons were not able to exploit the opportunity before they ran out of allocated funds for their efforts. The group that prepared the diagrams called their prospect the "Brickyard Prospect" which could be the largest accumulation of oil in the world.