Biggest Oil Strike in 30 Years May Be in Utah

It is the story dreams are made of and every person in America would like to wake up one morning and see hot, bubbly oil coming out of the land they own. This is the real life story of Jed Clampett, a member of the Fortune Fictional 15 billionaires. According to Fortune, the 51 year-old Jed Clampett is worth $6.6 billion in Oil & Gas and Banking holdings. Although Jed Clampett was an Ozark Elementary dropout, the residents of Sigurd, Utah - population 431 - are getting plenty of education on how to prepare their small farming town for a big oil boom rush.

Sigurd, Utah struck big oil. Wolverine Gas & Oil Corporation has been in the Utah area of Sigurd since 2004 and many thought nothing would ever come of the speculative oil drilling that this little company was doing. Utah residents pretty much gave up on oil prospectors coming around to their land since all the oil companies left Utah more than 15 years ago after not striking oil. Something about this particular area brought Wolverine back and now they have struck oil that may be the biggest onshore oil discovery in 30 years. Wolverine thinks the Utah oil pocket could contain between 100 and 200 million barrels of oil.

Several families I know in Texas have received oil and natural gas leases from the major energy companies during 2008. Those same big oil companies have taken notice of Wolverine Gas & Oil Corporation and their Utah oil strike, but it may be too late for the big oil companies to get in on the Utah oil boom action. Wolverine Gas & Oil Corporation has been quietly buying up oil leases on private lands and government lands, and the wildcatters now control over 600,000 acres of prime Utah oil land. Their Utah Hills oil leases have secured their monopoly of oil prospecting that is 50 miles long and 20 miles wide.

Wolverine Gas & Oil Corporation has a few dozen employees and 14 investors who paid as little as $5 an acre for the Utah oil leases. They anticipate the Utah oil well to produce as much as 105,000 barrels a month, worth around $6 million with today's oil prices. Utah is one of the few states that has its own oil refineries outside of Salt Lake City and is not tied to national gasoline and fuel prices based on foreign oil prices. The Utah refineries get their oil from a Wyoming pipeline and the new Sigurd, Utah oil boom will surely boost the Salt Lake City and Utah economy and independence from Wyoming oil pipelines.

Chevron once had the Utah oil leases, but sold them to Wolverine in 1999 when they could not find any oil. Wolverine company officials are so sure of finding more oil in the pocket that they are sinking more wells in the Sigurd, Utah area. One Sigurd family who owns a Wolverine oil lease is getting paid 1/8 royalty from production. The 1,000-acre oil pocket a mile under the Utah Hills will send a few more Jed Clampetts packing for the good life.

Sources:

Fortune's Fictional 15
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2005/fictional/07.html

Oil Strike Raises Hope For Tiny Utah Farm Town
http://www.chiefengineer.org/content/content_display.cfm/seqnumber_content/2259.htm