Utah’s crude oil production was higher than ever before in 2024, according to a report released last week. And if the state, Ute Indian Tribe and industry groups have their way, Utah’s oil production — specifically from the Uinta Basin — will keep breaking records.
The state produced 65 million barrels of oil in 2024, an increase of 13% from 2023 and “the highest annual production on record,” a new research brief on the state’s energy sector from the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute and the Utah Geological Survey says. The value of the produced crude oil is a whopping $4.1 billion — another record.
Utah’s record oil production can be attributed to successful drilling in the Uinta Basin, according to the report. Of the total 65 million barrels, Utah exported over 33 million, most of which were full of waxy crude oil from the Uinta Basin transported to the Gulf Coast for refining.
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
“From a resource standpoint, the Uinta Basin has a world-class oil resource,” said Michael Vanden Berg, energy and minerals program manager for the Utah Geological Survey, during a media roundtable last week.
“We have gotten so successful at drilling these horizontal wells, and we could be drilling more, and we could be producing more,” he continued, “except for the transportation concerns.”
Today, Uinta Basin producers truck oil from the remote, northeastern Utah region to train terminals in Price and ultimately to refineries in Louisiana and Texas. The trucks can transport about 200,000 barrels per day.
But if the Uinta Basin Railway moves forward, the proposed 88-mile railroad would connect the region to the national rail network, eliminating truck capacity as a limiting production factor.
As a result, oil exports from the region could quintuple, according to a 2021 environmental review.
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
The Uinta Basin Railway, though, has been plagued by controversy.
In 2021, the federal Surface Transportation Board, which regulates interstate rail transportation, approved the railway’s construction. But Eagle County, Colo. and environmental nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity sued, arguing that the board did not sufficiently analyze the railroad’s potential environmental and public health effects.
A U.S. appeals court in 2023 threw out the Surface Transportation Board’s approval of the railway. But the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, the public partner for the railway representing seven resource-rich counties in eastern Utah, appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The nation’s highest court heard the case, which could have far-reaching implications for how federal agencies conduct environmental reviews, in December. The justices have yet to hand down a ruling.
“Communities in the Uinta Basin and Gulf Coast will suffer the most from this oil railroad, while oil companies enrich themselves at the expense of the environment and people’s health,” said Wendy Park, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, when the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
“It’s disgraceful that the railroad’s backers want federal agencies to turn a blind eye to those harms,” Park said. “A robust environmental review that takes a hard look at all the train’s threats is crucial for protecting communities near and far from this railway.”
The state of Utah, Ute Indian Tribe, a group of Republican senators (including Sens. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Mitch McConnell and former Sen. Mitt Romney) and industry groups penned friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition — and the Uinta Basin Railway in general — last year.
In its brief, the Ute Tribe argued that it cannot pay for services like housing, healthcare and education through taxes, like other governments do.
“What [the tribe] does have, by fate or good luck, is substantial quantities of superior waxy crude oil. But by fate or bad luck, it does not have the same access to markets as other oil fields in the United States,” the brief reads. “Gaining that access would improve the income of the tribe and its members.”
The state, in its brief, said Utah “has championed the Uinta Basin Railway from the beginning because the project will promote the development of local and statewide economies and improve the lives of Utahns.”
Emy Lesofski, director of the Utah Office of Energy Development, said last week that should oil production increase in the Uinta Basin because of the railway, she has faith in federal and state environmental laws. “We’re proud of our producers and believe that they do their best to be good stewards,” she said.
Should the Supreme Court side with the railway’s supporters, the railroad would still be subject to additional permitting and reviews before it can be built.
