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: I '~ 002168 The potential for oil production along the river corridor varies. Oil potential where Precambrian age rocks are exposed (such as the Red Canyon area) may be considered, for all practicaI purposes, as virtually nonexistent. The areas where sediments underlie the river corridor, and where these sediments are not breached by the river, may have potential , for oil or gas accumulation. In Browns Park, sediments in the river corridor generally are relatively thin and thus may be considered not well-suited for petroleum accumulation. Where sediments occur along the corridor within the Monument, only a relatively thin sedimentary section I' I of Palezoic rocks has not been breached by the river's downcutting. Oil ShaIe Oil shale in the Green River Formation of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming contains the world's greatest potential reserves of oil.24 Oil shale beds are located in the Piceance Creek basin of western Colorado, the Uinta Basin of Utah and western Colorado, and the Green River basin I of ,Wyoming and Utah. Closest occurrence of oil shale to the study area is near Maybell, Colo., however, the Maybell oil shale is ~f relatively low quality as compared to that of the Piceance Creek basin south of Dinosaur National Monument or the Uinta Basin southwest of the Monument. No proposals for development of oil shaIe in the study area have been recorded, but a large area has been withdrawn northwest of Maybell.25 ,24Quigley, M. Darwin, and Jack R. Price. Green River Oil Shale PotentiaI in Utah. Ch. in Oil and Gas Possibilities of Utah, Re-eva1uated. Utah Geol. and Miner. Survey Bull. 54, Publishers Press, Salt Lake City, 1963, p. 207. 25Bureau of Land Management. Northwest CoIorado Coal. Draft Environmental Impact Statement, v. I, Regional Analysis, 1976, p. 1-47. 15 \