Historic Oil Field
Monument Butte sits in the central Uinta Basin of Duchesne and Uintah counties, Utah, and is best known as the field where pattern waterflooding of high-paraffin crude was demonstrated at scale. Discovered in 1964 with the Walton Federal 1-11 well, it produces from stacked Green River sandstones — technical work describes on the order of twenty-two commingled reservoirs across a 2,200-foot interval. Primary recovery captured only a small fraction of the oil in place, and a waterflood begun in 1987 became a federally supported demonstration project that reshaped how the basin’s shallow Green River oil is developed.
The field was discovered in 1964, when Diamond Shamrock drilled the Walton Federal 1-11 into the Green River section of the central Uinta Basin. Development was slow at first. The reservoirs are stacked fluvial and lacustrine sandstones, individually modest, and the crude is highly paraffinic — it solidifies at ambient temperature and requires heat to move — so the field was economically marginal under the conditions of the 1960s and 1970s. Wells produced at low rates on primary depletion, and recovery efficiency was poor by any standard.
The turning point came in 1987, when Lomax Exploration Company started a waterflood in the Monument Butte unit. Department of Energy documentation of the resulting Green River Formation Water Flood Demonstration project records the problem it was designed to solve: primary production had yielded only about five percent of the original oil in place in a high-paraffin reservoir. Pattern injection changed that arithmetic. The project became the template for developing the shallow Green River across a wide area of the basin, and drilling expanded steadily around it.
Through the following decades, Monument Butte grew into one of Utah’s largest producing areas by well count, developed on close spacing with pattern injection and repeated infill drilling, and studies of reservoir connectivity have examined how the many commingled sandstones communicate. It has been a core asset for successive operators, most prominently as the flagship Uinta Basin position of a large independent. Ownership in the basin continues to change, and owners should confirm the current operator of their leases from their own check detail.
Monument Butte produces from Green River formation sandstones deposited in and around ancient Lake Uinta — fluvial channel and deltaic sands interbedded with lacustrine shale. The pay is not one reservoir but many: technical studies describe roughly twenty-two commingled sandstone reservoirs spread through a 2,200-foot interval, individually thin and laterally variable. Because the sands are discontinuous, connectivity between injectors and producers is the governing question in flood design, and reported total recovery of the oil in place remains modest even after decades of injection. The crude itself is waxy and paraffinic, a property that shapes every operating decision here.
Pattern waterflooding is what makes Monument Butte work. Injecting water into a repeating well pattern restores pressure across the stacked sands and pushes oil toward producers, which was the point of the demonstration project begun in 1987 after primary drive delivered only about five percent of the oil in place. Paraffin is the complicating factor: injected water and produced fluids must be managed to keep wax from depositing in tubing and flowlines, and lift systems are designed accordingly. Sustained production reflects continuous injection, infill drilling, and workover spending rather than natural reservoir energy.
Because Monument Butte is developed on close spacing with many wells per section, a mineral or royalty owner’s revenue depends heavily on how many wells and injection patterns fall on or near the tract, and how actively the operator is drilling. Utah acreage also commonly mixes fee, state, and federal leasing, which affects development pace and payment timing. Those details are worth confirming before accepting any price. We buy minerals and royalties in Duchesne and Uintah counties and provide free written offers.
County-level well data, production charts, and selling guides for the counties this field spans:
Monument Butte is developed on close spacing with numerous wells per section producing from stacked, thin sands, so revenue is spread across many wellbores rather than concentrated in a few. It is characteristic of the field, not a sign of a problem, but it does mean a valuation has to aggregate the whole position rather than sample one well.
Not necessarily. Waterflooding began here in 1987 and remains the primary development method, with infill drilling continuing long afterward. In this field the flood is the business model, not a last resort, so remaining life depends mainly on continued injection and drilling investment.
Yes. Fractional Uinta Basin interests are common and we evaluate them at no cost. Send whatever documents you have — a check stub, a division order, or just the legal description — and we will identify the position and provide a free written offer with no obligation.