Production Constraint

The strange looking yellow and black waxy crudes produced from the Uinta Basin in Utah since the 1950’s resemble shoe polish at room temperature. Because of the complexity of transporting these waxy crudes over long distances, they have traditionally been consumed by close by Salt Lake City refineries. However, just like many other US production basins these days, Uinta production is increasing – up from 53 Mb/d in January 2011 to an estimated 88 Mb/d this month (August 2013 - source Bentek). Continued production expansion depends on finding new refining capacity or routes to distant markets. Today we begin a series on crude from the Uinta Basin.