Wagon Wheel is a project planned to stimulate a well in gas reservoirs of the Pinedale anticline by means of nuclear explosives. The Pinedale field, in the northern part of the Green River basis of southwest Wyoming, is potentially productive from almost 10,000 ft of lower Fort Union, Lance-Lewis, and Mesaverde sandstones. Attempts to produce the field conventionally have proved uneconomic because of low permeability. Wagon Wheel 1 was drilled to 19,000 ft to evaluate the entire Mesaverde section. Gas was detected on mud-logging equipment throughout the basal Fort Union, Lance-Lewis, and Mesaverde, below the top of the gas reservoir at 7,972 ft. The well has been plugged back to 11,700 ft as a possible emplacement hole in which five 100-kiloton explosives will produce a chimney from 9,000 to 11,650 ft. Reserves in this interval are calculated at 207 Bcf of gas in place per square mile. Plans call for sequential detonation of five explosives spaced at intervals from 9,220 to 11,570 ft, to produce a continuous chimney from 9,000 to 11,650 ft. there will be a safety margin of 1,600 ft between the top of fractures and the bottom of the known aquifers.
