America Is Sitting on the World's Largest Oil Deposit — But There's One Problem

Beneath Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado lies what many geologists consider the largest known oil resource on Earth. Estimates suggest the Green River Formation contains nearly 3 trillion barrels of oil—more than any other known deposit. Yet despite being studied for over a century, not a single barrel has ever been produced commercially. Some of the biggest energy companies in history have spent decades trying to unlock it. They proved it could be done. But they all walked away. So what is the one problem that has kept the world's largest oil resource trapped underground for more than 100 years? In this video we cover: — Why the Green River Formation isn't a conventional oil field — How a geological process that began 50 million years ago created this enormous resource — The oil boom that transformed western Colorado almost overnight — Why Exxon's ambitious project collapsed on "Black Sunday" — The engineering and economic challenge that has defeated every attempt since — Whether advances in technology could finally change the equation