Asphalt Ridge · Uinta Basin · Utah
America's heavy oil
is already here.
Beneath the rock of Eastern Utah sits one of the largest untapped heavy oil accumulations in the country. Heavy Sweet Oil is the project bringing it to the surface, as green asphalt and low-carbon marine fuel.
An energy project development company advancing a landmark heavy oil resource in Eastern Utah.
Heavy Sweet Oil was founded in 2020 by a team of engineers and operators to develop a resource that had been mapped for decades but never brought into modern production. What made it worth pursuing was not just its size, but its quality: very low sulfur, remarkably consistent, and shallow enough to reach with proven thermal recovery rather than fracturing.
Six years of methodical groundwork followed: regional survey work, third-party resource certification, changes to Utah law, permitting, and two test wells. The project is now positioned to move into development. The company remains privately held and founder-funded to date.
American refineries run on heavy oil. America barely produces any.
U.S. refineries were built to run on heavy crude, but domestic supply has been shrinking for decades while demand has not. The gap is filled by imports, increasingly from sources that are politically uncertain, contested by other buyers, or in outright decline.
It is a supply problem hiding in plain sight, and the resource that could close it is already inside the country.
Domestic supply is falling
Legacy heavy oil fields, particularly in California, are in sustained decline from geological depletion, rising costs and regulatory pressure, with little replacement production coming online.
Imports carry risk
The heavy crude keeping U.S. refineries running arrives from a small handful of countries. Global supply of true heavy oil is limited, and competition for it is growing.
The answer is domestic
Utah holds one of the largest remaining heavy oil accumulations in the United States. Heavy Sweet Oil is the project advancing it toward production.
Measured before it was marketed.
Our flagship project sits on roughly 5,000 acres of Asphalt Ridge, above thick, consistent pay zones of very low-sulfur heavy oil. The resource was defined the slow way: a nine-month regional study with the Utah Geological Survey, a 100,000-acre aerial 3D survey, core holes, independent laboratory testing, and Original-Oil-In-Place and contingent resource reports prepared by third-party petroleum engineers.
In 2025 two test wells were drilled into the target formations. Both encountered substantial pay, and initial heating and flow testing confirmed the reservoir behaves as modeled.
Independently reviewed
Original-Oil-In-Place and contingent resource reports prepared by third-party petroleum engineering firms, built on core data and a 100,000-acre 3D survey.
Permitted and drill-ready
Drilling permits secured and the acreage approved as a single unitized block, allowing development across the project area without re-permitting each well.
Shallow and consistent
Pay zones sit within roughly 1,250 feet of surface and are unusually homogenous, allowing proven thermal recovery methods rather than fracturing.
The reason this barrel is different.
Heavy oil is usually a problem to be solved: sour, contaminated, and expensive to upgrade. Ours is the opposite. It is heavy and sweet: viscous enough to make asphalt directly, clean enough to skip the refinery, and shallow enough to produce with steam. Those four properties are the whole thesis.
Reservoir characteristics as reported in the Rimrock 01 Preliminary Development Plan, the company resource overview, and 2025 test well results. Original-Oil-In-Place and contingent resource estimates were prepared independently by Netherland, Sewell & Associates. All figures are estimates and vary across the project area.
We don't sell barrels. We sell finished products.
Most heavy oil producers ship crude to a refinery and take whatever the market gives them. Our resource is unusual enough to go almost directly into two finished products, which means no refinery in the middle, a shorter route to the customer, and a substantially smaller carbon footprint.
Green Asphalt
Commercial-grade asphalt binder produced directly at site, without conventional refining, serving regional road and infrastructure demand from a plant hours rather than states away.
- Produced on site, no refinery step
- Substantially lower carbon footprint than conventional asphalt
- Serves a supply-short regional market
Low-Carbon Marine Fuel
A blended marine fuel that performs like conventional marine gas oil while cutting emissions, developed under an exclusive license and currently in trial with a global container shipping line.
- Blended with a renewable, bio-derived component
- Meaningful reduction in CO₂, NOx and SOx versus marine gas oil
- Positioned for a shipping industry under emissions pressure
The best argument for producing here is how it's produced.
This is not a trade-off we treat lightly. Producing at surface, without refining, and returning carbon to the reservoir is what makes a lower-carbon barrel possible, and it happens to be the same thing that makes the project work. We operate in a part of Utah people travel to for the country itself, and we intend to leave it better than we found it.
- CarbonA production route designed to cut the carbon footprint of our asphalt dramatically against the conventional refined product, with sequestration planned to reduce it further.
- LandHiking, biking and off-road trails built on company land, plus support for local road and recreation infrastructure.
- NeighborsCommunity agreements in place, and long-standing working relationships with state and local officials.
A team that has built this before.
Heavy Sweet Oil is led by engineers, operators and advisors who have founded and scaled major energy and engineering companies, many of whom have worked together across multiple ventures over the past two decades.
Engineer and attorney who has founded and led multiple energy and marine companies to nine-figure revenue. Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and advisory board member, University of Michigan Department of Engineering.
Thirty years of major project management across hydrogen, LNG, CO₂ capture and sequestration, and heavy oil. Formerly President of Trailhead Engineering.
Engineer and founder of multiple engineering firms at scale, former director of the Gas Processors Suppliers Association, licensed professional engineer in ten states.
Forty years in geology with deep heavy oil experience across Venezuela, Mexico and Indonesia. Former Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas.
Procurement and vendor management specialist with nearly twenty years alongside this team across three companies. Formerly CCO of Trailhead Engineering and Senior Director at Audubon Engineering.
Nationally recognized oil, gas and environmental attorney. Former equity partner at Vinson & Elkins; founding partner of Lapeze & Johns.
Former Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee and Director of U.S. Economic Policy, with a focus on energy and trade.
Every step taken before the first barrel.
Heavy oil projects fail on the things that get skipped early. This one was built in the opposite order: resource, title, law, permits, then wells.
Company founded. Nine-month regional geological study conducted with the Utah Geological Survey.
100,000-acre 3D aerial survey. Core holes drilled and independently tested. SITLA leases secured.
Utah law and regulation amended to permit in-situ development. Title to the resource confirmed. Permitting begun.
Permitting completed and acreage unitized. Two test wells drilled, 200–250 ft of pay each. Samples approved by offtakers.
Drill-ready. Advancing the first commercial production and processing facility.
Follow the project from the ground up.
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