The renewed interest in Utah is tied in many ways to Wolverine Gas and Oil, a Michigan-based company, which in 2004 made a surprise oil find near the town of Sigurd, Sevier County. Wolverine's wildcat well sent companies grappling for lease rights, believing they could be the next to strike it big.

Wolverine's find today accounts for 10 percent of Utah's crude oil production, and the scramble it touched off has continued.

Some analysts urged caution in inferring too much, too soon about the Gulf discovery.

"One well doesn't tell you a lot of information," said Matthew Simmons, a Houston investment banker and author of "Twilight in the Desert: the Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the Global Economy."

At its height in 1988, the Prudhoe Bay field produced an average of 1.6 million barrels per day; in 2005, it yielded less than 400,000 barrels per day. (An Alaska wildlife refuge that the industry has sought to drill in is believed to contain some 10 billion barrels.)

Output from the lower tertiary could eventually reach 750,000 barrels a day or more, analysts said, but it won't significantly dent the country's energy imbalance.

While the industry was mostly upbeat about the potential of this new discovery, it also acknowledged some challenges, including a dearth of rigs capable of drilling in such deep water and the long lead times required to drill and complete deep-water wells.

The United States consumes roughly 5.7 billion barrels of crude oil in a year, while its reserves currently exceed 29 billion barrels, according to the U.S. Energy Department. To put that into perspective, Saudi Arabia's reserves are believed to exceed 250 billion barrels.

Chevron's test well, called "Jack 2," was drilled in about 7,000 feet of water. Chevron has a 50 percent stake in the field, while partners Statoil ASA of Norway and Devon Energy Corp. of Oklahoma City own 25 percent each.

The financial implications of "Jack 2" and other prospects in the lower tertiary are most significant for independent oil and gas producer Devon, which is the smallest of the three partners. Devon's shares soared about 15 percent on the New York Stock Exchange.

"Relative to its size, Devon has one of the greatest exposures to the deepwater Gulf of Mexico," said Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Fadel Gheit.

That said, many companies, including BP PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., stand to benefit from their own projects in the lower tertiary. "If the current thinking is correct, this is only a beginning," Gheit said.

The well was drilled in the Walker Ridge area of the Gulf, 175 miles off the coast of Louisiana. It is an area the industry has been exploring for about five years.

Chevron, based in San Ramon, Calif., said the well set a variety of records, including the deepest well successfully tested in the Gulf of Mexico. Chevron said the well was drilled more than 20,000 feet under the sea floor.

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Contributing: Greg Kratz, Deseret Morning News