The Colorado Northern Front Range Metropolitan Area (NFRMA) regularly exceeds the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone (O3). This region has a growing urban population and extensive oil and natural gas production from the nearby Wattenberg Gas Field (WGF) in the Denver-Julesburg Basin. In 2015, a large suite (40+ species) of volatile organic compounds were measured using a custom built online multichannel gas chromatography system over 8 weeks in spring and 8 weeks in summer at the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO). Abeleira et al. (2017) quantified three oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs): acetone, acetaldehyde, and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK). Abeleira et al. (2017) found that OVOCs accounted for almost a quarter of the OH reactivity yet the source profiles for these compounds were poorly reconstructed by a Positive Matric Factorization (PMF) analysis. Here, we closely examine the abundance of MEK to better understand the different sources of MEK. MEK can be directly emitted and it can also be produced during the atmospheric oxidation of several different hydrocarbons (e.g. n-butane, 3-methylhexane, i-pentane) however these mechanisms are poorly understood. We investigate the dominant photochemical production pathways using a box model, and characterize local and synoptic meteorological conditions with respect to MEK abundance. We find that emissions of light alkanes (e.g. n-butane) are an important component for understanding mixing ratios of OVOCs, specifically MEK, in the NFRMA.