BLM’s plan calls for more drilling

As many as 3,100 new natural gas wells would be drilled over the next half-century in southwest Wyoming's lucrative Jonah gas field, under a just-released federal management plan for the area. Oil and gas developers in the region are seeking federal permission for an "infill" drilling project that aims to boost production in the existing Jonah field by increasing well density.
Producers say the infill drilling method means drilling more wells closer together within the same overall boundary. The standard minimum spacing between wells in Wyoming is 80 acres, but producers in Jonah received permission from the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to drill every 40 acres.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is proposing to allow as many as 3,100 new wells in the Jonah Field, at a pace of up to 250 wells drilled per year. The percentages of land disturbed by development would range from 19 % to 34 % in the 30,500-acre project area. Denver-based EnCana Oil and Gas USA, BP America and othernatural gas development companies with leases in the field want to expand upon a modified drilling project approved by the BLM in 2000.
The BLM's Pinedale Field Office released its draft environmental impact statement for the companies' Jonah Infill Drilling Project proposal.
"This is an important milestone in our work to find creative opportunities to both protect our environment and meet the energy needs of this country," Prill Mecham, field manager for the Pinedale BLM, said.

The Jonah field is located in south-central Sublette County and north-central Sweetwater County, about 32 miles southeast of Pinedale. Oil industry officials and conservationists said they were in the process of reviewing the draft document. In early reaction, conservationists decried the proposal, while industry officials said the project would help meet the nation's growing energy needs.
Wyoming Outdoor Council officials worried the project will increase effects on an area already brimming with oil and gas development. They said 3,100 new wells will harm big game and other wildlife, even though the Jonah Field boundaries will not be expanded.

"Up to 3,100 additional wells will totally industrialize large areas of public lands, ensuring these lands are only available for a single use for a generation or more," said Bruce Pendery, staff attorney and public lands director for WOC.
EnCana spokeswoman Florence Murphy called Jonah a "significant field" that has an estimated 10 tcf of natural gas reserves.
Murphy said that EnCana operates mainly in two areas of Wyoming, including the Jonah field. In June 2004, the company bought the assets of Tom Brown Inc., including leases in the Wind River Basin in Fremont County.
"We believe that not only can (this project) support the (country's) energy needs, but there's a benefit in developing it environmentally... that (will benefit) the people of Wyoming as well," she said.

The draft environmental impact statement noted that significant impacts to wildlife habitat in the project area have already occurred as a result of past and current oil and gas activity. The BLM said under the agency's preferred infill drilling alternative, impacts during the life of the project will be somewhat diminished by establishing specific objectives for wildlife numbers and faster restoration of habitat through reclamation.
"One of our biggest concerns is protection of antelope migration routes, air quality and greater sage grouse habitats within the public lands" in the Jonah field, Mecham said.

Within the project area boundary, there are now 533 wells permitted, or committed to, from 497 well pads, according to the draft document. Those wells include associated roads and facilities such as pipelines and compressor stations.
Infill drilling involves the placement of additional wells into an area already producing oil and gas in an effort to speed gas extraction. Energy developers contend the environmental impacts with infill drilling are fewer than with new exploration and development.

Erik Molvar with the Laramie-based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance said the BLM's preferred alternative "will turn whatever habitat is left in the Jonah project area into complete wasteland in terms of wildlife habitat." Molvar said a different alternative would require the companies to drill all of the new wells from existing drilling pads and employ directional drilling techniques.
"That seems like the obvious multiple-use way to go... It would do so much less damage to the land," he said. "We don't have any argument with how many holes there are in the ground underneath the ground... If you can drill those same holes from a lot fewer numbers of well pads, then we believe the BLM has an obligation to do so."