WASHINGTON, DC, Dec. 7 – The US Bureau of Land Management’s Rawlins, Wyo., field office is seeking public comment on its environmental analysis of a proposed major natural gas development expansion on 1.1 million acres under mixed management in Carbon and Sweetwater counties, Wyo.
BP America Production Co. and 20 other operators would be involved, the field office’s Dec. 7 notice said. It said that BLM’s draft environmental impact statement evaluates possible impacts from the proposed Continental Divide-Creston gas development project near the existing Continental Divide/Wamsutter II and Creston/Blue Gap gas fields.
The companies would drill 8,950 additional gas wells, including 100-500 coalbed methane wells, using a combination of vertical and directional drilling during the next 15 years, the notice said. The wells could produce an estimated 12.02 tcf of gas during the project’s anticipated 30-40 year life, it indicated.
The land is 59% federally owned, 37% private, and 4% state-owned, BLM said. Planned facilities would include well pads, gas and water collection pipelines, compressor stations, water disposal systems, access roads, and an electricity distribution system, it said.
The CD-C project area was first developed for gas in the 1950s and currently supports more than 4,000 wells, according to BLM. Presently, there are 49,218 acres of surface disturbance, including nearly 8,500 acres of long-term disturbance, in the project area, it said.
Written comments will be accepted until Jan. 21, 2013, the notice said.
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