The US Bureau of Land Management issued a draft environmental impact statement for Newfield Exploration Co.’s proposal to drill as many as 5,750 oil and gas wells over 16 years in an existing oil and gas producing area in Utah’s Duchesne and Uintah counties.
Newfield’s proposed Monument Butte Project encompasses nearly 120,000 acres south of Myton, Utah, and would result in about 170 miles of roads accompanied by a similar amount of pipelines and additional infrastructure, BLM’s Vernal field office said late last month. Some 16,129 acres would be disturbed, it noted.
The proposed activity would be in the southern portion of the Greater Monument Butte field, which the Houston independent acquired in 2004 and is its largest Rocky Mountain asset, according to Newfield’s web site.
The field is the largest federal unit in the Lower 48 US states and produces oil primarily from the shallow Green River formation, it noted.
BLM has scheduled public hearings on the draft EIS Jan. 22 in Salt Lake City, Jan. 22 in Roosevelt, and Jan. 23 in Vernal, the US Department of the Interior agency’s notice said. Comments will be accepted through Feb. 4, it indicated.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
