US agencies endorse expanded CBM developments

Jan. 20, 2003
Three government agencies are endorsing a dramatic expansion of coal- bed methane production on public lands in Montana and Wyoming under new regional environmental impact statements (EIS).

Three government agencies are endorsing a dramatic expansion of coal- bed methane production on public lands in Montana and Wyoming under new regional environmental impact statements (EIS).

The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management, the Department of Agriculture's US Forest Service, and the US Environmental Protection Agency released the environmental analysis earlier this month; the public may comment on the proposal for a month, starting Jan. 17, before BLM can proceed with its development plan.

Producers, predominantly independents, have told BLM officials they want to drill 39,000 new gas wells in northeastern Wyoming in the next 10 years. BLM officials anticipate a total of 51,000 wells during that time, up from 12,000 existing or permitted wells today.

About 24,000 of those proposed new wells would be on federal land. Along with new CBM production, BLM officials said they anticipate 3,200 oil wells will be drilled in the area.

BLM said 25 tcf of natural gas might be recoverable from coalbed seams within the Powder River basin.

There also is CBM industry interest in southeastern Montana, although currently there are only 250 wells in operation.

US officials are advocating an EIS for both states that allows for more drilling with environmental safeguards largely supported by industry. But those safeguards include a variety of measures that will ensure compliance with clean air and water rules, BLM said. An earlier agency draft projected violations of the Clean Water Act resulting from surface discharge of produced water in certain watersheds.

Officials said the new analysis requires mitigation measures that would reduce the amount of water discharged into streams and the use of enhanced water treatment and handling techniques "as necessary to ensure actions confirm with the requirements of the Clean Water Act."

Environmental groups said they are still reviewing the documents but are critical of what they see as a delay of the time in which groundwater can be replenished.

A spokesman for the Wyoming Outdoor Council said it was premature to assume his group would file a lawsuit over the new proposal. "We plan to raise the issue and see if it gets resolved," he said.

Last year the council initiated a challenge of three CBM leases held by Marathon Oil Corp., successfully arguing to DOI's Land Appeals Board that BLM relied on outdated environmental information to justify exploration (OGJ Online, Oct. 17, 2002). Environmental groups say that ruling could be applied to existing and future leases.