This week representatives of the oil and gasy industry and the environmental community both said they could work together to implement a massive gas development project, which the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is proposing on over 1 million acres in south-central Wyoming.
The BLM Rawlins field office on Friday announced it was seeking public comment the draft environmental impact statement for the proposed Continental Divide-Creston project, a major expansion of gas development on 1.1 million acres of mixed federal, state and private land in Carbon and Sweetwater counties.
The proposed project calls for the drilling of 8,950 new wells, including between 100 and 500 coalbed gas wells, near the existing Continental Divide/Wamsutter II and Creston/Blue Gap gas fields over the next 15 years.
Bruce Hinchey, president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said producers in the state are pleased BLM has reached a milestone in the long, drawn-out draft EIS process for the project, which already has been five or six years in the making.
“We’re glad to see it going forward. It will mean jobs for Wyoming and the nation,” he said.
More than 20 E&P companies are expected to take part in the project area’s development. In a statement Monday, Brett Clanton, a spokesman for BP, the leading operator in the proposed project, said the development would be important for the state’s economic future.
