Several, new natural gas projects have either been started, approved, or are in the planning stages in the Upper Green River Valley.  They include:

The Rands Butte Gas Development Project

The Rands Butte Gas Development Project is a natural gas and helium development project developed by Cimarex, involving state, private, and BLM-managed land.  The Project will test experimental technologies to process the gases hydrogen sulfide (H2S), carbon dioxide (CO2), natural gas, and helium.  BLM has authorized the construction and operation of an “acid gas injection well” to experimentally “dispose” of up to 2.6 million tons per year of carbon dioxide (CO2) and 0.19 million tons per year of hydrogen sulfide (H2S).

Cimarex will drill three new gas wells; re-drill one existing gas well; install raw gas flowlines; an acid gas (H2S/CO2) injection well; acid gas (H2S/CO2) flowline; a natural gas pipeline; ahelium pipeline; an underground fiber optics data transmission cable; underground electrical distribution lines; high-voltage 230-kilovolt (kV) electrical transmission line; market gas pipeline expansion loop; snow control structures; and an ambient air monitoring and weather station.

Water Use

The gas wells are expected to produce approximately 25 gallons per minute (gpm) or 850 barrels per day (bpd) of groundwater that is unfit even for livestock use. The water produced will be disposed of underground. 

Dealing with “Acid Gas”

To address uncontrolled blowouts of poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas, Cimarex will install one emergency flare stack, approximately 90 feet tall.

Fencing

Cimarex will build security fencing around the site, consisting of 8-foot chain link with three-strand security wire.

Cimarex boasts on its website that the project is the largest carbon sequestration project in the United States.  Additionally, the proposed injection falls within the statutory definition of sequestration in Wyomingʼs new carbon sequestration law. W.S. 35-11-103(c)(xx).

While we support the geologic sequestering of these gases, we believe that it should be done with adequate safeguards to protect human health and the environment. Necessary safeguards should include:

1. Full disclosure of mitigation plans for the sequestration of massive quantities of CO2 and H2S; and
2. Injection should be governed by Wyoming laws and regulations applicable to the geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide.

“Son of Jonah”

July, 2010

Encana Oil & Gas has proposed to develop up to 3,500 new natural gas wells south and west of the existing Jonah Field, in what is geologically known as the Normally-Pressured Lance (NPL) Project.  For the NEPA log see: http://www.wy.blm.gov/nepa/search/nepaDetail.php?log_id=16391

This massive project, we call the “Son of Jonah” is more than four times the size of the existing Jonah Field with over 141, 000 acres of relatively intact wildlife habitats including:

• Crucial winter range for pronghorn, mule deer and moose
• Wildlife migration corridors
• Sage-grouse leks 

The operators plan to drill the 3,500 wells over a period of 10 years, an exorbitant rate of development that will add to our existing, winter ozone problems and contribute to the need to designate Sublette County in "non-attainment" of EPA ozone standards set to protect human health.

LaBarge Exploration and Development Project

May, 2010

EOG Resources, Inc., ExxonMobil Production Company, Chevron U.S.A. Inc., and Wexpro Company (“the Operators”) propose to drill up to 838 new oil and gas wells on an estimated 463 new well pads within the La Barge Platform (LBP) area of northern Lincoln County and southern Sublette County, Wyoming. The Project Area consists of approximately 218,000 total acres.  See a map of the project area here: http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/wy/information/NEPA/pfodocs/labarge-platform.Par.11492.File.dat/map.pdf

As of May 2009, the LaBarge Platform Project Area contained approximately 2,940 existing gas wells, including approximately 678 wells owned and operated by EOG.

EOG plans to drill wells at the rate of approximately 60 wells per year over 10 years, an exorbitant rate of development that, together with the Son of Jonah project, the Rands Butte Project, and the PXP project, will add to our existing, winter ozone problems and contribute to the need to designate Sublette County in "non-attainment" of EPA ozone standards set to protect human health.

The Draft EIS is anticipated to be published in the summer of 2011. The public review period for the Draft EIS is scheduled to end in early fall of 2011, with public meetings scheduled sometime in the middle of that period.