Barrett runs two rigs in Utah's West Tavaputs

Keying off a record of decision on the federal environmental impact statement covering the West Tavaputs project in Utah’s Uinta basin, Bill Barrett Corp., Denver, expects to drill as many as 20 wells in the field by yearend. The company initiated a two-rig development program and spud the first well Oct. 27.

West Tavaputs is among the company’s largest development assets based on its current reserve base of 325 bcf of gas equivalent proved and 1.3 tcfe proved, probable, and possible reserves. Oil and Gas Journal

Public meetings set for eastern Utah gas project

Three public meetings are planned late this month to provide details on an expansive natural gas project that could tap nearly 1,500 proposed wells to supply fuel for more than 40 years. The Bureau of Land Management has released a draft environmental impact study on Gasco Energy's Uinta Basin Natural Gas Development Project.

Located 20 miles south of Roosevelt, the proposed project area involves nearly 207,000 acres, with a little more than 7,500 acres that would be directly disrupted. As envisioned under the federal agency's preferred proposal by Gasco, the project 100 wells drilled per year, with 1,491 drills done by approximately 2026. Deseret News

Water purification plant expanding

Vernal’s drinking water comes from Ashley Springs, fed by a series of underground seeps that drain the south face of the Uinta Mountains. It’s been a steady and reliable source of water since the founding of the Ashley Valley in the late 1870s. The good water quality experienced today will be enhanced through the plant’s new clarification system, which is under construction and will take two years to complete.

Construction at the plant is being handled by Flatiron Construction, a Denver-based company, with Del Carter as on-site project manager. Construction is funded in part through the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, with Flatiron’s portion estimated to cost $12 million. Vernal Express

Ute tribe gets $1.4 million tech grant

Utah's Ute Indian tribe has received a $1.4 million federal stimulus grant to fund broadband service to the Uintah and Ouray Reservation. The award was among 35 grants totaling $482 million announced Monday by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. The funds are part of a $7 billion Recovery Act initiative to set up or expand access to broadband services.

In addition to the grant, the tribe secured an additional $640,000 in matching funds.
A commerce department news release states the tribe will use the funding to improve broadband access to about 40 reservation community institutions. The expanded service will allow for enhanced distance learning, telehealth services and will have public safety uses. Associated Press

Report: Abandon Utah's oil shale, tar sands

As Gov. Gary Herbert prepares today to stage the first of four statewide forums on Utah’s energy future, a Rocky Mountain environmental group has some advice: Forget oil shale and tar sands. Western Resource Advocates issued a 38-page report Tuesday on the energy and water inefficiency of either potential fuel source. The title: Fossil Foolishness: Utah’s Pursuit of Tar Sands and Oil Shale. The Boulder, Colo.-based legal and policy group commissioned a Boston University geographer to analyze the energy return on investment for oil shale. He determined that most research indicates that, at best, making fuel from the rock would generate twice the energy content of what it takes to produce. That compares to a 20-to-1 ratio or better for petroleum.

Additionally, the advocates insist, these potential fuel sources are too polluting and water intensive to win a place in Herbert’s vision for a clean-energy economy. They argue they also would require too many public subsidies to meet his test for market solutions. The Western Resource Advocates report cites state and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation estimates that Utah will exhaust its remaining share of Colorado River water by about 2020 — even without giving over any of it to new energy development. Utah’s potential for developing 634,000 barrels of oil a day by mining and then cooking oil shale would require somewhere between 90,000 and 150,000 acre-feet of water. An acre-foot, roughly 326,000 gallons, is about enough to supply two households for a year. While not armed with as much research about Utah’s tar sands, the environmental group believes that potential energy source faces similar efficiency issues. Salt Lake Tribune

Energy startup defends oil-sands project in Utah

An energy startup from Canada on Tuesday defended its plan to launch the first significant U.S. oil sands project in eastern Utah, after opponents argued it would dig up fragile topsoil and pollute groundwater. The criticism against the Earth Energy Resources Inc. project came during an informal hearing before the head of the Utah Division of Oil, Gas & Mining, who is considering whether to uphold his staff's approval of the company's operating permit. The Calgary, Alberta-based company insisted it won't pollute anything and will leave Utah's oil sands as clean as beach sand after processing with a citrus-based solvent.

"It will be a good project for Utah," company vice president Barclay Cuthbert testified. "We'll be providing energy that will be used in the state." The private company with 411 shareholders says it will turn out 2,000 barrels of oil a day after raising $35 million from private equity groups for the plant. Opponents said an oil-sands operation that produces so little petroleum isn't worth doing, given the potential damage to public lands. State officials responded that their job was simply to ensure Earth Energy follows environmental rules. Forbes

Newfield sees Monument Butte growth

Newfield Exploration Co., Houston, expects to exit 2010 producing at least 25,000 b/d of oil from Utah’s giant Monument Butte oil field and 6,500 b/d from its Williston basin oil properties. Late July volumes are 22,600 b/d for Monument Butte, up 5,600 b/d since the end of 2009. Newfield estimated it has 4,700 development drilling locations remaining in Monument Butte, where it plans to have drilled 375 wells this year with a five-rig program. The company set a recent record of 2.8 days from rig up to rig release on a 20-acre directional well. Three rigs are drilling in the field’s 63,000 net acres Monument Butte northern extension area, where Newfield has drilled 90 wells this year and 220 since stepping out that direction in 2007. One recent northern extension well produced 350 b/d of oil in its first 30 days on line. Newfield, working with area refiners to assure their capacity keeps pace with the company’s supply growth, said demand for the field’s black wax crude is strong. Oil & Gas Journal

Ute Tribe, Questar trade legal blows

A federal judge may have told construction crews they could go back to work, but attorneys for both the Ute Indian Tribe and Questar Gas Management aren't finished fighting over the Stagecoach natural gas processing plant. Attorneys for the tribe said Monday that they plan to ask two federal agencies to address “outrageous conduct” by QGM with regard to the company's alleged failure to secure the proper permits for construction of the Stagecoach plant expansion.
Work on the plant, which was shutdown late last month by tribal authorities, has resumed thanks to a federal injunction against the tribe that was issued July 1. But in court papers filed Monday, attorneys for QGM claim the tribe has failed to comply with the judge's order.
“(The tribe) has told QGM contractors and subcontractors not to come to the Iron Horse site, has ordered them to leave the site, and has threatened them with fines, trespassing citations and vehicle impoundment if they enter the reservation without 'access permits,'” George Haley, an attorney for QGM wrote before requesting that the tribe be held in contempt of court for its alleged actions. Alvina Lee, an attorney for the tribe, said the dispute with QGM occurred because the company failed to follow proper procedures when applying for right-of-way access and failed to notify the tribe of the activity it was going to undertake on tribal lands. QGM also did not acquire the necessary air permits from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its work on the Stagecoach plant expansion, Lee said. Uintah Basin Standard

Litigation over oil and gas reforms?

In yet another percolating battle between state and federal agencies over control of public lands, a top official in Gov. Gary Herbert's administration said Wednesday that litigation may be the only option to challenge recent reforms to the nation's oil and gas leasing program. A conference call among Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's office and state environmental, land and energy advisers to the governor was held Wednesday morning on the heels of last week's announcement that Salazar had finalized sweeping changes to the program. Public lands director John Harja said the conference call made clear the reforms have been implemented, with no backward glances being considered by Salazar's office. "They are now operational," Harja told lawmakers on the natural resources and environment interim committee. Most disconcerting, he said, is the added layer of review with Salazar's creation of "master leasing plans" for parcels under consideration for resource development. "This looks like it has every possibility of becoming a cog in the wheel and not producing any useful results," he said, adding that litigation may be an avenue the state would want to consider. Deseret News

New school project officially under way

Amid a lot of sun, ceremony and song, local officials, educators and students broke ground for a new Ashley Elementary School on Friday morning. Anticipation is high for the new 80,000-square-foot building, which is expected to cost $13 million and take 12-14 months to construct. It will be built adjacent to the current building, which opened in 1961. “It’s going to have an Ashley Elementary look and it’s going to look like no other elementary school around,” Provo architect Kevin Madson told students gathered for the event, eliciting cheers. The new building will house 27 classrooms, he said, and will be twice as big as the current school. Vernal Express

Tribe vote planned on hatchery

Ute tribal leaders are moving forward with plans to hold a referendum to let their membership decide whether to rescind the resolution that approved construction of the controversial Big Springs Fish Hatchery. The resolution was passed 16 months ago by five of the six members on the tribe’s governing Business Committee. Its purpose is to protect the area for historical religious rites — the water from the springs is used in the sacred Sundance ceremony. It officially designates boundaries and specific sites in the Big Springs area as sacred and protected “continually and perpetually … against development except to enhance the ecosystem, beauty and sacred use of the area.”

However, those opposed to the federal hatchery project at Big Springs maintain that it has crippled access to and use of the sacred waters. A decision by voters to rescind the Business Committee’s resolution could spell the end of the hatchery project which is close to 90 percent complete. Should that happen, it is likely the tribe will have to repay the federal government for the construction costs, said Business Committee Chairman Curtis Cesspooch. “I am pretty sure we will have to repay all the government money, we will have to repay the contractors,” Cesspooch said. There is an additional impact that tribal members need to be aware of as well, he said. “If we do go back on the contract that is going to give us a black eye and that will put us in jeopardy in our other departments for receiving the (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) stimulus money,” Cesspooch said. The tribe has invested $1.7 million of its own money in the hatchery which would be lost as well, he said. Vernal Express

Anadarko manager discusses local gas field

Anadarko is a worldwide natural gas production company with “almost 10 percent of its $6 billion company budget invested in the Uintah Basin,” Brad Miller, general manager of Anadarko’s Greater Natural Buttes gas field south of Vernal, said last week. According to the company’s fourth-quarter results, Anadarko’s Greater Natural Buttes gas field “set a daily sales record of 357 MMcf/d, which increased year-over-year sales volumes by approximately 17 percent in 2009.” Miller said that translates into an economic benefit of “$27.4 million paid in taxes to the State of Utah and an additional $40 million in royalties in the past year.” Part of these earnings come from five new rigs and 47 wells drilled in the fourth quarter, for a total of 153 wells drilled in the Greater Natural Buttes field in 2009. “Greater Natural Buttes is the largest asset we have and a world-class asset,” says Miller. “On any given day, Anadarko has 180 direct employees and as many as 600 subcontractors working in the Vernal area.”

Anadarko projects that the resource-rich Greater Natural Buttes field could sustain infill drilling up to 500 wells a year, if an environmental impact statement (EIS) is completed. That’s a big if, as the scope of the Anadarko proposal would drill up to “56 wells per section in an existing gas field of about about 180,000 acres,” said Miller. Currently, the EIS sits in Washington, D.C., waiting for a mid-June expected release date for public comment. Vernal Express

Harvest Natural shares up on Utah well testing results

Harvest Natural Resources Inc. said testing indicated that one of its wells in Utah was likely a commercial oil discovery, sending its shares up 13 percent to new 52-week high. The company said the testing results showed that the well had a current stable production rate of about 900 barrels of oil per day and 650,000 cubic feet of natural gas per day. The well has produced over 4,000 barrels in the first five days of production through March 29, the company said. Reuters

Company seeks first U.S. oil sands project, in Utah

An energy company with government approvals to launch the first significant U.S. oil sands project is trying to raise money to build a plant in eastern Utah that would turn out 2,000 barrels of oil a day. Earth Energy Resources Inc. has a state lease to work a 62-acre pit in Uintah County, where it has demonstrated technology that can extract oil out of sands using a proprietary solvent it calls environmentally friendly.

Wringing oil from hard rock or oil sands is technically possible, but nobody has proven it economical on a large scale yet, University of Utah chemical engineering professor Philip Smith said. Smith said Utah's oil sands contain as much energy as those of Canada's massive reserves, but Utah's contain more nitrogen that can give off smog-forming nitrous oxides when processed. Earth Energy says refining removes the nitrogen before it becomes a problem. Salt Lake Tribune

Uintah County lands leased for oil and gas privileges

Casting his vote in the affirmative Mike McKee, Uintah County commissioner, said “Drill, baby drill, we hope you hit....” In doing so, the Uintah County commissioners confirmed their intention to lease oil and gas rights to Newfield Production on two parcels of county property. Newfield has proposed to lease oil and gas rights on land the county owns near TiaJuana Bottoms. “This is a 3-year pre-paid lease for mineral interests on 426.68 acres at a cost of $175 per mineral acre,” said John Gothard, Uintah County attorney. “The total lease is $74,669. Newfield has offered a one-sixth royalty in addition over the typical one-eighth payment.”

Elsewhere in the State the sale of oil and gas leases on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands have dropped off significantly since the boom of 2007-2008. Vernal Express

Tribe to get busy with businesses

The Ute Tribe is utilizing stimulus money, federal grants and their own funds to accomplish an ambitious slew of economic development projects — including new plans for the former Bottle Hollow resort site, reopening former business ventures and beginning new ones.

The tribe has immediate plans to redesign, re-engineer and reopen their water bottling plant with the latest technology and equipment the market has to offer, said Ute Tribe Business Committee Chairman Curtis Cesspooch.

Technology is another enterprise where the tribe plans to provide new jobs. Ute Technology, a spinoff of Uintah River Technology, will primarily focus on oil and gas development working in conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management, seeking software and government procurement contracts, as well as human health service and military contracts, according to Ute Tribe's enterprise CEO, Ariwite.

A cultural museum focusing on the history of the Northern Ute Tribe is an important part of the plans centering around the revitalization of Bottle Hollow, said Cesspooch. A cultural museum has been seen as ideal for the site for over two decades now. Uintah Basin Standard