SE Montana:Future home of 18,000 gas wells

[Nemont]

Apparently South East Montana is going to start looking like North East Wyoming.

MONTANA DRILLING

Feds approve drilling plan for SE Mont.


BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - A Bush administration official has approved a plan that would allow more than 18,000 natural gas wells to be drilled in southeastern Montana in coming years.


Tuesday's decision by Stephen Allred, assistant secretary for land and minerals management, allows companies to proceed with plans to drill on more than 1.5 million acres of federal land in Montana's remote Powder River Basin.

The approval was delayed for more than three years. Conservation groups and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe successfully sued the Bureau of Land Management in 2005 to block the plan. They worried the drilling would foul water supplies and harm wildlife populations.


BLM officials say their latest plan will phase in drilling, meaning it could be halted if environmental problems arise

 

[JoseCuervo]

Gotta like the Dubya administration making sure they all get sweetheart jobs with the Oil and Gas companies on January 21. Screw the wildlife.

 

[mtmiller]

Lots of proposed wells will be going in over here when our RMP is completed. Unfortunately hundreds will be going in some of the most important wildlife habitat in my area.

If you are interested in where development has already occurred in MT, here is a link.

http://bogc.dnrc.mt.gov/web_mapper.asp

Once there, click on the LINK
Go to the Montana WebMapper

If you zoom in, it will show individual wells. You can also use the "information" button on the tool bar to see gas/oil/water production stats.