By WEN Staff

Citing too much well density in the area, last week an environmental group filed a lawsuit to stop the construction of new well pads and roads in the Jonah oil and gas field in the Green River Basin. The group claims the expanded drilling approved by federal regulators would leave the area “moonscaped.”

The lawsuit was filed in Casper federal court by the Laramie-based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance naming the Bureau of Land Management as defendent.

The area under contention is packed with an estimated 13 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Two years ago, the BLM approved a plan that would allow drilling more than 3,000 wells in the field over three quarters of a century.

“This is an unprecedented well density for Wyoming and elsewhere in the West,” said Erik Molvar, a wildlife biologist with Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. “It allows companies to drill 64 to 128 wells per square mile.

He pointed out that the density of wells violates federal law prohibiting “unnecessary and undue degradation” of public land, leaving little habitat for wildlife such as sage grouse, pygmy rabbits and various songbirds that may be candidates for endangered species status.

“So this area will be moonscaped for a period of over seven
decades, during which time the sensitive species that once
called this area home will be excluded,” Molvar said.

Using directional drilling, in which multiple holes are drilled
at angles from a single well pad, is the solution, according to
the biologist.

“In our lawsuit we are not seeking to stop all drilling in the Jonah field,” he said. “We are only seeking to halt the construction of new well pads and the construction of new roads so that the oil and gas companies could fully drill the entire project directionally from the existing well pad.”

EnCana Corporation, the largest operator in Jonah, was singled
out by Molvar for causing the most habitat damage by deciding
not to drill directional wells, which are more costly and
complicated to drill than conventional straight-hole wells.

Randy Teeuwen of EnCana responded by saying the company does
drill some directional wells but most of its wells are drilled
vertically because it is actually more sensible both
environmentally and geologically. The company drilled 160 new
wells last year in Jonah, bringing the company’s total there to 880.