Reported by Staff

GREEN RIVER - Houston-based Ultra Resources, Inc. has proposed constructing a 42-mile pipeline to move condensate out of the Pinedale Anticline natural-gas field to a terminal located south of LaBarge, according to Bureau of Land Management officials.

According to BLM spokesperson, Lorraine Keith, the company is offering to build the pipeline to meet a requirement in the agency’s supplemental environmental impact statement record of decision. It is expected that the pipeline would help reduce truck traffic in the Sublette County gas field, which, in turn, should cut ozone-causing air pollutants and reduce effects on wildlife.

The environmental impact document requires that field operators install a liquids-gathering system to reduce truck traffic associated with production in the Anticline within two years.

Federal and Wyoming officials have been working with oil and gas operators in recent years to take steps to reduce pollution from field equipment, condensers and other facilities in an effort to reduce ground-level ozone concentrations in the region.

Ozone pollution has increase during winter months in Sublette County, which has generated plenty of complaints from local residents. The state issued its first ozone alert for southwest Wyoming in 2007.

The proposed Ultra Condensate Pipeline Project would add infrastructure to carry condensate from the Pinedale Anticline to the Rocky Mountain Pipeline Systems, LCC terminal just south of LaBarge in Lincoln county.

According to a BLM scoping notice, approximately 22 miles of the pipeline would run in existing corridors from the Gobbler’s Knob area of the Anticline field to southwest of the neighboring Jonah Field. The remaining roughly 20 miles of pipeline would parallel the existing Rocky Mountain Power Bridger 230-kilovolt power line and other existing infrastructure, according to plans.

Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2010 and completed by the fall of 2010.

The BLM is accepting public comments on the proposal through Nov. 23. The scoping notice can be viewed on the agency’s Web site at www.blm.gov/wy.