[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 193 (Friday, October 5, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57064-57065]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-19692]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[UTU-080-2007-9141-EJ]


Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement 
(EIS) and To Conduct Public Scoping for the Natural Buttes Area Gas 
Development Project, Uintah County, UT

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of Intent (NOI).

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to Section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental 
Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Vernal 
Field Office, Vernal, Utah, will prepare an EIS on the impacts of 
efficient and orderly development of the natural gas resources of the 
Greater Natural Buttes Field area. This notice announces the public 
scoping period.

DATES: A public scoping period of 30 days will commence on the date 
this notice is published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 
in the Federal Register. Comments on issues, potential impacts, or 
suggestions for alternatives can be submitted in writing to the address 
listed below within 30 days of the date this Notice is published. A 
public meeting will be conducted during the scoping period in Vernal. 
The date, place, and time will be announced through the local news 
media and the BLM Web site http://www.blm.gov/utah/vernal/nepa.html at 
least 15 days prior to the meeting.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:
     Mail: Bureau of Land Management, Vernal Field Office, 170 
South 500 East, Vernal, Utah 84078.
     E-mail: [email protected].
     Fax: (435) 781-4410.
    Please reference the Greater Natural Buttes Area when submitting 
your comments. Comments and information submitted, including names, e-
mail addresses, and street addresses of respondents, will be available 
for public review at the address listed above. The BLM will not accept 
anonymous comments. Before including your address, phone number, e-mail 
address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you 
should be aware that your entire comment--including your personal 
identifying information--may be made publicly available at any time. 
While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal 
identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we 
will be able to do so. All submissions from organizations and 
businesses, and from individuals identifying themselves as 
representatives or officials of organizations or businesses, will be 
available for public inspection in their entirety.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephanie Howard, Project Manager, BLM 
Vernal Field Office, 170 South 500 East, Vernal, UT 84078. Ms. Howard 
may also be reached at 435-781-4400.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This document provides notice that the BLM, 
Vernal Field Office, Vernal, UT, intends to prepare an EIS, and 
announces the public scoping period. The purpose of the public scoping 
process is to determine relevant issues that will influence the scope 
of the environmental analysis and EIS alternatives. You may submit 
comments in writing to the BLM at the public scoping meeting, or you 
may submit them to the BLM using one of the methods listed in the 
ADDRESSES section above. The public is encouraged to participate during 
the scoping process to help identify issues of concern related to the 
proposed action, determine the depth of the analysis needed for issues 
addressed in the EIS, identify potential mitigation measures, and 
identify reasonable alternatives to be evaluated in the EIS.
    Proposed Project Description: The EIS will encompass 162,911 acres 
in Townships 8 through 11 South, Ranges 20 through 24 East (Salt Lake 
Meridian) in Uintah County, Utah. The project is located on lands 
administered by the BLM (88,565 acres), Northern Ute Tribe as 
administered by the BIA (39,399 acres), the State of Utah (32,755 
acres), and private interests (2,192 acres). Mineral interests are 
owned by the BLM (79 percent), the State of Utah (20 percent), and 
private interests (one percent). The Natural Buttes gas field was 
discovered in the 1950s and has produced around 1.0 trillion cubic feet 
of natural gas and 5.0 million barrels of crude oil and condensate and 
is among the top 15 gas fields in the United States in terms of natural 
gas reserves. As of August 2006, the Greater Natural Buttes Area 
contained approximately 1,077 producing gas wells and 20 oil wells.
    Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Onshore LP (KMG) a wholly-owned subsidiary of 
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation proposes to conduct infill drilling to 
develop the hydrocarbon resources from oil and gas leases within the 
Greater Natural Buttes Project Area in Uintah County, Utah. KMG's 
intent is to explore and develop potentially productive subsurface 
formations underlying the land in the Greater Natural Buttes Project 
Area. Although actual operations are subject to change as the project 
proceeds, KMG's plan is to drill 3,496 additional wells over a period 
of 10 years. It is assumed that up to 179 new wells would be drilled by 
other operators having leasehold rights in the project area. The 
productive life of each well is estimated to be approximately 30 to 50 
years.
    Infill drilling would be performed on 40-acre and 20-acre surface 
spacing throughout the project area, i.e., with 16 to 32 surface well 
pads per section. KMG defines a 40-acre well pad as the first well pad 
located in a governmental 40-acre quarter-quarter section. A 20-acre 
pad is defined as the second well pad located in a 40-acre quarter-
quarter section. Well spacing in the subsurface would be based on the 
KMG's reservoir engineering evaluation on an on-going basis and will be 
site-dependent, potentially ranging from 16 wells per section (40-acre 
spacing) to 64 wells per section (10-acre spacing) or more.
    Project development would utilize existing roads and, when 
necessary, new roads would be constructed. Equipment required by most 
wells includes a gas gathering line, a separator, gas meter, produced 
water and liquid hydrocarbon storage tanks, and chemical tanks. Gas 
would be transported via pipeline to centralized compression and 
treatment facilities. Produced water would be transported by truck or 
pipeline to the KMG-operated produced water disposal wells or to KMG-
owned or commercially owned evaporation ponds or disposal wells. To 
minimize new disturbance, KMG would utilize the existing ancillary 
facility infrastructure within the project area, where possible, 
including gas compression facilities, power lines, water disposal and 
treatment facilities, and gas gathering pipelines. Total surface 
disturbance for the proposed project is estimated to be

[[Page 57065]]

7,804 acres, or approximately 5% of the project area.
    Relationship to Existing Plans and Documents: The Book Cliffs 
Resource Management Plan (RMP) Record of Decision (ROD) (May 1985) 
directs management of BLM-administered public lands within the analysis 
area. Implementation of oil and gas development in the Greater Natural 
Buttes Project Area would conform to conditions and requirements 
mandated in the RMP and ROD. The ROD calls for oil and gas, tar sands, 
oil shale, and gilsonite to be leased while other resource values will 
be protected or mitigated (page 7 of the ROD).
    Identified Resource Management Issues, Concerns, and Opportunities: 
The following resources have been identified as potentially impacted by 
the Vernal Field Office. It is not meant to be an all-inclusive list, 
but rather a starting point for public input and a means of identifying 
the resource disciplines needed to conduct the analysis. The 
potentially impacted resources include: air quality, cultural 
resources, livestock grazing, paleontological resources, recreation, 
socioeconomics, soil resources, special designations (potential Area of 
Critical Environmental Concern and eligible Wild and Scenic River 
segments), threatened or endangered animal and plant species, 
vegetation, visual resources, water resources, wilderness 
characteristics, and wildlife.

Selma Sierra,
Utah State Director.
 [FR Doc. E7-19692 Filed 10-4-07; 8:45 am]
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