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  Home Page » News » BLM Talks About Leases

BLM talks about leases

Landowners question agency on gas, oil issues

by Katie Burford
Herald Staff Writer With talk of a potential shale gas boom edging into southwest La Plata County, landowners from the area got their first chance Monday to put questions to federal officials about how they could be affected.

Late last year, the Bureau of Land Management announced it planned to lease more than 16,000 acres of land on the west side of the county for gas and oil development in a February auction. The BLM later took the parcels off the block after some landowners, as well as county commissioners and U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Manassa, complained that the public needed more time to become informed.

About 40 people attended the meeting held by officials with the San Juan Public Lands Center and the Dolores Public Lands Office in the cafeteria of Fort Lewis Mesa Elementary School. During two hours, officials made presentations, took questions and spoke individually with attendees while referring frequently to various maps hung on the walls.

Much of the land proposed for lease is "split estate," meaning the federal government holds the mineral rights and the surface rights are held privately or by the state.

While some see economic benefits to the potential development, others worry that the wells will lower their property values, ruin scenic views and suck up or pollute precious water in the area.

Officials explained that the lease process starts with an operator expressing interest in developing. A 30-day review then is completed to decide whether to offer the parcels in one of the BLM quarterly auctions.

Once the land is auctioned, operators must work out an agreement with the surface owners that can cover access, compensation and returning the land to its former state when they are done.

"You're still in the driver's seat," said Jamie Sellar-Baker, associate manager with the Dolores lands office. "You're not totally out in the wind."

However, surface owners do not have the power to block drilling on their land.

The operator that buys the lease holds it for 10 years or as long as gas or oil is being produced.

Interest in the leases appears to have been tipped off by several discovery wells drilled by Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp. outside Cortez late last year. In January, the company announced that gas sales began in December from the wells, which produced about 4 million cubic feet a day.

The discovery has caused the San Juan Public Lands Center to increase the number of wells it has projected for the Paradox Basin in Southwest Colorado from 375 to around 2,100, said Matt Janowiak, assistant center manager for physical resources with the San Juan Public Lands Center, a joint BLM-Forest Service office.

Bill Barrett Corp. is using horizontal drilling, a new technology that has proven highly successful in other areas, to extract gas that previously was unattainable in any way that was economical.

The drill goes down more than 6,500 feet to the gothic shale layer, where it is steered horizontally for as much as 4,000 feet.

Pam Leschak, a geologist with the San Juan Public Lands Center, said water is pumped into the formation to fracture it and release the gas. She compared the consistency of the fractured shale to ground coffee.

Paul Schmitz, who owns land in the proposed lease area, questioned where operators would get sufficient water for the process.

"As far as I know, all the water on the Dryside is allocated," he said after the meeting.

Mark Condiotti, who owns land in the Lightner Creek area that also has come under consideration for leasing, said he thought the answers to some of the questions were "evasive."

"I thought they did a really good job on educating us on the technical side," he said, "but as for how it's going to proceed, it was a little bit hazy."

Janowiak has said it was not clear when the leases might go back up for auction.

kburford@durangoherald.com