Who Owns The West? Oil & Gas Leases in America's West

"In short, a majority of Montanans feel very strongly that oil and gas development, and Montana's Rocky Mountain Front, just don't mix. The habitat is too rich, the landscape too important, to subject it to the roads, drills, pipelines, industrial equipment, chemicals, noise and human activity that come with oil and gas development."

— U.S. Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), May 1, 2003

Quick Facts: Federal Land in Rocky Mountain Front

Acres leased: 111,922 of 425,000 total acres in the front
Oil in Two Rocky Mountain Front areas could supply U.S. for: less than 20 minutes (TWS 2004)
Gas in Two Rocky Mountain Front areas could supply U.S. for: less than 3 days (TWS 2004)

Drilling the Rocky Mountain Front?

The Bureau of Land Management is considering a plan that would allow drilling in one of the nation's most beautiful and biologically rich areas -- an area in which federal lands contain less than a week's worth of natural gas.

The Rocky Mountain Front, the site of the proposal, features some of the most spectacular scenery and wildlife in the contiguous 48 states. It is located in northwestern Montana where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains. It is part of what is known as the "Thrust Belt," where tectonic plates collided, thrusting enormous slabs of rock upward to form the Rockies. Conservationists have called the Front "the American Serengeti," evoking the African land of lions, giraffes and zebras. The Front is home to a wide array of animals including grizzly bears, elk, deer, lynx, and wolverines (Herring 2003).

Rocky Mountain Front Interactive Map

Map Note: The Rocky Mountain Front depicted in red is one of the country's most spectacular areas — 425,000 acres where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains. Badger-Two Medicine Area depicts land on which the Forest Service is considering two applications for drilling. The Blind Horse Outstanding Natural Area depicts land where a Canadian company has made a proposal to drill three natural gas wells, a level of development that could grow to eleven wells (National Atlas 2003, Energy Inventory 2003, BLM Blackleaf EIS 2004, TWS RMF 2004).

An Environmental Working Group analysis of government leasing and drilling records shows that the oil and gas industry already pressures the Rocky Mountain Front — a summary of current leasing activity in the Front is shown below.

Oil and Gas Lease Holders of Rocky Mountain Front land

In Rocky Mountain Front, 18 companies and individuals hold 43 active leases on 111,922 acres of land. The table below shows who holds active leases, and provides links to comprehensive information on leases held across the west by individual companies, and political contributions made by companies over the past three election cycles.

Rank	Name	City/State
1	Kohlman Partnership	Billings, MT 59106	15	31,707
2	Devon Energy Corporation	Oklahoma City, OK 73102	15	22,980
3	The Williams Companies	Tulsa, OK 74172	2	13,391
4	BP America	Los Angeles, CA 90071	2	13,391
5	Amerada Hess Corp	New York, NY 10036	7	12,140
6	JMI Energy Inc	Houston, TX 77040	7	12,140
7	Fidelity Exploration & Production Company	Denver, CO 80203	7	12,140
8	Curry & Thornton	Fort Worth, TX 76102	2	9,740
9	David R Wilson	Martinsville, IN 46151	2	8,957
10	Grizzly Res Inc	Denver, CO 80202	1	7,735
See all lease holders in Rocky Mountain Front

Source: EWG analysis of leasing and drilling records in 12 western states, contained in the Bureau of Land Management's Land and Mineral Records 2000 database, acquired by EWG May 15 2004.

Roads, Trucks, and Drilling Rigs

Startech Energy, a Calgary-based company, has made a proposal to drill three natural gas wells in the BLM's Blind Horse Outstanding Natural Area located in the Front. According to a notice in the Federal Register, the three wells would be drilled from the same location on a four-acre well pad accessed by 200 feet of new road and connected to a production facility by eight miles of new pipeline. A processing plant would be constructed 22 miles from the site (FR Rocky Mountain Front Proposal 2003, Lee 2004).

According to Don Judice, Field Station Supervisor for BLM's Great Falls Oil & Gas Field Station, bringing in equipment for the operation will likely require between 70 and 100 semi-truck trips. The site sits on a hill and is serviced by a primitive road. A bulldozer would pull heavy equipment up the hill, said Judice. The heavy equipment would also need to be assisted on the way down (Judice 2004).

The BLM has hired a contractor, Maxim Technologies of Helena, to conduct an environmental impact statement of the proposal. The EIS will assess the impact of the three wells and will also consider the "reasonably foreseeable development scenario" (RFD) over the life of the project which includes an additional eight possible locations (BLM RMF Statement 2004).

A Second Drilling Proposal

The Forest Service is also reviewing two applications for drilling in the Front's Badger-Two Medicine area. One application was approved three times, most recently in 1991. However, after appeals and other legal proceeding that prevented drilling from beginning, the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places found on January 31, 2002, that the nearby Badger-Two Medicine Blackfoot Traditional Cultural District is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The Forest Service is now reviewing the application for drilling in light of post-1991 information including the Keeper's recent decision and the listing of lynx (an inhabitant of the area) as a federally-threatened species. The Forest Service is considering the same information in assessing a second application for drilling on a nearby parcel of land (BLM Badger-Two Medicine Update 2004).

Small Amounts of Energy

Based on oil and gas that is economically recoverable, The Wilderness Society estimated recently that the Blackleaf area contains less than 20 minutes of oil and less than a day's worth of natural gas while the Badger-Two Medicine area contains less than five seconds of oil and less than two days of natural gas. The entire Montana Front (federal lands) contains less than 20 minutes of oil and less than a week of natural gas, the Wilderness Society reported (TWS 2004).

One of the state's U.S. Senators, Max Baucus (D-MT), who opposes drilling in the Front, has called on BLM to offer current oil and gas leaseholders along the Front fair compensation for trading or selling their leases. Baucus has also introduced legislation that would suspend for three years non-producing oil and gas leases in the Badger-Two Medicine Area while the Secretary of the Interior evaluates the possibility of exchanging leases along the Front for monetary credits or trading the leases for leases elsewhere (Tribune Staff 2004, S.984 2003).

Oil and Gas Lease Holders of Rocky Mountain Front land

Rank	Name	City/State
1	Kohlman Partnership	Billings, MT 59106	15	31,707
2	Devon Energy Corporation	Oklahoma City, OK 73102	15	22,980
3	The Williams Companies	Tulsa, OK 74172	2	13,391
4	BP America	Los Angeles, CA 90071	2	13,391
5	Amerada Hess Corp	New York, NY 10036	7	12,140
6	JMI Energy Inc	Houston, TX 77040	7	12,140
7	Fidelity Exploration & Production Company	Denver, CO 80203	7	12,140
8	Curry & Thornton	Fort Worth, TX 76102	2	9,740
9	David R Wilson	Martinsville, IN 46151	2	8,957
10	Grizzly Res Inc	Denver, CO 80202	1	7,735
See all lease holders in Rocky Mountain Front

Source: EWG analysis of leasing and drilling records in 12 western states, contained in the Bureau of Land Management's Land and Mineral Records 2000 database, acquired by EWG May 15 2004.

References:

S. 984 (S. 984 2003). A bill to direct the Secretary of the Interior to evaluate opportunities to enhance domestic oil and gas production through the exchange of nonproducing Federal oil and gas leases located in the Lewis and Clark National Forest, in the Flathead National Forest, and on Bureau of Land Management land in the State of Montana, and for other purposes. Introduced May 1, 2003. Accessed online June 2, 2004 at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d108:17
:./temp/~bd9szK:@@@D&summ2=m&|/bss/d108query.html|.
Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Blackleaf Project Environmental Impact Statement (BLM Blackleaf 2004). 2004. Accessed online July 29, 2004 at http://www.mt.blm.gov/ldo/eis/blackleaf/index.htm
Bureau of Land Management (BLM RMF Statement). 2004. Blackleaf Project EIS. April 23, 2004. Accessed online June 1, 2004 at www.mt.blm.gov/ea/bps/blackleaf.pdf.
Bureau of Land Management (BLM Badger-Two Medicine Update). 2004. Badger-Two Medicine Applications for Permit to Drill (APDS). Accessed online June 2, 2004 at www.mt.blm.gov/ea/bps/fina.pdf.
Energy Information Administration (EIA Petroleum Products). 2002. Annual Energy Review, 2002. Petroleum Products Supplied by Type, 1949-2002. Accessed online July 14, 2004 at http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/petro.html.
Federal Register (FR Rocky Mountain Front Proposal). 2004. Notice of Intent To Conduct Scoping and Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Blackleaf Project, Teton County, MT. 69 Federal Register 20029-20030 (April 15, 2004).
Great Falls Tribune. Baucus Proposes Trade, Sale of Front Drilling Leases. May 18, 2004, B1.
Herring, Hal. In Montana, the Next Arctic Refuge Debate. The Christian Science Monitor. October 30, 2003. Accessed online May 27, 2004 at http://www.csmonitor.com/2003
/1030/p16s01-sten.html.
Judice, Don, Field Station Supervisor for BLM's Great Falls Oil & Gas Field Station. 2004. Personal communication. June 1, 2004.
Lee, Sonja (Lee 2004). 2004. Plan Would Place Wells in Blindhorse Area. Great Falls Tribune. May 3, 2004, 16A.
Lee, Sonja (Lee 2004). 2004. Drilling Supporters Few at Great Falls Open House. Great Falls Tribune. May 5, 2004, 12M.
Tribune Staff (Tribune Staff 2004). 2004. Baucus Seeks 'Fair Compensation' for Front Leases. May 21, 2004, 6M.
U.S. Departments of Interior, Agriculture, Energy (Energy Inventory 2003). 2003. Scientific Inventory of Onshore Federal Lands' Oil and Gas Resources and Reserves and the Extent and Nature of Restrictions or Impediments to Their Development. Accessed online May 27, 2004 at http://www.doi.gov/epca/.
U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE Natural Gas). 2004. Natural Gas Fundamentals from Resource to Market. Accessed online May 24, 2004 at http://www.energy.gov/engine
/content.do?BT_CODE=NATURALGAS.
U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE Oil Consumption). 2004. Petroleum Products Consumption. Accessed online May 24, 2004 at http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic
/infosheets/petroleumproductsconsumption.htm.
The Wilderness Society (TWS). 2004. Study: Blackleaf Area of Montana's Rocky Mountain Front Contains Less Than A Day's Worth of Energy. Accessed online June 3, 2004 at http://www.wilderness.org/NewsRoom/Release
/20040505.cfm.
The Wilderness Society, Rocky Mountain Front Energy Development (TWS RMF). 2004. Accessed online July 29, 2004 at http://www.wilderness.org/WhereWeWork
/Montana/RockyMountainFront.cfm.
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories
/20030619/localnews/505937.html
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2003/09/08
/news/local/news06.txt
http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-IMPACT/2004
/April/Day-15/i8218.htm