Washington (Platts)--28Dec2007

The pace of development on a tract of Wyoming that may contain 25
trillion cubic feet of natural gas would speed up under a new plan set out by
the US Bureau of Land Management Friday.

A revised draft environmental impact statement for the Pinedale Anticline
Planning Area introduces the potential for about eight times the current
number of wells, adding 4,399 wells to the existing 642, according to a BLM
announcement in the Federal Register.

Revisions to the environmental statement came in response to industry
comments on the draft statement, and BLM will accept comments on the new draft
for 45 days, it said.

Under a 2000 BLM decision on development in the 198,000-acre Pinedale
area, the companies operating there -- Shell, Questar and Ultra Petroleum --
could not drill for oil or gas during winter months, in order to protect the
winter ranges of big game.

Starting in 2004, several companies were given special permission to
drill through the winter, and the new EIS looks to address a potential
expansion of winter production.

BLM's preferred alternative of the two additional possibilities in the
supplemental EIS would include "12,885 acres of disturbance" and up to 4,399
additional wells.

While the oil and gas companies are hoping for more freedom to drill
year-round, conservation and environmental groups, as well as groups of local
citizens, hope the pace of development in Pinedale will slow.

The Wyoming Outdoor Council, a conservation group, has expressed hope
that year-round drilling will be kept to a minimum, and BLM itself concludes
in the new EIS that changes to the 2000 rules could be bad for wildlife.

"Implementation of any Alternative is likely to create additional
barriers to wildlife movements with increased fragmentation by creation of
edges and patches within contiguous habitats," according to the statement.

"Big game would continue to be adversely affected by wellfield
development that causes direct loss of crucial winter range, other
seasonally-used habitats, and decreased habitat function near roads and well
pads due to human activity," it added.

--Derek Sands, derek_sands@platts.com