The U.S. Bureau of Land Management today released the long-awaited Roan Plateau management plan which allows oil and gas companies to drill on part of the plateau’s top, but with many restrictions in place.
Those restrictions are designed to protect wildlife, water quality and highly visible areas, while still allowing operators to recover about 90 percent of the natural gas to be recovered.
“This proposed plan provides a high level of environmental protection along with a prudent level of oil and gas leasing,” said Sally Wisely, the Colorado director of BLM.
The area has become a nationally watched battleground between those who would preserve its unusual ecosystem and those eager to tap into its rich reserve of an estimated 9 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Conservationists and Western Slope municipal and county governments had urged that all or most of the federal lands atop the Roan be kept off-limits to the massive surface drilling that now circles the Roan and is creeping up its base.
But energy companies pushed for access to an area that has proved to be rich in accessible natural gas – enough to heat an estimated 2.5 million homes for 20 years.
Members of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association said they were pleased BLM will allow the plateau to be developed, but don’t support the plan’s phased development approach which they say makes the gas much less economically attractive.
The BLM controls mineral development on nearly 35,000 of the 54,000 acres at the top of the plateau, stretching from Rifle to DeBeque along Interstate 70. Those acres have been at the crux of debates for more than six years as the BLM has studied and proposed different scenarios for getting at the gas.
Staff writer Kim McGuire can be reached at 303-954-1240 or at kmcguire@denverpost.com.
