GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Officials on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation are partnering with a Denver-based company in looking for oil on reservation lands.
Anschutz Exploration Corp. is putting up the money for the exploration. The tribe’s investment is covered by putting up the land for exploration wells, said tribal chairman Willie Sharp Jr.
If the sites show potential, Anschutz plans to use directional drilling to better access potential oil reserves.
On Wednesday, Anschutz crews wrapped up work on a site about 3 miles east of East Glacier. Work was scheduled to begin Friday at a second site, about 33 miles north of Browning.
Site manager Ken Clare said the cores look good but that it could be weeks before they know if they found substantial oil reserves.
Jim Halvorson, a petroleum geologist with the Montana Board of Oil and Gas, said An schutz plans to drill about 7,000 vertical feet into the two areas and then horizontally about 11,500 feet. That method is being used because it makes it possible to drain more of a reservoir’s oil from a single location.
Conservation groups have argued that drilling in the area should be banned to protect wildlife habitat, but officials in Browning say the project has the potential to change life economically for tribal members.
