Background to a Leading Issue

    Oil and gas exploration and seismic activities have occurred intermittently along the Rocky Mountain Front since the 1940s.  However, quantities of recoverable natural gas have not sustained natural gas development companies well enough to support long-term production. 

    In recent years, representatives of industry have purported that there is enough evidence to support an effort to drill for natural gas in the Blackleaf Canyon area (see map).  They say that improved technology can reach vast underground natural gas deposits with minimal disturbance to the near-pristine surface.  Gas exploration companies have tested and probed the overthrust belt for many years and are now mounting another effort to enter the Front lands. 

    The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) developed an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in 1992 that addressed lands near Blackleaf Canyon  -- an area that industry expects to have high natural gas potential.  This EIS enumerated several development options, and, after public comments were gathered, a Record of Decision (ROD) was issued by the BLM.  The ROD indicated that if an application for permit to drill (APD) was submitted by a company, the BLM would again perform another EIS.

Current Situation

    In 2002, Star Tech of Canada (subsidiary of Thunder Energy) filed an APD to drill three wells from a single well pad to be located in Blind Horse Coulee, approximately 4 miles south of Blackleaf Canyon.  After considerable public comment (49,000 responses, most of which were against drilling), the BLM discontinued the EIS process and opted to incorporate the Rocky Mountain Front into a larger EIS process that includes areas northeast of the Front near the communities of Cut Bank and Shelby, Montana.  Additionally, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided they would offer conservation easements to private landowners along the Front. 

    The U.S. Department of the Interior is considering an exchange of leases, a federal buy-out of the leases, or providing Thunder Energy with credit on other federal energy leases (Choteau Acantha, 10/6/04).

Listen

    To hear a complete nine-minute broadcast (September 19, 2003) by National Public Radio on a major gas & oil issue affecting the Front, Click Here.  Then click on "Morning Edition audio" (You may or may not connect directly.  If not, go to www.pbs.org and search archive).

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