Bull Mountain Natural Gas Master Development Plan and EIS, CO
CLIENT: SG Interests, Ltd. and Bureau of land Management
Gas well development in the Bull Mountain Unit (Photograph courtesy of SG Interests, Ltd)
SG Interests, Ltd. proposed a master development plan to the BLM’s Uncompahgre Field Office to drill up to 146 gas wells in the Bull Mountain Unit, which consists of 19,670 acres of federal and private subsurface mineral estate in Gunnison County, CO.
EMPSi prepared an EIS required under NEPA, which also provided an “umbrella” analysis to streamline future NEPA efforts. The development plan had numerous undetermined elements, including well siting, which drilling technologies would be used, and how to plan the transportation network. To address these issues, EMPSi developed an innovative constraints analysis using 40-acre areas to find locations with fewer environmental impacts and good potential for gas field development. Based on these analysis areas and using existing roads as much as possible, EMPSi developed transportation and pipeline network alternatives for analysis. The EIS included a tool kit of environmental measures to streamline the federal permitting process for future site-specific development proposals in the unit.
FAST FACTS:
Estimated to provide 470 construction jobs and 135 production jobs and generate $114 million in annual employment
Analyzed 146 gas wells and associated infrastructure in the Bull Mountain Unit
Developed environmental measures to facilitate future oil and gas development approvals
Public meetings for the EIS
[We] were talking yesterday about all the difficulties we were expecting as it relates to dealing with comments . . . EMPSi articulat[ed] a carefully considered approach that was obviously the product of so much professional experience.
As pleasant surprises go, that was impressive.
— BLM Northwest Colorado District