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Oil & gas resources of the Front
Located near Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness,
Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front has world class wilderness
and wildlife values including the nation’s largest bighorn
sheep herd, second largest elk herd, and endangered grizzly
bear, lynx, and wolverine populations. But what about its
oil and gas reserves? While estimates vary, government studies
show that there is almost no oil and limited natural gas to
be found here. Drilling this unique and fragile landscape
would make virtually no difference to our national energy
supply.
Estimates of the Front’s Hydrocarbon Reserves:
The mean natural gas estimates below represent “technical
reserves,” meaning the amount that can be potentially
extracted, not the smaller subset that is economical to extract.
A 2003 RAND report found that depending on price, “economic
reserves” are generally 35-65% of the technically recoverable
amount, and a more accurate reflection of available reserves.
• 1995 USGS: Estimated 1.8 TCF of gas for the “Imbricate
Thrust Gas Play” (covers non-Wilderness, Wilderness,
and other acreage). This would meet our national demand for
less than a month. Using data from this study, The Wilderness
Society calculated economic reserves on inventoried National
Forest roadless lands on the Front to contain at most three
days of gas (based on historic average price of $3.62).
• 2003 Energy Policy and Conservation Act: As part
of a five basin assessment done under the Energy Policy and
Conservation Act (“EPCA”), the Departments of
Interior and Energy found there to be 8.6 TCF of natural gas
in the “Montana Thrust Belt” (covers 6 million
acres of Wilderness, Park, and other federal lands). So drilling
throughout Glacier Park, Bob Marshall Wilderness, Rocky Mountain
Front would meet our national gas needs for four months. This
was 4% of the gas estimated for the five basins and less than
1% of the 1,466 TCF U.S. natural gas resource base reported
by the National Petroleum Council in 1999.
• 2002 Bureau of Land Management (BLM): On January
28, 2002 the BLM’s Montana state office released a “Statement
of Adverse Energy Impact” for the Blackleaf unit of
the Front (50,000 acres of Forest Service, BLM, and state
lands in central portion of Front where several exploratory
wells have been drilled). It estimated there to be .014-.106
TCF of gas here. This is two days of natural gas for the country.
The Vast Majority of Federal Lands in MT and the West are
Available for drilling:
• More than 95% of the 8 million acres of BLM lands
in Montana are available for leasing.
• Of the 1.8 million acres on the Lewis and Clark National
Forest, half is available for oil and gas leasing. Over 70%
of the adjacent Deerlodge, Beaverhead, Gallatin, and Helena
Forests are available for leasing.
• The recent “EPCA” study of five basins
in the Rocky Mountain region found that 88% of the "technically
recoverable" natural gas resources on federal lands is
currently available for development. In other words, only
12% of natural gas resources lie beneath national parks, wilderness
areas, and other protected lands. The MT Thrust Belt was found
to have by far the least amount of natural gas.
Final Word: Let’s not drill Montana’s
“soul” for a few months worth of natural gas!
"If you told us Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front
were the last place on earth to drill for natural gas, we’d
start breaking up furniture to burn for fuel. …It is
here, where the Rocky Mountains spill onto the Prairies and
amid the elk, bighorns, grizzlies, and other wildlife, that
you discover the soul of Montana. There are people that would
drill holes in that soul! And to them we say this: not even
if this were the last place on earth left to drill."
Missoulian editorial, 4/29/01
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