Moving one step closer to receiving a green light on its plans, Warren Resources Inc. said Monday that the Bureau of Land Management has posted the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Rockies area Atlantic Rim Coalbed Methane project (CBM) on its website, and the official Federal Register Notice was published on Dec. 16, 2005.

The New York City-headquartered oil and gas exploration and development company, along with its partner Anadarko Exploration Co., and other operators, had notified the BLM that they propose to explore and potentially develop coalbed natural gas in the Atlantic Rim, in an area of 270,080 acres. The companies hope to drill a maximum of 1,800 coalbed natural gas and 200 conventional natural gas wells in the Atlantic Rim over approximately 20 years, with a total project lifespan of approximately 30 to 50 years.

Warren Resources and Anadarko in December of 2002 entered into an agreement to jointly explore for and develop coalbed methane resources in the fairway of the Atlantic Rim area of the Washakie Basin in southern Wyoming (see Daily GPI, Dec. 23, 2002).

The EIS is now subject to public comment with the 60-day comment period ending on Feb. 17. A public hearing will be held in Rawlins on Feb. 2, but written comments on the draft EIS will be accepted until Feb. 17.

“We are encouraged that we are moving closer to commencement of a broad scale development drilling program,” said Warren Resources CEO Norman Swanton. “With this step by the BLM our timeline now envisions project approval by late summer 2006. In addition, we are in the process of gearing up the requisite resources to accelerate our exploitation program.”

Although headquartered in New York, Warren Resources’ exploration and development subsidiary, Warren E&P Inc., is based in Casper, WY and Long Beach, CA. The company is primarily focused on the exploration and development of coalbed methane properties located in the Rocky Mountain region and its water flood oil recovery program in the Wilmington Unit located in the Los Angeles Basin of California.

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