EnCana Corp. has filed a plan with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to add 1,200 natural gas wells in a 14,000 acre region of the Piceance Basin. The plan calls for up to 125 well pads and 1,240 gas wells.

BLM has begun an environmental assessment of the plan and could call for a public comment period as soon as July.

According to an EnCana spokesman, the area, which includes parts of Rio Blanco and Garfield counties northwest of Meeker, CO, holds the potential for gas production, but EnCana only has four wells in the area now. BLM is working on the “maximum possible scenario,” he said.

EnCana purchased 500 Bcf of long-life natural gas and associated natural gas liquids reserves and about 338,000 net acres of land in northwestern Colorado from El Paso Corp. in 2002, including 180,000 net acres of undeveloped land in the Piceance Basin (see Daily GPI, April 18, 2002). EnCana also holds other Piceance gas production at Mamm Creek and the surrounding area near Rifle, CO.

Garfield County, which is in the heart of the Piceance Basin, boasted the second highest number of drilling permits in 2003 with 566, and it also posted the largest one-year increase, with 204 more permits issued than in 2002. Colorado officials said 1,619 active wells have been drilled in Garfield County over the years, with 1,465 of them considered producing wells.

Rio Blanco County also had an increase in drilling permits in 2003, 179 compared with 105 in 2002. It tied for the third highest total of permits in the state.

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