The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) White River field office in Colorado has extended to Jan. 28 the public comment deadline for a draft resource management plan (RMP) for parts of the Piceance Basin, which when finalized could result in thousands of new natural gas wells.

In August, BLM released for public review and comment a draft plan outlining multiple alternatives for managing the expected increase in oil and natural gas development on the 1.7 million acres of federal mineral resources of the Piceance in Colorado’s Rio Blanco, Moffat and Garfield counties (see Daily GPI, Aug. 27).

“Public involvement is a key part of this process, and we have received a number of requests for additional time to review this draft,” said BLM White River field manager Kent Walter. Extending the comment period by 45 days extends the amount of time the draft would be available for comment to a total of 160 days, he noted.

Included in the draft RMP are proposed incentive-based protections to minimize impacts from oil and gas development to wildlife.

The revisions consider development alternatives ranging from 4,603 wells on 550 well pads to 21,200 wells on 2,556 well pads, as well as several mitigation measures to minimize impacts to wildlife and the environment. Over the next 20 years, the BLM said energy development in this area of the Piceance Basin could produce 878 Bcf/year and create as many as 8,000 jobs.

BLM expects to issue a final RMP in April 2014.

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