From the pages of
Sublette Examiner
Volume 5, Number 44 - January 26, 2006
brought to you online by Pinedale Online

Jonah: Ka-ching!

by Cat Urbigkit

Sublette County's Jonah Field currently provides 13.5 percent of all natural gas produced within the state's border, with about 250 billion cubic feet of gas produced annually. To put that into perspective, 1B CF of gas is the average annual amount used by 13,700 Wyoming households annually.

The 66,000-acre Jonah Field is second in production only to Powder River Basin production, which encompasses several million acres of land in three northeastern Wyoming counties.

The amount of gas believed to be recoverable from the field ranges from 3,400 to 8,200 BCF.

The Bureau of Land Management will soon decide what level of continued development will occur within the Jonah Field, as it is slated to issue a decision on the Jonah infill drilling project. The agency's preferred alternative anticipates that 3,100 new wells (in addition to the existing 500) would be drilled in the next 13 years.

The final environmental impact statement for the drilling project assumes that 250 wells will be drilled annually, with 20 rigs operating year-round within the 30,000-acre infill area.

Up to 7,947 BCF of natural gas and 75.5 million barrels of oil would be recovered from the 3,100 new wells. That production is valued at nearly $18 billion, and would generate more than $3 billion in taxes and royalties during the life of the project. That's the equivalent of the county receiving $276,387 for each person in the county.

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