The rig erected last month in the Industrial Park, located approximately two miles west of Pinedale, was disassembled last week. The tower, illuminated by lights at night, was up for a little over a month and visible to surrounding residents and passers by on Highway 191.

The exploratory well, on private property, is a project through Canadian company Nextraction Energy Corp. and Vantage Energy Green River LLC, a small private oil and gas company out of Englewood, Colo. It sits on land owned by Mark and Susan Noble off Industrial Site Road, next to the Noble’s construction company.

Drilling began on Jan. 24 and was completed on Feb. 14, said John Moran, manager of drilling for Vantage. Moran said he hopes to begin the well completion process sometime in May. After the well is completed, drilling data will be analyzed to determine if the company will wish to pursue additional drilling in the area. The well needs to produce for several months before success rates can be determined.

“We are actually very pleased with how smoothly the operation went,” said President and CFO Tom Tyree, who looks forward to analyzing the drilling data.

In the past month, the Town, County and local and State BLM offices have received either questions or concerns about the rig.

Brian Davis, Pinedale Field Office manager, said he did not have an exact number of comments that came into the State and Pinedale BLM offices, but they were questioned about the rig.

Davis said people questioned the BLM on why they approved a well to be drilled there, what the BLM was going to do about the well and water wells in the area, and why they weren’t expecting the well. The well is not on BLM land. They have no jurisdiction over it.

Pinedale Mayor Steve Smith also received comments from locals, mostly complaining about the bright lights on the rig at night. He said people were concerned about the rig being an eyesore for Pinedale.

Bart Meyers, county planner, said someone came into the office last week wondering what was going on about the rig, but asked nothing specific.

However, Tyree and Moran said neither of them had received any comments from residents about their project.

“It’s safe to say Vantage Energy has not received any comments,” said Tyree.

Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC) heard from Sublette County Health Officer Dr. Tom Johnston about concerns with the rig’s proximity to a water well at the Pinedale Lumber yard. WOGCC drilling inspector LeRoy Sandberg checked with Pinedale Lumber who said the shallow fresh water wells in the area normally produced sand, but the sand seemed to increase when the rig went up. However, no problems with the sand occurred, said Tom Doll, Wyoming oil and gas supervisor, in an email.

Sandberg also checked with Mark Noble who agreed the water wells always had problems with sand, which caused periodic and ongoing filter replacements, said Doll. So far, the WOGCC has no documented evidence of ground water contamination due to hydraulic fracturing.

Sand packages that support the presence of gas were found in the 14,906-foot deep well, according to another Nextraction release. The release also states an analysis is being conducted for preparation of perforation and hydraulic fracing of the prospective gas-bearing sand packages encountered in the well.

The well site was approved as a legal location by the WOGCC on Oct. 29, 2009, wrote Doll. A WOGCC drilling field inspector was also on hand on several occasions, including during well pad construction, he said.

The well was drilled with a closed-mud system and no drilling pit was constructed, said Doll. All fluids were contained inside a steel tank for reuse and/or proper disposal. Drilling solids were disposed of offsite, said Doll.

Tyree said the Nobles leased the land to the energy companies, but he did not disclose specifics on the lease. Tyree said because the company is made up of former Encana workers, many had knowledge about the Pinedale area’s drilling potentials. The company asked around of landowners in the area and came upon the Noble’s land, which was “appropriately located,” said Tyree. It was a good spot with good minerals.

Vantage and Nextraction Inc. — a subsidiary of the Canadian company — entered into a Joint Venture agreement in October of last year, according to Nextraction’s Web site. The site also said Nextraction currently holds 2,551 acres in the northern crescent of the Pinedale Anticline and has the potential to drill up to 60 well locations on 20 acres on the existing leasehold.

After the initial well, Nextraction has the opportunity to drill a second under the same terms with Vantage as the first well, according to a Nextraction release. Each well’s estimated cost is $6.5 million. It calls the exploratory well Noble #6-24. As of Feb. 16, Nextraction said their total investment in the project was approximately $3 million.

Mark Noble said the lease allowing Vantage and Nextraction to drill on his land was signed several years ago. Noble said drilling did not create a high impact and he was pleased with the operation.

“I’m happy with everything. They did a good job,” Noble said. While he spoke about the project to people in “passing conversation” he said he personally received no comments, especially negative comments, about the rig.

Pinedale Rental, which sits next-door to the rig and Noble Construction, said they had no comments about the project. T&L Salvage & Repair did.

Linda Nixon, co-owner of T&L, said when the rig was first being constructed, she thought it would cause a lot of noise and the bright lights at night would be distracting. However, she said the rig didn’t have any impact on T&L.

“I hardly noticed it was there, except when I had to drive past it,” said Nixon.

For the complete article see the 02-26-2010 issue.

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