SUBLETTE COUNTY, WYO – The Big Piney District Ranger of the Bridger-Teton National Forest has signed the final Decision Notice for the True Oil LLC – Lander Peak Area Exploratory Proposal.
The decision opens the door for a surface use plan for the drilling of two natural gas wells in the South Cottonwood drainage. Final approval of drilling operations will be completed by the Bureau of Land Management (Pinedale Field Office).
District Ranger Don Kranendonk completed all Deputy Forest Supervisor Derek Ibarguen’s instructions resulting from the pre-decisional administrative review (“objection”) process before making his decision. The approved plan includes additional resource protection measures as compared to True Oil LLC’s original proposal, including secondary containment around hydraulic fracturing tanks and surface water and groundwater monitoring to be carried out by a third party, among others.
The federal oil and gas leases being explored in this project were existing rights at passage of the 2009 Wyoming Range Legacy Act and are not subject to the resulting mineral withdrawal.
