By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Is there oil in those hills or valleys, as the case may be?
A second company has asked Juab County Commissioners for approval to conduct oil and gas exploration in the area near Yuba Lake.
“The project consists of two lines extending into Juab County,” said Gordon Bell, project manager for Western Land Services.
Western Land Services was established in 1974 and is a oil and gas brokerage service company providing land and regulatory services to oil and gas companies and utilities with expertise to perform all aspects of the federal permit process.
Western Land Services has assisted in the drilling of nearly 7,000 shallow shale or coal bed methane wells.
The Chris Hall project would encompass 36 square miles in Juab County. The project also will explore land in Millard County just across the county line.
“We will drill at 440-foot intervals and will go to a 70-foot depth. We will use a 22-pound charge,” said Bell.
The oil deposits the seismic exploration will try to find are expected to be at the 13,00-foot level and are difficult to find.
“They are so secluded that you have to hit them on the head,” said Bell. “The reservior of oil is so deep that we have to find the overthrusts and hit the reservior right on the head.”
One such deposit was found at Sigurd, said Bell. It measured three-quarters of a mile by one-half mile. Recently, one was found near Mayfield.
“I think this is the same era of oil,” said Bell.
Plans are to drill in September, he said.
Val Jones, commission chairman, told Bell that another company would also be using the 3-D method of exploration during the same time period but was going to examine 90 square miles of land.
St. Croix Seismic attended commission meeting earlier in the year seeking permission to continue searching for oil and gas in Juab. Russ Nielsen and Clark Gentry, representing St. Croix Seismic LLC, had been required to meet with the county planning commission to explain the exploration.
Glenn Greenhalgh, county planning commission director, said that the planning commission was the first place Bell would need to appear. Following that meeting, the commission would review the recommendation of the planning commission and would approve the exploration.
The company is not granted a special use permit but is given a special permit allowing the exploration in the county.
“A gel-type explosive is used,” said Bell. “It is different than TNT. Water-gel explosives have almost completely displaced dynamite. At 72-feet, when the charge it set off, there would be a dull vibration if you were standing right on top.”
Water Gel Explosives are high performance explosives. They tend to be less toxic and are less hazardous than dynamite to manufacture, transport, and store because they can be stored in non-explosive component form and sensitized into field-manufactured explosive as needed.
Bell said it was required that all the federal and state permits be completed and permits from private land owners be in place before the exploration could begin. Also required was a cultural study.
Bell agreed to meet with the planning commission on Wednesday at 7:15 p.m. The county commission will then review the recommendations of the planning commission and will then agree to the special permit being issued.
Bell said the exploration was being conducted for Wolverine.
Most oil companies gave up exploring Central Utah for a time, but in December 2003, Wolverine Gas and Oil tapped into oil and now produce 3,000 to 5,000 barrels of oil a day.
The company has successfully explored Sigurd. The deposits might contain millions of barrels.
Wolverine obtained leases of land from past oil companies and a lease from the Federal Exploratory Unit for 65,000 acres. Between state and federal government, Wolverine holds the lease for about 500,000 acres in Central Utah, including land owned by 800 families in the Sevier Valley.
All top-quality crude oil is trucked to Salt Lake City and New Mexico refineries.
Families in Sevier Valley and the government receive a return in every barrel of oil that is pumped, according to Edmonds.
Since 1999, Wolverine has used 2-D seismic data examining rock formations by bouncing seismic waves deep into the earth.
Covenant Field, where the initial discovery took place, is far away from other known producing oil and gas fields. Chevron held the land for a while looking for oil with out success before Wolverine acquired it.
“We just hope you find something in our county,” said Val Jones, commission chairman.
