U.S. to auction drilling leases in Utah
Published April 5th, 2006
Bidding by oil-and-gas players could intensify at a government auction next month when drilling leases will be offered on 440,000 acres of public land in Utah.
The auction set for May 16 will rank as the largest government lease sale ever in Utah.
The stepped-up leasing reflects a soaring market demand for oil and gas, new technology that makes it easier to find and drill deeper for petroleum, and a rich oil find in central Utah that’s driving speculative bidding.
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance accused the Bush administration of rushing to open more public lands for drilling to buoy domestic energy supplies. The Utah Petroleum Association counters that drilling can be done in a responsible manner.
“Clearly, market demand is going up,” Adrienne Babbitt, a Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman in Salt Lake City, said Tuesday. “Last year, Utah consumed 155 billion cubic feet of gas, and we exported another 300 billion feet of gas.”
