"Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday signed -- and hailed -- Utah’s latest natural-gas drilling plan as an environmentally sensitive leap toward energy security."

"Flanked by cooperative representatives from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance at a pipeline compressor station in western Salt Lake City, Salazar signed his department’s approval for the 3,675-well Greater Natural Buttes development south of Vernal. The eastern Utah project is expected to create several thousand jobs at peak construction and average 1,700 a year for a decade while pumping 6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas with enhanced emissions and vapor recovery.

Because Anadarko agreed to do it without infringing on the White River’s wilderness qualities -- and even purchase river lands for protection -- SUWA endorsed the plan in what Salazar and Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey called a model for collaboration.

'The world today,' Salazar said, 'should just simply stand back and say, ‘Wow, how did they do it?’ '

The development covers 163,000 acres, much of it previously disturbed by drilling, and the company will turn up soil on only 5 percent of the undisturbed acreage. The 3,675-well potential represents a significant boost to state output that just passed 10,000 oil and gas wells at the end of 2011."

Brandon Loomis reports for the Salt Lake Tribune May 8, 2012.

www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/54071303-79/anadarko-gas-natural-company.htm... [2]

SEE ALSO:

"Salazar Approves Utah Gas Wells" (AP) [3]