State Oil, Gas and Mining Division Turns 50

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) The state agency responsible for managing Utah's oil, gas and mining resources is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a record year for drilling permits. Last year, the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining issued just over 1,600 drilling permits. Director John Baza says this year will be the highest ever.

"As of today's date, we've already approved 956 drilling applications in 2006. So if you pro-rate that through the end of the year, we could easily exceed 1,800 drilling permits."

Baza attributes the record numbers to high gas prices and Utah's rich oil and gas resources in the Uintah Basin and Four Corners area. Between 2004 and 2005, he says the sales value of all the extracted industries in Utah doubled to more than six billion dollars. Baza says the black gold rush is bound to slow down "some time in the next five or ten years."

"That will have to decrease because the new wells coming in just won't do as well as the ones they've found up to date," adds Baza.

Since the 1980's, Baza says Utah's environmental requirements for mining permits have grown increasingly stringent. He says the next decades will likely be marked by more efficiency in the process, including an online permit application. Visit the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining online at www.ogm.utah.org.

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