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Show Conoco's Representatives Meet With Escalante's City Council About Well ESCALANTE Conoco's Ron Swanson spoke to the Escalante City Council on Tuesday, Feb. 18 about the company's request to drill an exploratory well on land it leases from the state in Reese Canyon, some 45 miles south of Escalante. The site lies within the newly created Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Environmentalist groups reacted to Conoco's recent announcement with immediate opposition to the company's proposal, in some cases asking their members to cut up their Conoco credit cards. The Board of Trustees of Utah's School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, Ad-ministration, however, is heralding the company's proposal as an answer to their call for help in determining the value of the mineral min-eral assets so that those trust land assets captured within the monument monu-ment can be protected. R. E (Bob) Irelan, manager of Conoco's mid-continent exploration and production region, had told the state that Conoco holds existing valid leases on 140,000 acres of state and federal land within the monument (12,000 of it in Reese Canyon), and another 85,000 acres on lands adjacent to it. He said that Conoco had been evaluating the potential for oil and gas development develop-ment in the area for more than two years. The company denies opponents' claims that its proposal is a sudden move and points to ongoing activities acti-vities in the area by oil companies over the past 10 years, indicating that some of its own leases are almost that old. Its studies and those of others have shown that as much as four billion barrels of crude oil may exist in the area. Because its leases are time-sensitive, time-sensitive, Conoco needs to proceed before the three-year planning stage for the monument management plan is up. The company believes that its own research and exploration explora-tion will help to determine the optimum opti-mum plan for multiple use under President Clinton's Sept. 18, 1996 promise that such use would continue. "Data collected from this well will be exceptionally useful in adding to the body of scientific knowledge about this part of the monument and in quantifying its oil and gas values. ... Oil and gas values are hard to establish without drilling," said SITLA director David Terry. Conoco is not interested in trading trad-ing leases because it does not know the actual value of its local area leases until exploration can be conducted. con-ducted. The proposed drill site is located on state land adjacent to an existing county road which would be used to transport drilling equipment. Conoco's Con-oco's Reese Canyon State 32 well will be located in Kane County. If (See Conoco's Representatives Meet Escalante Council On Page 5A) Conoco Reps Meet With Escalante From Page 1 Conoco's application is approved by the stale, drilling is expected to begin by the end of March to a proposed depth of 14,500 feet. The well will be drilled away from the highly scenic area of the monument and not in any wilderness wilder-ness area, the company has assured the state. The company feels that the data obtained from drilling will answer its questions about the feasibility of pursuing continued drilling, causing them either to walk away or pursue what it terms "significant dialogue about responsible multiple use." Conoco was founded in 1874 in Utah, and in 1995 had revenues of 17.7 billion and earnings of $655 million. It became a wholly-owned subsidiary of DuPont, one of the world's largest corporations, in 1981. A research and technology-based technology-based chemical and energy company, com-pany, DuPont operates some 180 manufacturing and processing facilities facil-ities in about 70 counlries around the world. At the council meeting, Swan- a video for council members, explaining ex-plaining the company's policies and its reputation for environmental responsibility. It has previously had operations, for example, in the environmentally sensitive Aransas Refuge in south Texas and the Arctic areas of Alaska and Russia. |