Group seeks to buy Wyoming Range drilling leases

A group opposed to natural gas drilling in the Wyoming Range says it wants to buy leases planned for development by Plains Exploration and Production Co., a move that would halt the company’s controversial project in its tracks. Yet negotiations are at a standstill as the company, also known as PXP, waits for an offer and the group waits for a price. The group, Citizens for the Wyoming Range, opposes the Houston-based company’s plan to drill 136 wells in the Noble Basin near Bondurant. The group has encouraged its members to email PXP officials and encourage the company to sell its drilling leases to a conservation-oriented buyer, said spokesman Dan Smitherman. The purpose of the email campaign and newly planned advertising efforts is to “let PXP know that Wyoming citizens and others who use this area want a buyout solution that benefits everyone,” Smitherman said in a May 18 email to the group’s members...more