Houston (Platts)--28Jan2013/521 pm EST/2221 GMT

In a land-use dispute dating back to the last few months of the George W. Bush administration, the US Bureau of Land Management said it would conduct additional environmental analyses for the Roan Plateau planning area, an environmentally sensitive area in northwestern Colorado.

The agency's action follows a decision by a federal judge in June to set aside the BLM's development plan which called for drilling up to 3,000 gas wells on top of the plateau. The ruling came in a suit brought against the BLM by 10 environmental groups, which contended that the bureau had failed to sufficiently analyze the impacts on the community and the environment from drilling on top of the plateau.

BLM spokesman David Boyd said Monday that the bureau would develop a new management plan that would examine several alternative development scenarios, including the so-called "community alternative" that calls for producers that hold leases on in the planning area to access the gas from directionally drilled wells from the slopes of the plateau rather than the top.

"We're proposing to use a full range of alternatives, from the no-lease alternative to the community alternative," he said.

In a statement Friday, the BLM said it would issue a supplemental environmental impact statement to "address deficiencies in its earlier environmental analysis and Resource Management Plan Amendment identified by the US District Court for the District of Colorado."

Boyd said the BLM issued a total of 31 oil and gas leases in August 2008 under the current Roan Plateau plan. Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp. holds 15 leases on top of the plateau, while Ursa Resources Group, Oxy USA and WPX Energy hold 16 leases below the rim.

All 31 leases are under suspension and will remain so until the question of whether drilling will be allowed on top of the plateau is resolved in the supplemental EIS, Boyd said.

Jim Fenton, a spokesman for Bill Barrett, said the company has appealed the court decision that caused BLM to launch the additional environmental analysis of the development project. "We believe the decision was flawed and BLM's analysis is therefore unnecessary," he said.

"We're glad to see the agency going back to the drawing board to do a new analysis. The Bush administration's plan for the Roan was grossly inadequate," said Mike Freeman, an attorney with the environmental law firm EarthJustice, which represented the plaintiff groups in the suit.

"The agency has a chance to do it right this time and give the Roan the protection is deserves," he said.

Freeman said under the proposed community alternative, Bill Barrett and the other leaseholders, by using directional drilling from perimeter of their leaseholds, would still be able to access 80% of the gas they would be able to recover if they drilled from the top.

In a statement, Kathleen Sgamma, vice president of government affairs for Western Energy Alliance, blasted the BLM decision to do additional analysis of the Roan, based on the court ruling.

"It's now been over 15 years since Congress mandated that the natural gas on the Roan Plateau be developed. BLM spent an exhaustive eight years conducting in-depth environmental analysis, and a judge found only minor deficiencies in their plan, which can be corrected relatively quickly," she said.

--Jim Magill, jim_magill@platts.com --Edited by Jeff Barber, jeff_barber@platts.com