Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Ms. Sigley. My name is Colleen Sigley and I represent Amoco Production Co. We appreciate the opportunity to comment for this record. In order to be as responsive as possible to requests for informa tion, we asked our geologists to provide geologic favorability rat ings for Idaho's wilderness candidate areas. The ratings of high, medium, and low shown on the map at tached1 to this statement show the potential for oil and gas only. We make no representation as to the potential for other minerals or nonenergy resources. Amoco's experience in the Overthrust Belt has shown absolutely that as our knowledge of complex structural geology evolves, and as our ability to interpret data from advanced technology becomes more sophisticated, today's theories become quickly obsolete. We also learned in the Thrust Belt that withdrawal of small amounts of land from oil and gas exploration has the potential of having a major impact on future energy resources. It has been clearly demonstrated that very small areas of this complex province can hold major reserves of oil and gas. Amoco's Whitney Canyon plant, near Evanston, Wyo., will proc ess enough natural gas yearly to supply the annual heating and cooling requirements for one-half of a million homes. The life of the Whitney Canyon field is estimated to be 20 to 30 years, and this energy resource is concentrated under only 8,300 surface areas. Amoco includes in its exploration and production budget substan tial sums for environmental protection and reclamation. In leased areas where we plan drilling operations, we are fully cooperative in studies which are preliminary to approval of appli cations, such as archaeological surveys, threatened and endangered species evaluations. Further, the public doesn't realize that companies