Utah officials have turned a small piece of protected wildlife habitat into a rare, $1.8-million windfall after seeking sealed bids for the rights to tap oil and gas under the 270-acre Kevin Conway Wildlife Management Area, near the Uinta Basin town of Myton.
The winning bidder, Calgary-based Crescent Point Energy, paid top dollar despite a requirement that it not disturb any ground inside the area’s marshlands and migratory waterfowl habitat while the company extracts the oil and gas.
“The operators will have to come in from off site. They have the technology to do that,” said Bill James, assistant habitat section chief for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR).