Moneta Divide Oil and Gas Field Development

Moneta Divide is a proposed onshore natural oil and gas field development in the state of Wyoming, US.

The project is being developed by Aethon Energy Management and Burlington Resources Oil and Gas Company.

Aethon Energy Management and its partner RedBird Capital Partners acquired the Moneta Divide assets from Encana Oil and Gas in May 2015.

The environment impact assessment (EIA) process of the Moneta Divide field was commenced in 2011, while the final environmental impact statement (EIS) and resource management plan (RMP) for the project were released in February 2020.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of the US Department of the Interior (DOI) granted approval for the development of Moneta Divide oil and gas project in August 2020.

The development period of the Moneta Divide oil and gas field will last up to 15 years, while the project’s operational life is expected to span 65 years.

The project is expected to provide several permanent jobs in local communities and generate $375.5m per year in royalties and taxes.

The Moneta Divide oil and gas field location and site details

The Moneta Divide oil and gas field will be developed on approximately 327,645 acres of land along the US 20/26 route near the town of Lysite, in Fremont and Natrona counties, Wyoming, US.

Nearly 67% of the field area occupies the BLM managed public lands, with 10% on Wyoming state and State Park lands. The remaining 23% of the project area is on private lands.

Oil and gas reserves at Moneta Divide

The Moneta Divide natural oil and gas field is estimated to hold approximately 18.16 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas and approximately 254 million barrels of oil in recoverable reserves.

Moneta Divide oil and gas field development plan

The onshore oil and gas development project will involve up to 4,250 oil and gas wells in the production area.

Aethon Energy plans to develop 4,100 wells at the rate of 300 wells a year over 15 years. However, drilling of each individual well is subject to the approval of the BLM.

A single drilling pad will be used for drilling two-thirds of the wells vertically, while multi-well pads comprising four wells each will be used for drilling the remaining one-third of wells directionally.

Burlington will drill 150 wells vertically from 150 single-well pads at the rate of 25 wells per year. 

Infrastructure facilities 

The proposed infrastructure at the Moneta Divide oil and gas development field will include ten central processing facilities, evaporation ponds, a central gas plant, and two treated water discharge pipelines to the Boysen reservoir.

The facility will also include 160 disposal wells, 10 in Madison, and 150 in Shotgun disposal areas, along with the construction of roads, overhead power transmission, and pipeline network.

The existing reverse-osmosis water clean-up plant, which is known as the Neptune water treatment facility, will be utilised to clean the water produced in the field to meet drinking water quality.

The pipeline network will consist of a disposal well feeder pipeline to Madison disposal area and a product pipeline from the production area to Wamsutter, Wyoming.

The other infrastructure facilities will include access roads, pipelines, 20 semi-transportable compressor stations, and other ancillaries.

Contractors involved

ERM carried out water quality assessment for the Moneta Divide onshore oil and gas development project in 2017. 

Cultural Resource Analysts (CRA) was engaged for environmental assessment of the Moneta Divide oil and gas field. 

Encana contracted GE and Dow Water Process Solutions for the construction of the Neptune water treatment facility within the Moneta Divide field area in February 2014. The US-based engineering and consulting firm STV was engaged in the design and process engineering for the water treatment facility.

Capital One Securities, Crowley Fleck PLLP, and Weil, Gotshal and Manges LLP advised Aethon for the acquisition of Moneta Divide assets from Encana in May 2015. RedBird was advised by Evercore and Gardere Wynne Sewell for the deal.