Chaco Canyon’s Buffer Zone Issue With Oil And Gas Wells In New Mexico

Chaco Canyon’s Buffer Zone Issue With Oil And Gas Wells In New Mexico

Drilling rig in Mancos shale in vicinity of Chaco Canyon. On November 15, 2021, the Interior Department placed a 2-year pause of new oil and natural gas leasing on federal lands within a 10-mile buffer zone of Chaco Canyon. The Department is evaluating a longer ban for this area: 20-years. This part of the San Juan basin has seen drilling of shale oil wells in the past ten years, as the Gallup sandstone in the middle of the Mancos shale can support stable wells that are slowly spreading toward Chaco Canyon. Is this a standoff between Native Americans and oil and gas companies? Let's look at the facts and the different perspectives. The Chaco Culture National Park in Figure 1 is about 11 miles long and mostly 4 miles wide (although one tiny point is 7 miles wide). A 10-mile extension all round would make this are roughly 31 miles long by 24 miles wide. The perimeter won't be a box with straight sides, but this is an approximation. The area within the large box is a significant fraction (10%) of the San Juan basin that is 7, 500 square miles in area. In an oil and gas conference in