Contact: Hans Stuart, 505-660-0164

Devon Energy Corporation, Marbob Energy Corporation Receive Restore New Mexico Awards

Santa Fe – Devon Energy Corporation and Marbob Energy Corporation were presented “Restore New Mexico” awards today by the BLM and the New Mexico Association of Conservation Districts (NMACD) at an annual meeting of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association in Santa Fe.

The awards are given to partners who go above and beyond responsible business and environmental practices in working with the BLM, NMACD, and other partners to restore and enhance rangelands in New Mexico.

Both Devon and Marbob have contributed funding to NMACD to help fund restoration efforts.  [The BLM, NMACD and other partners restored more than 250,000 acres of grasslands on public lands last year; see BLM’s October 5, 2007, news release.] 

Devon Energy Corporation
In addition, Devon reclaimed several oil and gas field locations built by a previous operator where the BLM was planning to reclaim historic well pad and road locations to restore habitat for two species of concern, the sand dune lizard and lesser prairie chicken.

Devon is also developing and implementing a series of Best Management Practices to minimize or mitigate the impacts of oil and gas development, such as interim reclamation once wells are drilled.  Devon uses GIS technology to identify possible resource issues and/or conflicts, including well location and infrastructure such as pipelines, electric lines and access roads.  This planning has protected sensitive wildlife habitat, by managing for habitat fragmentation as well as mitigating overall watershed health.  It has also improved BLM efficiencies and analyses considering resource and cumulative impacts. 

In addition, Devon has sponsored industry meetings with produced water contractors to spread the message about illegal produced water dumping and the industry’s intent to stop this process.  Devon has also sponsored workshops utilizing BLM specialists to provide Devon and other industry personnel with information they can use to achieve better business practices and reclamation.

Marbob Energy Corporation
In addition to helping fund Restore New Mexico efforts through NMACD, Marbob is supporting innovative work regarding future oil and gas development and archeological research that will enable the BLM to resolve potential conflicts between planned development and the protection of archaeological sites. 

Marbob is sponsoring the ‘Bear Grass Draw Site Pooling Project,’ an archaeological testing program east of Artesia, New Mexico.  By looking at a large group of sites, archaeological resources within areas of planned development are being evaluated for their research potential and enable areas with significant sites to be more thoroughly investigated.  The data provided by this project will also provide information on local soils and the relationship of surface artifacts to subsurface archaeological deposits in the Mescalero Sands, helping guide future archaeological research.  This creative mitigation approach will allow development within certain areas while furthering our knowledge of the prehistory of the region. 

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