The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has opened a public comment period for a proposed conveyor system on public lands to move sand for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, Kallanish Energy reports.
The Kermit Overland Conveyor Project is being developed by Texas-based OLC Kermit LLC, a subsidiary of Atlas Sand Co. LLC.
The overland sand conveyor would run 16.4 miles from Loving County, Texas, to Lea County, New Mexico.
The project calls for a 60-acre offloading facility in Loving County and a 23.9-acre offloading facility in Lea County.
The company is seeking a permanent 70-foot-wide right of way across federal lands for the construction, operation and maintenance of the covered conveyor system.
The project, if approved, would reduce the number if trucks hauling sand for fracking in West Texas and New Mexico and improve public safety.
The conveyor system would reduce the number of miles driven by sand-hauling trucks by about 25 million miles per year or 47%, the federal agency said.
The project would create up to 715 construction jobs locally for 18 months and about 36 full-time jobs through the 28.5-year operational period.
The project had been announced last January.
BLM has completed an environmental assessment report on the project. It is available here.
The comment period runs through Sept. 28.
In related news, the BLM raised $8,284,586 from its oil and natural gas lease sale on Aug. 26-27 on public lands in New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma.
The agency had offered 113 parcels totaling 48,776 acres.
The highest bid per acre was $21,512 which was sold to Federal Abstract Co. for 120 acres in Eddy County, New Mexico.
The same parcel received the highest bid per parcel at $2,581,790.
About half of the revenue from the sale goes to the states with the rest going to the U.S. Treasury.
This post appeared first on Kallanish Energy News.