The Jonah Field:

Jonah Field, located in southern Sublette
County, WY about 35 miles south of
Pinedale and about 70 miles north of Rock
Springs, after being “rediscovered” in the
early 1990’s was heralded as one of the
most significant on-shore natural gas
discoveries in the second half of the 20th
century.  Jonah represented a turning point
in natural gas production as the gas
contained in Jonah is trapped deep
underground in extremely “tight” sand
formations. New technologies and higher
gas prices allowed companies to lucratively
produce gas from an “unconventional”
source.  Due to the depth of the wells and
complexity of the perforation techniques
used to fracture the underground sand
formations, drilling and production in
Jonah requires substantially larger
workforce requirements over a longer
period of time then compared to
conventional on-shore fields. The success of
effective and lucrative gas extraction from
the tight sand field led the way to future
expansion of the nearby Pinedale Anticline
field a few years later.
Drilling in Jonah:

As of January 1st, 2008, there are
about 15 rigs drilling in Jonah,
which is down from an all-time
high of 22 in fall of 2006.

The amount of drilling activity
had increased dramatically in the
past few months, after the release
of the Jonah Infill Project Record
of Decision (see right).  However
the rig count dropped about half
of that increase over the winter
of 06/07.

Drilling in the Jonah Field began
in earnest in mid 1999, after the
initial BLM Jonah II Record of
Decision was released. Recently,
rig activity in the Jonah has more
than doubled in the past year,
after experiencing a decline
during 2002-2004.

In the summer of 2005, Jonah
was averaging about 9 rigs in
operation – slightly more than
the peak during 2001 –and
compared to about 6 rigs during
the summer of 2004 and 4 rigs
during the summer of 2003  
Click on Charts to Enlarge
Development
Project:

The Record of
Decision (ROD) and
the  Final
Environmental
Impact Statement
(FEIS) for the Jonah
Infill Project  has
been released by the
Bureau of Land
Management. The
documents
anticipates about
3,100 new wells to
be drilled in Jonah
over the next 12.5
years, effectively
doubling the number
of rigs in the Jonah
field  to about 20 at
any one time.

Read the ROD here.
Read the Jonah Infill
FEIS here.

Also released from
the BLM is a
Socioeconomic
Technical
Supplement for the
Jonah Infill FEIS,
covering the
anticipated
socioeconomic
effects of the project
for Sublette,
Sweetwater, and
Lincoln Counties.  
Read the Supplement
here.
Chart: Jonah Rig Count 01/00 to 1/01/08
Chart: Jonah Rig Count as a percent of the
County Total 01/95 to 09/01/06
Seasonal Fluctuations:

Drilling in the Jonah field has
shown the least amount of
negative seasonal fluctuations,
increasing by large percentages
during the winters of 1997,
2001, 2003-2006. (Please see
chart below, click for a bigger
picture).

In the winter of 2006, Jonah
drilling activity increased by
about 63% from the summer
before. In the Jonah increased
by about 20% from the previous
summer.  Due to seasonal
restrictions on drilling in the
nearby Pinedale Anticline, it
appears than many Anticline
rigs migrate to Jonah during the
winter months.
Chart: Winter Decrease in Jonah Rig Count
(Actual Number) 1996-2006
Unless otherwise noted, all contents of this
website are property of the Sublette County
Socioeconomic Analysis Advisory Committee.
Please Contact Us for permission to use.
All Rig Count Data is from Drilling Records Inc./Divestco, USA.
Download the Rig Count Dataset Here.