Crows sign oil, gas exploration pact

The Crow Tribe and an energy firm from Gillette, Wyo., signed an agreement May 16 to explore for oil and natural gas on the southeastern Montana reservation.

The lease agreement, signed in Crow Agency, involves Golden Arrow Energy.

It came after the tribe did its own seismic testing and hired experts to interpret the data, said Joanie Rowland, the tribe’s mineral director.

The agreement includes a royalty rate significantly higher than the standard federal rate, “and we’re pretty proud of that,” Rowland said. “We chose Golden Arrow because they’re willing to work with us and meet federal standards or better.”

Greg Carlson of Golden Arrow said, “They offered us an opportunity for a lease and we took it.”

The agreement still must be approved by Tribal Chairman Carl Venne and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

In addition to a higher royalty rate, the lease agreement calls for Golden Arrow to follow an aggressive drilling schedule, Rowland said. Once BIA approves the agreement, Golden Arrow has 120 days to apply for a drilling permit from the Bureau of Land Management, and 60 days to begin drilling once a permit is approved.

The lease agreement is for 7,680 acres south of Crow Agency in an area called Squaw Creek.

Golden Arrow plans to drill five wildcat wells beginning sometime this summer. The exploratory wells will be to a depth of about 5,000 feet. While oil is the principal prospect, the exploration also may find gas, Carlson said.

“We’ll just have to see what we find. Each well is a new adventure,” he said.

The Crow Tribe marketed the area’s potential for oil by taking its seismic information to oil and gas producers at trade shows in Houston and Denver, Rowland said.

Golden Arrow has some development in Nebraska, Carlson said. Once the Nebraska project is finished, the company is coming to the Crow Indian Reservation.

—The Associated Press