Operators in the oil-producing Bighorn Basin in northcentral Wyoming say a new report that they should pay hundreds of millions of dollars more for bonding is targeted to put them out of business.
Carbon Tracker, a London-based think tank that analyzes the energy transition from carbon-based fuels to renewables, took a snapshot look in a case study of Wyoming’s energy-rich Bighorn Basin following a controversial rule change in drilling on federal public lands.
The think tank concluded that energy developers in the basin may need to pay as much as $900 million in higher bonding costs to deter them from walking away from their drilling sites and leaving a mess behind without financial incentive to clean up.
