But Utah's oil boom dramatically accelerated the filing of applications to drill. The Vernal office now takes from about 160 to 180 days to act on the request, because of the backlog. With complicated projects or those in environmentally sensitive regions, applications can take a year or a year and a half to process.

In the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, the office had 1,600 applications awaiting action, and it expected more to arrive. Without the pilot project, the carry-over next year might be around 2,000 applications.

"We did an exercise where we identified the kind of people" that the project would need to add, Stringer said. These are both BLM employees and experts from other agencies identified in the memorandum of understanding.

Until recently, three petroleum engineers worked in the office. One left recently, and the office is down to two. Stringer said it would need a total of four, so he expects to add two engineers.

"Wherever we've seen work slowing down . . . wherever there's a bottleneck . . . what we've done is tried to identify that and say we can improve the flow through here if we add another person." For the Vernal BLM operation, the agency is "looking at about 17 people" to join the staff.

Environmental compliance, inspection and enforcement, application processors and rights of way experts are among those needed.

"Some of those positions BLM is going to hire because they're inherently government," Stringer said. "There are others I am going to be looking to contract, because contract provides more flexibility."

The highest priority for additional expertise from another agency is for a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, he said. That agency's Utah headquarters in Salt Lake City is expected to hire someone who will be devoted to energy questions in the BLM Vernal office.

"They will be here at least some of the time," he said. Or the new person could be in Vernal full-time.

The changers are exciting but also complicated, he said.

"We need to find experienced folks to get into these positions and that's not the easiest thing in the world," Stringer said, "but we will do it."

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