Oil company rebuffed on Glen Canyon bid

An oil drilling company has been denied access to explore for petroleum deposits on federally owned lands in Glen Canyon.

The National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management announced Monday that an environmental assessment for a proposal to drill in the Circle Cliffs area has been rejected.

Viking Oil Exploration, Inc. acquired mineral rights to the land in southern Utah in 1969. At that time, the land was administered by the BLM. It is now part of the National Park Service, specifically Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Capitol Reef National Park, both of which were created after the lease was issued.

The company submitted an application for the exploratory drill in 1990, and the National Park Service and BLM were to jointly prepare an environmental assessment to determine the effects of the single well. The agencies said they were unable to complete the environmental assessment because critical information about the project was not provided, so the request was denied. Viking's lease also expired Feb. 28.