HELENA, Mont. — Speculation that the oil-rich Bakken shale formation may extend as far west as the Rocky Mountain Front is sparking increased leasing of land along the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains and in north-central Montana.

“This area has a lot of similar characteristics to the Bakken in eastern Montana — it’s like a baby brother,” Primary Petroleum president Mike Marrandino told the Independent Record for a story published Sunday. “It’s shallower, so it’s more accessible and you don’t have to compete with rigs in the western basin like in eastern Montana, so your costs are less.”

Three companies have either drilled or received permits to drill 37 exploration wells on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Glacier County since 2009. In the past year, at least 14 companies or individuals have spent millions of dollars to lease hundreds of parcels in Glacier, Teton, Toole, Pondera, Cascade and Lewis and Clark counties.

Marrandino said his company has been interested in exploration along the Front since about 2005, but three test wells drilled in 2009 and released in February 2010 that is spurring the latest land rush on oil leases.

The results estimated there were 13 million to 15 million barrels of recoverable oil per square mile, Marrandino said.

While oil leases in the Bakken formation in Canada and eastern North Dakota were selling for nearly $3,000 an acre, and few were available, leases along the Front ranged from $1.50 to $390 per acre.

Jim Jensen, executive director of the Montana Environmental Information Center, noted that many people believed the Front — an area rich in wildlife — was put off-limits to oil and gas exploration when leases on federal lands were bought over the past five years. However, state and private property still can be leased and developed.

Better technology that allows horizontal drilling is making exploration and development more feasible on the Front, since most state and federal lands don’t allow surface occupancy. Instead, companies can purchase leases and set up rigs on private land, go down a few thousand feet and then drill horizontally under the public lands.

John Grassy, a spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, said oil companies aren’t just showing an interest on the Rocky Mountain Front. He noted that Hill, Liberty and Chouteau counties in north-central Montana also are seeing increased drilling activity.

“Oil companies are always out there doing testing and speculation; it’s a huge part of what they do,” Grassy said. “We’re also hearing that the Bakken may be accessible from points further west than previously known, so that’s fueling some of the exploration.”

The revenues from the state leases, along with any royalties, are used to fund education.

Officials in Glacier National Park are concerned about drilling along the Front and how it might impact bull trout and grizzly bear habitat near the park, as well as the impact on the scenery if many wells are drilled.

DNRC Director Mary Sexton said the state prohibits surface occupation on state lands without special approval or an environmental impact statement being created when there is more than one drill pad per square mile.

Stoney Burk, a Choteau attorney, is a bit skeptical about whether the latest oil rush will pan out. He notes that land packages oil companies put together can be re-leased to another company at a higher rate and that companies might be touting the Front as part of the Bakken formation when it might not be true.

“There’s a lot of wheelers and dealers in the industry, and it serves them well as a middle man to hype up an area,” Burk said.

HELENA, Mont. — Speculation that the oil-rich Bakken shale formation may extend as far west as the Rocky Mountain Front is sparking increased leasing of land along the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains and in north-central Montana.