Glen Canyon spokesman Kevin Schneider said Wednesday that the two agencies jointly decided to end an environmental assessment of the proposal to drill an exploratory well after Denver-based Viking Exploration was unable to answer detailed questions about the project.

“We did not have enough specific information to be able to move forward,” Schneider said. “These were questions about very specific site impacts. Without answers, it was impossible to continue the environmental assessment.”

The four or five leases involved in the company's proposal are located in the Circle Cliffs area of the Glen Canyon NRA. The leases date back to 1969, before the creation of the recreation area.

The Sierra Club blocked a similar proposal during the early 1970s.

The BLM suspended the leases until 1990, when Viking Exploration, which owned the leases, applied for a drilling permit.

In 2005, company President Chuck Einarsen called the leases “one hell of an oil field,” claiming the oil deposits underneath the 730-acre area could be worth upwards of $24 billion.

The company also claimed the wells could be drilled in an environmentally safe fashion that would limit the amount of infrastructure that would be needed, minimizing impacts. Einarsen said Wednesday he was bitterly disappointed with the decision.

“I've been waiting 16 years for them to approve the [drilling permit],” he said. “Then they sent me two letters with [60] questions they wanted me to answer, and gave me 30 days to respond. To me they were so unreasonable in their request that it was impossible to comply with all the crap that didn't even have any bearing on the impact of the one well.”

The Viking proposal was opposed by a coalition of environmental groups, including the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society.

SUWA attorney Steve Bloch on Wednesday called the whole proposal a bad idea, particularly in terms of the precedent it would have set.

“It was ill-conceived from the start,” Bloch said.

Einarsen said he would appeal the decision.

“I may have to sue them before it's all over with,” he said. “I think we've got a helluva good case.”

jbaird@sltrib.com