CHEYENNE - A color like desert tan doesn't blend well against a background of juniper trees and shouldn't be used to paint oil and gas field facilities in vegetated areas, according to a new Bureau of Land Management policy.

Paint is one tool in the Best Management Practices (BMP) approach the BLM wants its project managers to consider when reviewing applications for permits to drill, said Rebecca Watson, the assistant secretary of the Interior for Land and Mineral Management.

Watson was in Cheyenne to announce the new policy designed to protect the environment and reduce long-term impacts on the land from oil and gas activity.

She made the announcement Tuesday during the National Fluids Mineral Conference at the Holiday Inn.

Watson said the policy isn't mandatory because it must be site specific.

One oil and gas development site, she said as an example, was in the neighborhood of a high-end residential subdivision. It made sense, she said, to hide the compressor behind a metal barn that fits into the landscape.

"That wouldn't make sense on the prairie," she said.

Awards will go to the BLM field offices and industries that do the best job with the new policy which Watson said will be "strongly recommended" as part of the application for permit to drill (APD) review.

"We think this challenges industry and the BLM to think outside the box (about) how to develop without impacting other public lands," she said.

As another example, she said a company can build a two-track road rather than a regular gravel BLM road to an oil and gas site to minimize splitting up wildlife habitat. Or perhaps the company can access the site with satellite technology, she said.

"The company also can start reclaiming the road before the company is finished with the site," Watson said.

And again, there is paint. The BLM Web site includes a palette of earth colors suggested for tanks and rigs on an oil and gas drilling site as well as examples of use of the proper shade to blend the equipment into the landscape.

"The difference between a silver structure and a juniper green structure is tremendous," Watson said.

She said that while the development of oil and gas is important to the national economy, it is not the dominant use on public lands.

"And contrary to many reports, industry does not have carte blanche on public lands to develop oil and gas," she said. "The Bureau of Land Management is committed to multiple use management. Oil and gas is a temporary use and we want it managed as a temporary use."

With increased demand for natural gas outstripping the supply, production must continue, she said.

"We predict there will be a 14 percent gap between the demand and the supply of natural gas by the year 2020," Watson said.

The Wyoming BLM office is expected to meet the target set by Congress of 3,000 APDs processed this year.

The BLM is encouraging industry to come in with pods of 20 to 30 wells to streamline the permitting process.

"But they're not doing that," Watson said. "They're coming to us with one to eight or one to three. It takes almost as much time to process small pods as large pods."

"I'm very pleased with what we're seeing in Wyoming," she added. "The Buffalo office is one of the busiest offices with oil and gas anywhere."

"We have to do it in a balanced way," she added. "We have to take into consideration the views of the people who live in Wyoming, their values. Hunting and wildlife are really important to Wyomingites. Hunting and tourism are big parts of the state economy."