Wyo. Range gas lease buyout planned

A land conservation group has reached a long-sought agreement with a petroleum company to prevent a controversial gas drilling project by buying out a vast area of federal oil and gas leases in northwest Wyoming.

The Trust for Public Land announced in Jackson on Friday that it plans to buy out nearly 58,000 acres of leases from Houston-based Plains Exploration and Production Co.

The agreed-upon price is $8.75 million.

The deal would end PXP's plans to drill 136 gas wells near the Hoback River headwaters inside Bridger-Teton National Forest.