State: Oil output may triple at national preserve

BIG CYPRESS NATIONAL PRESERVE -- Within this sprawling preserve, endangered Florida panthers roam among cypress trees and oil pumps that pull up 3,000 barrels of crude a day.

That output could more than triple if a family that still owns drilling rights here wins new permits. Environmentalists worry about the impact of more roads, seismic surveying, drilling and pipelines.

"Because there's an extensive number of endangered species in the area, this is not an appropriate place to have widespread drilling," said Brian Scherf, board member of the Florida Biodiversity Project, an environmental group.

Besides the Florida panther -- only 70 are believed to remain in the wild -- the 729,000-acre Big Cypress National Preserve is home to deer, alligators, black bears, wading birds and other protected animals. It's also a watershed for neighboring Everglades National Park.

Park officials say they can't guess at the impact of increased drilling.

"We don't know what the panther can tolerate," said Don Hargrove, the preserve's environmental protection specialist.

The oil production company, Barron Collier Cos., says the current operation shows that nature and pumps can coexist.

On a recent weekday, general manager Robert Duncan drove slowly down a one-lane, 11-mile dirt road to a well field called Raccoon Point in the preserve's southeast corner.

Duncan pointed out saplings at a drilling site used from 1978 to the early 1980s, saying the natural return of cypress and pines shows that oil drilling has had a minimal effect on the Big Cypress ecosystem.

He also said generators that produce electricity for well pumps can't be heard in the surrounding forests. Deer have been seen among the wells, and park biologists have found Florida panthers in the area.

Environmentalists and the industry agree a spill at the well head is unlikely. The extracted oil is a slow-moving, tarlike substance that is relatively easy to contain, fields are manned 24 hours a day and the pumps automatically shut down during a pressure problem.

The oil is piped underground for 17 miles to tanker trucks outside the preserve. The trucks take the oil to port for shipment to Gulf Coast refineries.

"This is as clean an operation as I've ever seen," Duncan said. "It's nearly benign."

On a national scale, the amount of oil produced at the preserve is tiny, less than 0.5 percent, though it is 20 percent of the state's output.

The production company is run by descendants of Barron Collier, a New York advertising magnate who bought up 1.25-million acres of southwest Florida in the 1920s.

The Collier family sold the land for the preserve to the federal government in 1974 but retained the mineral rights. Today, the relatives believe, there remain "substantial oil prospects in the area," said Paul Marinelli, president and chief executive of the Collier Cos.

The company has applied for permits for seismic testing and exploratory wells at 24 sites in the preserve, as well as one in the nearby Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge.

With each permit, the Colliers plan to drill 9,000 to 15,000 holes in a 40-square-mile grid to detonate dynamite in a process to gauge whether any oil is underground.

While the Colliers wait for a decision on their first permit -- a process that could take another two months -- the park service is updating its 10-year-old regulations for oil and gas exploration.

Drilling can now disrupt up to 10 percent of the preserve, and the family wants a higher figure so more wells could be in production at the same time. Current drilling disturbs 2 percent of the preserve, according to park figures.

A federal buyout of the minerals could stop the drilling altogether, but it's unlikely because of wide-ranging estimates on the oil's worth.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk