GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) – The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council has approved using $5.5 million that's part of a reservation oil exploration deal to buy land, build a grocery store, and give each tribal member a $200 payment.

Chairman Willie Sharp Jr. said the council approved the plan late last month.

Sharp said the money is coming from an agreement the tribe in northwest Montana signed in December with Houston-based Newfield Production Co. to allow test wells in the middle of the reservation.

Tribal officials have not released the value of the agreement, but Sharp gave some insight.

“We still have millions left,” after spending the $5.5 million, he said.

Grinnell Day Chief, the tribe's oil and gas manager, said eight new oil wells were drilled on the reservation last year. He said the tribe hopes to see 16 new wells this year.

“There would be no money spent if they aren't finding oil,” Day Chief said.

Sharp said the horizontal wells are being drilled into formations in a technique similar to a productive method used in northeastern Montana.

The tribe has previously said the wells will be drilled in the Bakken Formation and other formations. New drilling technology has made the Bakken Formation one of the nation's hottest oil exploration areas in recent years.

The planned grocery store will be built in Browning and cost $1.3 million, Sharp said. Besides offering jobs, he said, the store will provide competition to the town's other grocery store.

He said more than $3.2 million will be spent paying $200 apiece to the more than 16,000 enrolled tribal members.

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Information from: Great Falls Tribune,
http://www.greatfallstribune.com