Welcome to The County Seat, I'm Chad Booth.
A recent article in the Deseret news pointed out
that energy giant EOG is finally crossing the
halfway mark to develop 4.17 trillion tons of
natural gas over a 20 year period in the Uintah
Basin, bringing over a billion dollars to Utah in
Royalties, 526 million to counties and schools.
It has taken almost 9 years to get here and it
could take another five to get to market. Why
does it take so stinkin' long? Well depending
upon the land you are prospecting it might not
as Ria explains, by solving a story problem, in
the basics.
This is the Story of two Utah Oil and Gas prospectors
Derriik and Jack. They both have leases on
public land to explore and produce natural gas.
Derrick's lease is on state land, while Jacks is on
federal land. Question. Who will pump gas first?
To solve for Derrick's X there are four steps to
follow: First off, the Staff at Division of Gas Oil
and Mines {DGOM} makes sure that things are
legit like well location, well spacing, and that
the proper leases exist. If all information is
accurate, the well gets an official well number.
Next, the Landowner, Division inspector, and
the operator visit the proposed location to
determine exactly where the well will be drilled,
and determine any impacts to wildlife, surface
water, etc. Step number 3. This is where all the
drill ducks get put in a row. The division checks
the geology, hydrology, determines what
bonding needs to be in place to make sure
Derrick cleans up after himself, and that there is
sound engineering in the drill plan. Finally, the
last hurdle to a permit is a Statement of Basis,
which is a document that lays out all the things
they have to do to have a safe, happy and
productive well. When this is in hand... Voilà! A
permit is issued. Time frame from application
to approval for the Division of Oil, Gas and
Mining, on state land is: 45 to 60 days, maybe
90 in a pinch. Worst case is a couple of months.
Now let's look at Jack's problem. By the time
Derrick has his permit and is setting up his rig,
Jack is typically not even a quarter way through
the first step in his sixteen step journey to a
permit. You see there is a very different kind of
math that has to be done to solve Jacks
equation when he is on federal land. {Get a
pencil, this might get complicated} We will
condense this just a bit, so you don't get
writer's cramp. It starts when Jack gets his
lease and the clock starts ticking. He will have
10 years to start development or the land goes
back up for lease, which, believe it or not, might
be cutting it kind of close. Second, Jack files a
Notice of Staking or NOS to let BLM know
where he intends to drill. The BLM then
schedules an inspection which is posted for a
30-day review before it can take place. After
this inspection, an environmental team meets
to review issues of wildlife, water, air quality
and so on. If there are issues, new federal
agencies will need to get involved with their
own process, adding their own timeline before
leasing can proceed. These might include, U.S.
Fish and Wildlife, the E.P.A., Bureau of Indian
Affairs, The bureau of Reclamation, Forest
Service, you get the idea. After Jack works with
each of them and they each complete their own
agency process, it becomes part of the
Environmental Assessment. If Jack clears that
hurdle, he can now drill a test well to see what
he finds. If he finds gas, he moves ahead, if he
doesn't; he starts all over again. According to
studies by the Western Energy Alliance, it's
been an average of about 3 years to this point.
So Jacks got gas! He now has to develop a
detailed, technical and economic drilling plan.
When this is complete, BLM will decide whether
to start to prepare an Environmental Impact
Statement. On average, this could take the
agency as long as 6 years to complete, maybe
longer. The EIS will consider geology,
archeology, hydrology, and a list of possible
other "ologies", not to mention public comment
periods, which could trigger other studies. By
the time Jack gets all of his drill ducks in a row,
Jack is about 17 years older than when he
started. That might explain why it has taken
energy giant, EOG, eight years to just get part
way through their quest to sink gas wells in the
ground, bringing one billion dollars in state
royalties and an additional half million dollars to
Utah counties and schools. And that makes
solving for X, a really big number. The story
problem with Jack and Derrick is solved, but the
issues with permiting remain. wich is why secretary Zinke
signed and order to streamline the process last summer
So here is where I pass the hat Chad to continue the disccusion
on The County Seat. I am Ria Rossi Booth
Welcome back to the County seat we are having
our discussion today once again we find
ourselves in Uintah County the County
Courthouse joining us for the conversation. Ron
Winterton from Duchenne County Commissioner
and the chair of the Uintah County commission
and I might add a 30+ year veteran of the BLM
Bill Stringer. Thank you for joining us for the
conversation.
If you had a magic wand based on your three
decades of experience and you say I realize this
is a problem. And I would like to help local
communities have a better experience with this.
How would you wave that magic wand? In fact,
here is the magic wand. Go ahead and wave it
ha ha.
To stick to the process, from here on out we will
follow the BLM and the associated agencies will
only follow the process as is outlined that there
are no it's really not that hard to. It's not that
hard to follow the steps of collecting the data
and of writing up the impacts what happens is
there becomes a debate on whether that's the
right way to say it or if there's something else
that could be added or should be added. It
becomes more of a subjective exercise and
objective exercise.
I think that a lot of times during this process you
have to step back because there are allowing so
much public comment in it and that there are
special interest groups that want to derail the
project and so that causes a big delay. And so,
we address those interests, and then we come
back to the main objective and get moving
again. When something else is thrown.
How big of an impact does this have on
communities with the tortoise ness of the
process?
Well, you get a company of a pretty good size
their game plan is looking 10 or 12 years down
the road. And they got to have this process
going on for several development plans and in
the meantime if they don't have someplace
where they can send their workers. They either
leave state and go somewhere else or they just
lay them off and so that keeps coming back to
the locals as to how you keep that workforce
engaged and if they have some inventory might
be state ground or private ground that's kind of
the backup plan in the meantime, while we are
waiting for these others to get processed were
going to go there.
If EOG gets these thousand wells they're talking
about a 20-year execution client so 10 years into
their execution plan if it took eight to get the next
one. 10 years in they should be starting the next
round of thousand wells?
Yes, and Newfield has done that. That area out
there was inland oil. I believe and over the years
there has been expansion because they found
out more as they went, and Newfield did a good
job of realizing how many APD's they have left
before they ran out and they started the process
of looking down the road. And that makes it
easier for BLM if you've got an area that's been
looked at you look at the new proposal you have
all this baseline information, plus you have good
hard data that you didn't have when you did this
one.
One thing that Bill was saying. If we are going to
go out after 1000 and the public will look at that
and go they're just going to rape and pillage the
ground. And yet no were looking at a 10 or 15-
year program here and so they're going to spend
those thousand wells over a long period of time
not just one big surge and so that's the thing that
sometimes pretty hard for people to understand
is that were just really drilling holes everywhere.
It's not that way.
And that's an interesting thing to point out
because they are talking about 1000 wells in this
EOG project and so somebody might be sitting
at home in their armchair in Salt Lake City and
they're going. A Thousand oil derricks you know
1000 pump jacks or gas towers that's not how it
works though is it?
No, now they'll take a pad of say 8 acres and
say 16 wells on it and then when they reclaim it
down to what service they actually need. You
might have wells going under the ground
directional but you only have one wellhead
basically just to speak of, or for and then the
equipment that goes with it you'll have fewer
amount of tanks on the location instead of every
location in a would have probably 2 to 3 tanks
on their you know, one for water a couple for the
oil and then compressor and processor but now
you not see that you're seeing that for eight or
10 in one location.
Bill, do you think that makes multiple use and
multiple enjoyment of the land. A little bit better
with the new technology and how they
consolidate?
It is, and it actually changes the way BLM looks
at the environmental impact and when we did
the resource management plans that were
completed in 2008 we were still working on a
theory of one well one vertical well with about 3
acres of disturbance including the pad the road.
The pipeline and that has I think as
Commissioner Winterton just said that is no
longer the case. So, if there were 1000 wells
that were going to be planned under the old
RMP there would be 3000 acres of disturbance.
But when you can pad drill and put in some
cases there are very large numbers of wells 24
to 30 wells on a single pad you've cut it way
down. Instead of, say, 30 wells and 300 acres
you're down to 15.
One would think that would make some of the
groups that protest all these drilling permits less
concerned about it because it's not marring the
landscape quite as much.
You would hope that that would be the
reasoning for it. But they're still there. And there
are just groups that are against fossil fuels. And
as I look around I don't know anything that we
do in today's society that we don't depend on
fossil fuels for. Whether it's your clothes you
know or get to work go out to recreate all of us,
like the water and so we need that.
pens, ha ha.
Yes, everything in our daily walks of life depends
on fossil fuels.
I guess to address that. My concern or what I
saw the evolution of neepa over the years was
neepa was not that complex of a law in the
beginning and just over time as things arose that
were unforeseen by Congress and developed.
Then the law became more complicated, as I sit
and look at what happened in Vernal watched
the resource issues change and it changed
because better information for one but BLM
continues the EPA they continue to advance the
level of evaluation the level of evaluation today
for air quality is leaps and bounds beyond where
it was 10 years ago BLM used to do air quality
evaluations based on a near field and far field
very simple and now it's one atmosphere models
for ozone and for a variety of things. And so, the
impacts that he would've seen are reducing but
it seems like every time as advancements are
made and environmental impacts are lessened.
Then, something new comes along to
complicate the process. Now, I think it's left to
the observer to decide whether those are trivial
or whether they're meaningful, but I think as long
as you keep adjusting to and addressing those
impacts. I'm not sure why there would be so
much opposition. No one wants a dirty
environment. Nobody wants dirty air to breathe.
No one wants dirty water to drink but a lot of
those things have been addressed way beyond
what was.
Ever intended.
Well, maybe not intended but believed possible.
And yet it seems as if it's still an issue and it's
still an uphill climb.
One last take away if there is something each of
you thinks that the audience should know that
we haven't covered today?
The only thing that I would say is what can help
everybody involved and that is a large number of
agencies who have their fingers in the pie a
large number of people who are interested on
both sides is communication the better the
communication the earlier communication, the
more opportunity you have to reduce or have to
reduce something later on. I said I wish this
really was a magic wand.
Is part of it. Also, the attitude in which your
listening and communicating?
Always
if you could look at the betterment of all what is
best it's not one side versus the other side. What
makes sense and if we can go in and try to
come out with some kind of a resolution and
resolve it and work forward. I mean, it's win-win.
Not everybody gets everything they want, but if
we can compromise to the point where this is
good and both sides see that were going to
reclaim this. It's not just going to be a scar or
that we are going to lessen the impact were
concerned about our air quality here are not
going to do something that is going to jeopardize
our health.
Let's hope we can find a streamlined solution.
Gentlemen, thank you for taking your time today.
We've talked about a lot of wells. When we
come back we will look at what happens after
the well party is done and they've packed up and
left. How does a clean it up? It's a very
interesting story. Will be back with our on the
ground segment on the County seat.
Welcome back to The County Seat. Much of the
permitting that takes place is to make sure that
when the drilling and pumping are over, the
land is recovered. That is a remarkable process
that has, with science beet Mother Nature at
her own game as Producer John Meier finds out
On The Ground.
I couldn't do what I do if I wasn't convinced it's
a win win. We go in on a site where Oil's been
extracted, or coals been mined, we can actually
bring it back to a better condition than it was
prior the activity.
You go through and you get a percent cover in
here, so each species, the sage brush you know
is about twenty five percent.
Reclamation honestly should start the day you
locate the well. The day you site the well is the
day you need to be concerned about
reclamation. So you can't come into a site like
this that has been built for a year and do
miracles with it. Unless you have done the pre
work first. And that's where its critical people
understand that you need to go out before it's
disturbed to make a determination on what it
needs to look like after its put back. So if you
start out day one, do it right, your costs are less
and your success is great.
What oil and gas has done with pipeline
corridors and with pads and so on, is they have
opened up these old mature climax stands of
pinion juniper and greasewood and so on. And
once the activity is largely done mines, the pads
producing, the oil's producing, the coal mines
producing, they come in and do
interReclamation and they re-vegetate these
areas. And the re-vegetation provides excellent
forage for Elk, Deer, and this is typical of this
area
If you go out in nature and observe snow and
water collects in low places. And by pot marking
we create these small depressions, you can see
all the snow drifts in it also lasts or stays later in
the year and as a result we get a lot more
vegetation in the low areas then we do say,- on
top of this hill that's a lot dryer
We can work with wherever the Oil company
puts the well. But if we can have a little bit of
insight on how to position it we can usually
insure better success on reclamation.
I don't think we can improve on Mother Nature
what we strive to do is expedite it, we try to get
the end result in less then a hundred years,
more like three to five years, we try to
maximize those things Mother Nature has given
us to work with. That's top soil moisture we try
to use those to our benefit to control erosion to
concentrate moisture and to ensure success. So
essentially we are doing exactly what nature
does we are just trying to better utilize what we
have to work with.
We will be back with some final thoughts right
after this.
Welcome back to The County Seat. This whole
process of permits to explore and develop
energy has puzzled me for many years. I have
toured the gas fields in Uintah County driven
through the oil wells in Duchesne County. I have
been out on the Tavaputs Plateau and looked at
recovered well pads, that after 18 months, you
would have to stand in the middle of it to even
see that it had been touched by man. I have
viewed active operations and mitigation on
federal land and state land. To be honest, I
could not tell one from another, during or after
the fact.
So the problem does not lie on the ground, a
state well is not inferior or superior to a well
permitted on federal land. It is just a quicker
process to get one.... substantially. , So what
prompts all the paperwork and delay? IF the
land ends up looking the same after it is
mitigated, why all the bother? Well, many
would say obstruction is the reason and the
tactic. To try to "necessarily bankrupt" the
industry to borrow a well-known quote.
I rather think that, aside from the obvious
administration level politics that Bill mentioned
in our discussion, it is really a process that we
see in government all the time. Big government
systems lack trust, and appropriately placed
accountability. Simply put the control is in the
wrong place, it is at the top, thousands of miles
away from where the exchange takes place. I
would bet fair money that many of the
regulations that slow the permitting process
down to a 15 year sentence were created by
people who have never stepped foot on a well
pad, or conducted a field biology study.
So to make sure that they can control it from
Washington, too much work has to be done,
and too many special interests have a say in the
process. Instead of three or four reasonable
experts determining what would be the best
way to achieve the goal, it becomes hundreds
of people, thousands of hours of work and
millions of dollars to accomplish the same thing.
It is kind of like grandma in the kitchen, left
alone she can crank out a pretty good pizza for
the grandkids to enjoy. She has a good recipe
and knows all the shortcuts to good.
It gets messed up when there are 15 other
people in the kitchen all trying to make that one
pizza to their own recipe. It will take longer and
will taste nowhere near as good. That's my two
cents, if you disagree, politely bring on the
conversation so we can all talk about it. Here
are the links to our Facebook, twitter, YouTube
and Instagram. We'll be back next week to talk
again, on The County Seat.
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