Innovation Impacts Industry with a Double Edged Sword
Craig Ray, Keystone Synergies, explains how quickly innovation changes in Shale Play USA. Ray gives an example from the frac sand area of oil and gas.
“When OSHA came out and said they wanted to decrease acceptable levels of respiratable dust, silica dust. That put the onus on the industry to make changes.”
Bakken As A National Orphan Well Model?
North Dakota’s Abandoned Well program is becoming a model for the nation according to many within the industry. Helm said the US Department of Energy is developing a plan to spend $1.8 billion over three years plugging some of the 57,000 abandoned wells scattered throughout the county.
According to Helms the program will restore about 2,000 acres of land that can be used for agricultural purposes in the future. In addition to the federal dollars, the reclamation program will use $5 million from the Abandoned Well Plugging Site Restoration Fund and $3 million from single well bonds.
Bakken producers were shutting wells down in droves while leaving more uncertainty with the future of the play.
This prompted the North Dakota Industrial Commission to approve a plan to spend $33.2 million in federal CARES Act funds towards a program that will reclaim abandoned and orphan oil well sites.
For more information click here
Click here for IOGCC Study on Abandoned Wells
Colorado’s New Group of Regulator
Gov. Jared Polis on Monday named a new, five-member commission to take over crafting and putting in place major changes to Colorado’s oil and gas regulations, as the multibillion-dollar industry struggles with a global pandemic and slump in demand for energy.
The new, permanent board at the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will replace the nine members who for the last year have been overseeing implementation of Senate Bill 181, a sweeping reform of the state’s mineral extraction laws that puts public health and environmental considerations ahead of production.
The bill required that a professional commission be appointed by the governor by July 1 of this year.
The Crude Life Podcast can be heard every Monday through Thursday with a Week in Review on Friday.
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