Wyoming Oil and Gas Project Could Generate $375.5 Million in Royalties
The Bureau of Land Management said on Friday, Aug. 7 that they have “approved the development of up to 4,250 oil and gas wells for the Moneta Divide Project.”
“The project, proposed by Aethon Energy Management and Burlington Resources Oil and Gas Company LP, is expected to recover approximately 18.16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 254 million barrels of oil over the 65-year life of the project,” the BLM says. “The project could generate approximately $182 million per year in Federal royalties, $87.5 million per year in severance taxes for the State of Wyoming, and $106 million per year in County Ad Valorem taxes.”
The oil and gas wells would be drilled on a project area that includes “327,645 acres of public, state and private lands,” according to the BLM. 67% of the project area is on BLM managed public lands, 10% is state land and 23% is on private land.
ND Mineral Resource’s Well Plugging & Reclamation Three-Part Education Series
The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources has launched two of three separate programs to plug and later reclaim current abandoned well sites in the state. The $66 million cost of the project is coming from CARES Act funding authorized earlier this year by the state legislature’s Budget Section. The programs will create numerous job, while addressing one of the biggest challenges facing the oil industry.
The work is now being bid and well plugging is expected to sustain more than 600 oil and gas service sector jobs, with 300 to 500 additional jobs managing reclamation of the sites. The projects will keep skilled workforce in the state and others who invested in oilfield service companies. When fully and properly reclaimed, the wells and sites that have already been confiscated as a part of the process will return over 2,000 acres of land to farming, grazing or personal use for North Dakota surface owners.
Educational Series Outline:
Part 1: North Dakota’s Abandoned Wells (available here)
Part 2: Proper Plugging in North Dakota (available here)
Part 3: Reclaiming disturbed land in North Dakota (coming Aug 13)
The educational series can be found here.
New Documentary Film, ‘Juice,’ Challenges Elitism Of Anti-Growth Environmentalism
Robert Bryce is the Anthony Bourdain of energy. With the filmmaker Tyson Culver, he travels from Iceland to India to show “how electricity explains the world.” The word “juice” has been used as a synonym for electricity since at least 1896. It connotes “lively” and “energetic,” much like Bryce himself.
Industrialization powered by electricity is what drives economic development. For more than 250 years, the combination of manufacturing and industrial agriculture has been the engine of economic growth for nations around the world. And for the last half of that, industrialization powered by grid electricity has been at the center.
Increased wealth from manufacturing is what allows nations to build the roads, power plants, electricity grids, flood control, sanitation, and waste management systems that distinguish poor nations like the Congo from rich ones like Sweden.
Electricity makes possible the cities that liberate people from the oppression of farm life. Women and girls benefit the most.+
ND Land Commissioner Talks Late Payments
Jodi Smith, North Dakota Land Commissioner, responds to the recent news regarding past oil and gas royalties owed to the state and an update on where the companies are with their debt service to the state.
The Crude Life Podcast can be heard every Monday through Thursday with a Week in Review on Friday.
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