Here are this week’s special guests and energy experts on The Crude Life Week In Review Episode 484.
The Mayor of Williston Howard Klug may be the busiest man in the Bakken right now.
“Just got done with a two-hour meeting with the National Guard Emergency Management and statewide radio, the days just keep going,” Mayor Klug said. “The day started with a county liaison meeting and unfortunately the Senior Center ‘s cook quit so I’m the back up cook so I had to do Meals On Wheels.”
This is exactly the type of day the Mayor of Williston is having these days. Safety meetings with the National Guard, logistics with the locals and stepping up with the spatula when workforce issues hit the Senior Center.
The population of the Williston micropolitan statistical area, which includes Williston and the surrounding Williams County, exploded in population during the “Bakken Boom”. Between the 2010 Census and the 2020 Census, there were 22,398 people in 2010 and 40,950 in 2020 – an increase of 83%.
Current construction projects are keeping many workers in the city busy, while the airport is still showing terrific flight trends. The Williston Basin International Airport (XWA) replaced the Sloulin Field International Airport (ISN) after serving Williston for nearly three-quarters of a century and demonstrated to the world it was unique and an airport of importance.
The Williston Basin International Airport is a greenfield facility that requires a significant amount of land for runways and terminals, something that is very difficult to come by in most urban areas, plus there needs to be support from surrounding communities that would be impacted by new flight patterns. Lots of red tape and kite strings for airports to consider.
St. George Regional Airport (SGU) in Utah was the last new facility in the U.S. when it opened in January 2011. Prior to that, the list is short: Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport (ECP) on the Florida Panhandle opened in 2010, Branson (BBG) in Missouri opened in 2009, Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) opened in 1998, and Denver International Airport opened in 1995.
The interview also discusses the oil and gas industry and what companies are currently keeping busy as well as what is happening with several empty building around the area.
“We’ve added cells to our landfill paid for by oilfield waste and those kinds of things, so now we are good there for another 60-70 years,” Klug said. “Same thing with our Public Works Building, we consolidated everything downtown, I’m a big fan of keeping government together.”
America’s Energy Influencer Sarah Stogner explains what Zombie Wells are and how social media is carving a whole new narrative for oil and gas.
According to Stogner, Zombie Wells are wells that have a “downhole condition that has not been confirmed and you do not have enough of the data to know what’s happening downhole. And they are bouncing back to life, springing back to life, coming back from the dead.”
Stogner continues explaining why the Zombie Wells have come back to life after being dormant or dead for decades.
“The increase water injections that we are doing now as a result of the shale revolution,” Stogner said. “That water has to go somewhere. We inject it deep and it causes earthquakes and when we inject it shallow and it comes into contact with shallower aquifers.”
She continues to explain how the advancement of science has not been balanced properly resulting in “much higher pressure shallower and it is bringing these old wells back to life.”
Orphaned Wells are those for which no former owner or operator can be located, or has gone bankrupt.
Abandoned Wells typically refers to an unproductive well with a known owner/operator.
“It’s compounding Jason,” Stogner said. “It’s 70-years of sloppy construction, lack of maintenance and it’s biting us in the butt. We can not continue to kick the can down the road.”
She adds that imposing today’s science on 50-year-old regulators wouldn’t be fair, however, updating today’s regulations with today’s science is critical to our public health and planet’s resources.
According to state data, Texas has 7,400 abandoned wells, but Stogner disagrees with those figures.
“I estimate the 8,000-ish abandoned well number to more like 100,000,” Stogner said. “If you look at core test wells and other holes in the ground, and let’s not forget that we have over 100,000 right now in the state of Texas that have been shut-in and haven’t produced in several months.”
She added that for current data, Commissionship has reliable data for those looking for up-to-date info, but at the time of the interview, she was specifically questioning 150,000 wells that are still on operators books, have a P5 license to operate and are just sitting and rotting.
Furthermore, the state’s bonding procedure is antiquated and costing tax payers millions.
“It’s only around 15% that the bonding covers of the anticipated costs to plug all the wells out there that need to be plugged under today’s current inventory of wells,” Stogner said.
Canada’s Greatest Export Terry Etam gives an update from North of the Border on their energy policies, trade flow with the US and Germany trying to buy coal from Canada. Terry Etam is the author of The End of Fossil Fuel Insanity: Clearing the Air Before Cleaning the Air; columnist for the BOE Report and writer for Public Energy Number One
Canada’s Greatest Export shares a story about the country of Germany coming over to Canada to accelerate their divestment from fossil fuels and direct their attention towards hydrogen.
Etam, who also works with a Natural Gas Company, said they weathered the regulatory storm the past couple of years, and are back to a comfortable pace for business. He also elaborated on several of the Canadian Regulations that are hindering oil and gas development.
Christi Craddick is one of three commissioners at the Texas Railroad Commission, and she is also the longest serving of the three to this elected position. We were lucky enough to get some time with Commissioner Craddick to recap the last year and catch a glimpse of what she anticipates to come.
–We begin with Chairman Craddick breaking down a little bit of history and information about the Texas Railroad Commission. They are the oldest oil and gas regulators in the world, and they’re based in Texas. They focus on pipelines and pipeline safety, and there are roughly 470,000 miles of interstate and intrastate lines in Texas and roughly another 500,000 miles of gas utilities lines in Texas to maintain. They also do coal, coal mines, lignite mines, and uranium mines; so, needless to say, it’s a big job to maintain safety. They also regulate carbon capturing in Texas oil fields. Production wise, about a 3rd of the country’s oil and a 4th of the country’s gas is coming out of Texas.
“I think we’ve got one of the best agencies in the entire state, and frankly probably [one of] the best agencies is the entire country when you talk about oil and gas regulations.” – Commissioner Christi Craddick
Interviews are sponsored in part by TrainND Northwest – It’s a competitive world. Train for it.
Music heard on The Crude Life Week in Review is written and performed by Alma Cook of Cook Compliance Solutions. Support her music career at www.hearalma.com
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