Mick Thomas

Division Administrator, Oil & Gas

Secretary to the Oil & Gas Conservation Commission

This update was sent to the Commission on Friday, September 6.

Current Items:
IOGCC Annual Conference
Town Hall
Special Meeting
Transportation – Purchaser Reports
News Article(s) of Interest

IOGCC Annual Conference
Program Manager James Thum, Inspector Dave Schwarz and I went to Medora, North Dakota August 24-28 for the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission Annual Conference. As the Chairman of the Council of Regulatory Officials I moderated the session that included officials from 22 states discussing issues facing their states and the industry as a whole. The main issues discussed were:

The need for infrastructure and refining capacity continues to limit production in states other than Texas and North Dakota. This is especially true in the west, where the limited transportation capacity to pacific markets is impacting the commodity prices.  In states with a long history of oil and gas there is a backlog of orphan wells – wells that have finished their life cycle and need to be plugged and abandoned. Ohio and Kansas specifically cited a lack of contractor to do the work.
Significant improvements across the industry in inspection capacity and efficiency.

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum is the chairman of the IOGCC and was the key note speaker for the annual conference. Governor Burgum shared his vision for the industry, the west, and how states can help. He discussed the following:

U.S foreign policy is no longer driven by scarcity of energy – Foreign policy since 1812 have been driven by scarcity management. Scarcity policy is focused on protecting the U.S. from a shortage of resources – most recently energy. This is no longer true. The U.S. is now in a position to be the largest energy and food exporter by 2025. To reach this position we need infrastructure.
Innovation, not regulation should be the goal – Governor Burgum discussed how North Dakota is working with communities and the industry to provide solutions to problems with new systems and policies. He discouraged the use of punitive actions to be the main driver of change. As an example the Governor shared how many western states are moving forward with Unmanned Arial Vehicles (UAV’s) to improve data collection. This data is used to improve safety, protect the environment and improve compliance. He stated that humans are poor at collecting data – high cost and low quality. UAV’s provide more data, faster, with less cost, and are not limited by geography and the road system.

Overall it was an exceptional meeting. The Oil and Gas Division appreciates the assistance of the IOGCC in providing guidance with our new industry.

Town Hall
Our next oil and gas town hall meeting will be held Tuesday, October 22, 2019 at the Payette County District Courtroom at 5:30pm.

Special Meeting
The Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will be holding a special meeting sometime in late September or early October to present the pending rule for IDAPA 20.07.02 Rules Governing Conservation of Oil and Natural Gas in the State of Idaho. More details to follow.

Transportation – Purchaser Reports
The Department continues to work with purchasers of hydrocarbons from the state of Idaho to bring all reporting entities into compliance. Additional reports for condensate sales for the first half of 2019 have been received and posted to the web page. Opportune Outsourcing has worked with the Department to revise fuel gas reporting and has submitted revised production / disposition reports for the first half of 2019. Additional reporting from other purchasing entities is expected within a week.

News Article(s) of Interest

LNG initiative expands south of the boarder:
https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/western_colorado/natural-gas-initiative-expands-outside-us/article_1be2e632-cd44-11e9-b57f-20677ce85d90.html

Crescent Point Energy unloads Uinta Basin assets:

NGL prices / MMBTU for first half of 2019:
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/ngm_epg0_plc_nus_dmmbtum.htm