Mick Thomas

Division Administrator – Minerals, Public Trust, and Oil & Gas

Secretary to the Oil & Gas Conservation Commission

This update was sent to the Commission on Saturday, December 19.

Current Items:
OGCC Contested Case
October and Biannual Reports
2020 Inspections
Rail Facility Closing
Idaho Geological Survey Advisory Board Meeting
News Article(s) of Interest
Current Prices

OGCC Contested Case
At the December 9th special meeting the Commission initiated a contested case to determining whether the integration order in Docket CC-2016-OGR-01-001 applies to the permitted proposed Barlow #2-14 well. Additional information can be found below:
https://ogcc.idaho.gov/administrative-hearings/docket-no-cc-2020-ogr-01-003-integration-order-cc-2016-ogr-01-001-and-barlow-2-14/
The Department and the Deputy Attorney General’s office are working to appoint a hearing officer soon.

October and Biannual Reports
The biannual well test report and October production reports are posted.
Monthly & Annual Reports | Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (idaho.gov)
There has been no production from the field since March 2020. Shut in pressures are stable.

2020 Inspections
Fall field inspections took place on November 24, 2020. The field is still shut in with no production. There were no abnormalities found, and the inspection reports are being finalized.

Rail Facility Closing
Energy Transport LLC. provided official notice that they have closed the rail loading facility in Ontario. The rail cars and trucks have been sold. The facility was built at a cost of approximately $2M USD in anticipation of liquid production from the Payette field.
On a side note, the Commission appreciates the transparency and cooperation received from Energy Transport LLC in our audit of the former operator. We were able to account for the sale of liquids that had previously been unreported by the prior operator.

Idaho Geological Survey Advisory Board Meeting
Wednesday December 16th was our IGSAB annual meeting. Among other information shared the IGS provided new research on the source and potential of the Payette Field. We plan on inviting IGS staff to a future Commission meeting to share the findings.

News Article(s) of Interest
Idaho Power accelerates coal abandonment in favor of Oregon wind and solar power source. See below link and attached E&E Idaho Grid.pdf

LNG Exports increase
The Great American LNG Comeback | Rigzone

Texas: Value of West Texas oil lands plunging amid virus pandemic
https://apnews.com/article/pandemics-houston-coronavirus-pandemic-texas-3197940449cf06f79d5239ec643f6943

Current Prices

Utah Sweet Crude	$38.52 bbl.	12/16/20
WTI	$49.03 bbl.	12/18/20
Natural Gas	$2.67 mmbtu.	12/16/20
NGL	$5.60 mmbtu.	12/16/20

 

Reminder: The Secretary Update has been moved to a monthly schedule. We plan to provide the next update the week ending Friday, January 8th.