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, August 7.

August 2021 Secretary Update

Current Items:
Proposed Legislation Idaho Code 47-3
Commission Leadership
Field Status
Injection Well Update
News Article(s) of Interest
Current Prices

Proposed Legislation Idaho Code 47-3
At the OGCC regular meeting this past week, the OGCC voted unanimously to recommend that the Department begin the statutory revision process. In response the Department is developing a timeline to evaluate potential revisions. We hope to have a page on the OGCC website dedicated to this in the coming week.

Commission Leadership
Our annual election for the Chair and Vice-chair occurs each August. This past week the Commission chose to retain Betty Coppersmith as Chairman, and elected Ray Hinchcliff as Vice-chairman. The Vice-chair position was previously held by County Commissioner Marc Shigeta who will remain on the OGCC as a Commissioner. Both votes were unanimous.

Field Status
The PUC and possibly the BLM are planning to be in the field for inspections in late August. The Department plans to provide our inspections during that time as well.

Injection Well Update
The operator has shared there is a delay in the Class II review process. This is a result of an EPA request of the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office. The EPA is seeking confirmation from SHPO that the current DJS #2-14 well area does not have historical significance. Guidelines for significance can be found on SHPO’s website –

News Article(s) of Interest
Shrinking crude reserve and limited capacity in the northwest push Idaho gas prices 61 cents above the national average.

(Also see attached “gas price excerpt”).
COMMENT: As some of you know I moved my oldest daughter from the St. Louis area back to Boise last weekend. Gas in STL was ~$2.75 / gallon. We saw a significant increase crossing from Nebraska into Wyoming.

The Oil and Gas Leasing Pause Has Minimal Impact
https://www.nrdc.org/experts/josh-axelrod/report-oil-and-gas-leasing-pause-has-minimal-impact

BLM Seeks Agency Remand in Oil and Gas Lease Sales (see attached “BLM Seeks…”).

Renewables overtake coal, but natural gas still dominates as the nation’s power generator
https://whyy.org/articles/renewables-overtake-coal-but-natural-gas-still-dominates-as-the-nations-power-generator/

Current Prices

Utah Sweet Crude	$61.26 bbl.	08/03/21
WTI	$67.97 bbl.	08/06/21
Natural Gas	$4.12 mmbtu.	08/04/21
NGL	$9.64 mmbtu.	08/04/21

(green indicates prices increase since last update, red indicates decline)