Mick Thomas

Division Administrator, Oil & Gas

Secretary to the Oil & Gas Conservation Commission

This update was sent to the Commission on Friday, August 23.

Current Items:
New Subscription feature on OGCC Website
Well Activity
IOGCC Annual Conference
OGCC Meeting next week
News Article(s) of Interest

New Subscription feature on OGCC Website
A new function has been added to the OGCC Website. On the Home page and Contact Us page there is a button called “Subscribe to News and Updates”. We plan to use this to send out oil and gas updates and information to those who have signed up. We sent out our first update last Friday, August 9 which included the last Secretary Update. These Secretary Updates will be posted to the OGCC Website the week after being sent out. Every Friday, an email will be sent out showing all of the ‘posts’ from the website that week. We hope to use this functionality to improve communication and transparency.

Well Activity
Payette County
The status of the two Kauffman wells have been changed to ‘Shut-In’ due to each well having six or more continuous months of no production. The maps have been updated and can be found on the Maps page of the OGCC website.

IOGCC Annual Conference
Program Manager James Thum, Inspector Dave Schwarz and I are going to Medora, North Dakota this weekend through next Wednesday for the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission Annual Conference.
The IOGCC represents Oil and Gas producing states and is an ongoing source of knowledge and experience – critical for Idaho as we develop regulations for our young oil and gas industry. The guidance provided by the IOGCC includes recommendations on regulatory enforcement, just and reasonable terms for stakeholders and operators as well as improved processes to ensure operator compliance.
The concurrent inspector’s forum provides ongoing training and certification for our oil and gas inspection program at no cost to the state.

OGCC Meeting next week
The next regularly scheduled OGCC meeting is next Thursday, August 29 @ 1:00pm at the Capitol Building in EW42. The agenda is posted on the Home page and the Commission Meetings page of the OGCC Website.

News Article(s) of Interest

Big West releases August crude oil bulletin / prices:
http://www.bigwestoil.com/wordpress/crude-oil-bulletin 

ESA changes – How will they impact Idaho?
https://www.idahopress.com/eyeonboise/esa-changes-how-will-they-impact-idaho/article_5f55e114-49d0-533b-8969-e438d3fab4f8.html

EPA rules duplicative regulations are unnecessary:
https://mailchi.mp/mineralsmakelife.org/duplicative-regulations-hurt-us-mining-546525?e=567d948d63