The annual Oil and Gas Fair is being held at Casper’s Events Center today and tomorrow. This is the first time the Fair has joined with the Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute and the Wyoming Oil and Gas Commission’s Industry meeting. The Commission’s outreach effort is a regular event; the EORI meetings are likewise a frequent draw for the industry. About 600 registered for the three meetings, including 150 walk-ins Thursday morning who had not pre-registered.
Gov. Matt Mead was the leadoff speaker Wednesday morning. He was positive about the health of the industry and thanked attendees for their continued work to locate new oil and gas wells and to keep production relatively high. "It’s also time for state leadership in reducing regulations, working with the federal agencies and being innovative in finding ways to be more efficient," Mead noted. He lauded research work at the University of Wyoming, particularly at the High Bay Research Facility that is leading the way to learn how fluids flow through porous subsurface formations.
Mead also referred to his economic initiative, ENDOW, which he said he doesn’t want to be a waiting effort for oil and gas or coal prices to go up, for instance, but to recognize that Wyoming has to have a greater role in our future. ENDOW stands for Economically Needed Diversity Options for Wyoming.
The Director of the State Lands and Investments Office, Bridget Hill, gave a brief report on management of state-owned lands. She said that 86 percent of the state’s holdings support common schools. Grazing and agriculture leases cover 90 percent of state lands but mineral development provides 90 percent of the revenue. $257 million was generated last year from leases; with $196 million coming from mineral rents, royalties and bonus payments; of the total $113 million came from oil and gas payments. In fiscal year 2017, which ended June 30, the state experienced a 54 percent increase in revenue from public lands.
The afternoon session of the annual event featured a talk by Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission supervisor Mark Watson on the state of the industry. He touched on several topics, including federal rulemaking efforts and litigation, bonding requirements imposed by the state and Wyoming’s oil and natural gas production.
Watson told the attendees that the state has raised the bonding requirements to $100,000 per well, and that 95 percent of the operators have complied. The Commission has also adopted statewide rules governing charging the public for copies of public documents. He said the Commission will not charge for routine access or copies of records unless there is considerable work needed to retrieve information.
As far as federal rulemaking is concerned, Watson said that Bureau of Land Management rules imposed during the Obama administration concerning methane flaring and venting and hydraulic fracturing are generally held up in litigation. And, he noted that 2,738 orphan wells remain needing testing, and plugging after abandonment. The state is using bonds forfeited for much of the work to plug the wells. The orphan wells are predominantly coal bed methane wells abandoned when gas prices plummeted.
The Commission continues to receive large numbers of applications for permits to drill new wells. Anadarko E&P Onshore LLC has filed nearly 1,800 permits this year. Local independent producer Wold Energy Partners has just over 1,000 applications pending, largely for exploration in the Powder River Basin.
