Permitting process reviewed

Operators in the oil and gas industry of the Uintah Basin depend on permitted access to drill on federal lands. 

To do so, they file Applications to Permit Drilling, or APDs, which is a heavily-regulated process associated with lengthy delays. 

Cutting through the backlog has become a challenge for the Bureau of Land Management, particularly at the Vernal Field Office. 

“We are faced with the largest backlog of APDs in the Bureau,” says Mike Stiewig, Vernal Field Office manager. 

Twenty-seven percent of every APD coming into the BLM this year will pass through the Vernal Office. 

He says that of the “1,200 APDs received this fiscal year already, we have processed over 900, and have a pending backlog in the neighborhood of 1,600 APDs.”  Uintah Basin Standard Online