Oil and Gas Royalty Split Favors Feds

According to the 2014 federal budget deal recently passed, a 51-49 percent share of royalties from the oil and gas industry slightly favoring the federal government was made permanent, a share that has been in place since 2008. Please follow the link for the article by Mary Bernard.

O&G royalty split favors feds

Uintah Basin Gets Attention in Proposed Budget

On 12-12-12, Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert rolled out his budget recommendations for 2014.
This year’s budget work was impacted by the dichotomy of having a healthy economy in Utah, one of the best in the nation, the governor said, juxtaposed against the uncertainty of what type of impacts may result from the fiscal cliff and the affordable health care act.

Gov. Herbert said as his team worked on the budget, the focus was strongly on growing the state’s economy. “Everything I do focuses on how does that help or hurt our economic opportunities,” he said.

The lion’s share of state monies goes into education, about 63 percent, approximately $3.4 billion. Monies go into a variety of education targets, including expanding Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs both in the lower grade levels as well as post high-school education. The governor noted in his Wednesday’s telephone press conference for publications from rural areas of the state that he believes investing in education to be strategic, “putting that money where we get the best bang for the buck.” He noted that if the state is going to have economic expansion it will need an educated labor force. “This budget exemplifies this effort; we are going to try to make sure everything we do in the state is designed to optimize opportunity.”

Other highlights of the budget include funds for economic development initiatives, including business expansion and retention programs for rural communities. Also, the budget calls for the state to continue to promote Utah tourism and travel, as well as business marketing recruitment and outreach..

In other areas, particularly those of interest to the Uintah Basin, the governor noted that the Utah Department of Transportation is aware of the increase in truck traffic on U.S. Highway 40 and is looking at some band-aid solutions such as adding more passing lanes and more signage. Mayors and county commissioners try to prioritize transportation needs, working through UDOT to determine where to spend finite amounts of money, the governor said.

Other ongoing projects include looking to improve air quality and emissions. “We are spending a significant amount of money in a combined effort to study the air shed in the Basin because of the ozone problem,” the governor said.

For full details on the governor’s budget proposal, go to Budget Recommendations.

The Utah State Legislature will grapple with coming up with their own 2014 budget proposal when it convenes Jan. 28. Vernal Express

Uintah Basin gets USDA grant to help low-income homeowners

The Uintah Basin Association of Governments has been awarded $50,000 in grant funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help low income rural residents in the area make health and safety improvements and repairs to their homes.

Agriculture Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager this week announced the selection of grant recipients in 49 states and Puerto Rico.

"For many rural residents, maintaining a home with basic features such as indoor plumbing and safe electrical wiring is often unaffordable," Tonsager said in a statement. "This program supports basic repairs to improve living conditions for rural residents with extremely limited incomes."

A complete list of recipients selected to receive USDA housing preservation grants is available at
http://1.usa.gov/QwyC7J.

Salt Lake Tribune

Judge recommends approving Utah tar sands mine

An administrative law judge has affirmed Utah’s decision to OK a Book Cliffs tar sands mine without requiring a groundwater pollution permit.

The decision nearly concludes the state’s permitting for the nation’s first fuel-producing tar sands mine, leaving two state boards who were waiting on the judge’s recommendation to sign off. It likely sets up an environmental appeal to the Utah Court of Appeals, though.

The mine, on a Utah School & Institutional Trust Lands Administration lease, would produce up to 2,000 barrels of oil a day — small by the standards of a Canadian industry that strips oil from mined sands with water rather than chemicals. The Utah sands have properties making the fuel more difficult to extract.

 
The company hopes to produce oil by the fourth quarter of 2013, US Oil Sands CEO Cameron Todd said. First, though, it must raise more money to set up the mine.  Salt Lake Tribune

Uintah County says controversial shale meeting invalid

Admitting to the improper posting of a public notice, Uintah County Commission has settled the suit over a closed door oil shale meeting held on March 27.

The reversal came as the commission resolved to “rescind and vacate all matters discussed in the meeting and the resulting resolution.”

It ends a lawsuit filed by retired attorney Sandy Hansen, who asked the courts to declare the closed-door session as an “invalid violation of the Utah Open and Public Meetings Act.”

County officials overturned the discussion and resolution upon learning the public posting did not comply with the law.

For their part, county officials say its the federal government who has violated the law in failing to respect the states and counties as cooperators in crafting new public lands policy.

They cite the Obama administration’s reduction from 2 million oil shale acres of leasable public land to 461,965 acres in the three western states for oil shale.

Saying the concerns express about impact to water and air is misplaced as the current PEIS “is simply a land allocation document, it puts the cart before the horse,” said Mike McKee, commissioner. 

An environmental impact statement for oil shale application will be prepared after the PEIS is finalized. Vernal Express

Drillers in Utah Have a Friend in a U.S. Land Agency

VERNAL, Utah — Bill Stringer leaned into the office of his top deputy here at the Bureau of Land Management one recent day to share his latest victory.  

“We got upheld!” Mr. Stringer said, meaning his bosses in Salt Lake City had gone along with his staff’s recommendation to allow oil drilling near Desolation Canyon, a national historic site known for its pristine wilderness and white-water rafting. Despite objections from environmentalists, more oil wells would dot the huge stretch of federal land Mr. Stringer oversees. 

Mr. Stringer, 55, who sports a goatee, rides a motorcycle and sometimes wears rock band T-shirts to work, is a little-known manager in an agency many Americans have never heard of, but he is arguably as powerful as many of Utah’s elected officials. As head of the bureau’s outpost in northeast Utah, he and his colleagues make decisions that have affected livelihoods and largely favored oil and natural gas companies eager to join in a national energy boom. The companies’ lobbying efforts extend beyond Washington to officials across the West, including Mr. Stringer here in Vernal, population 9,000. 

The Bureau of Land Management, part of the Interior Department, is the nation’s biggest landlord, controlling 248 million acres, including nearly half the land in Utah. Charged with protecting public lands while exploiting their resources — for mining, drilling, timbering, ranching — Mr. Stringer’s agency has been at the center of a fierce battle in recent years as companies have sought to lease federal property and get drilling permits.  New York Times

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

State offers webcast on tar sands project hearing

The Utah Department of Environmental Quality will provide a live webcast of a hearing on the PR Springs tar sands mining project in Uintah County Wednesday and Thursday.

An administrative law judge will hear evidence from the state Division of Water Quality, which has granted a permit for the project, and an environmental group appealing the permit, Moab-based Living Rivers. 

The DEQ has said the hearing involves only those officially involved in the dispute and is not a public meeting subject to the state Open and Public Meetings Act.

So, while the hearing itself will take place in an upstairs conference room at the Multi-Agency State Office Building, 1950 West 195 North, Salt Lake City, the public will be free to observe the broadcast in the DEQ Board Room on the first floor.

"The public is expected to be respectful to other members of the public and the facility during the hearing," says the state’s web page on the hearing. "DEQ reserves the right to remove individuals who are unable to respect these requirements."

The hearing takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. For a link to the webcast, go to: http://www.deq.utah.gov/Online_Services/deqwebcasts.htm. Salt Lake Tribune

Interior approves Anadarko’s plan for Utah gas wells

The Interior Department on Tuesday approved Anadarko Petroleum’s plan to drill 3,675 new natural gas wells in Utah’s Uintah basin after a 4 1/2-year approval process that involved Native American tribes, state agencies and environmental groups.

Anadarko said it plans to spend $10 billion drilling the wells over the next decade, doubling its natural gas production in the area to 1 billion cubic feet a day and creating as many as 2,900 jobs, directly and indirectly, during construction.

The approval covered an unusual number of wells and marshaled support from an unusual range of interest groups. In addition, the Obama administration, battered by oil industry criticism of its pace for issuing leases on federal lands, highlighted the approval and the jobs it will create.  Washington Post

Vernal hosts oil shale press conference

Efforts to pare down oil shale and tar sand acreages for leasing proposed by the Obama administration have state and local government officials pushing back.

A press conference with officials from Colorado, Utah and Wyoming was held in Vernal on Tuesday for the group to publicly voice their discontent.

At stake — 2 million acres and nearly 2 trillion potential barrels of oil — which officials say will be effectively shut off from energy development should the revised federal plan go through.

The new plan reduces lease lands to just over 461,000 acres: 35,308 in Colorado; 252,181 in Utah; and 174,476 in Wyoming with 91,045 acres in Utah for tar sands.  The Vernal Express

Salazar: Utah just playing politics in land fight

Top Interior Department officials, including Secretary Ken Salazar, slammed Utah’s elected leaders Tuesday for waging a campaign to take control of most federal lands, arguing the move is nothing more than a political stunt to appease conservative voters.

And at the same time, Salazar promised to return to the Beehive State in the next few weeks to tout agreements on two new gas fields expected to bring nearly 5,000 additional wells to eastern Utah.

Salazar appeared at the National Press Club on Tuesday, delivering a campaign-style speech in which he outlined what he considers the real-world energy solutions of the Obama administration, while deriding House Republicans for living in a "fairy tale."

But before his address, Salazar spoke briefly with The Salt Lake Tribune about a new Utah law promising a lawsuit if Washington doesn’t transfer all federal lands not designated as wilderness or as a national park to state control by 2014. The effort has the backing of top Utah officials, including Gov. Gary Herbert, Sen. Orrin Hatch and Rep. Rob Bishop, and it emerged as a major theme at Saturday’s state GOP convention.

Salazar sees it all as nothing but show.

"From my point of view, it defies common sense," he said. "I think it is political rhetoric you see in an election year. The fact is, Utah is a great example of where, through the use of public lands, we are creating thousands and thousands of jobs."

U.S. Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey also questioned Utah’s anti-fed movement, saying it detracts from efforts to craft consensus on land conflicts on a county-by-county basis — as happened in Washington County several years ago. 

"I find it personally disappointing," Abbey said. "It will take a lot of energy, and it’s not going to go anywhere. My preference is to look at the Washington County lands bill as an example of where our energies could be better spent."

Bishop, chairman of a public lands subcommittee, asked if Salazar and Abbey were performing a "comedy routine" and said that Salazar has repeatedly made it difficult for Utah to access natural resources to raise money for public education.

"Their efforts to whitewash what this administration does for the West defies common sense," he said. "We want our schoolchildren treated fairly."  Salt Lake Tribune