BAKKEN NEWS ENERGY BRIEFS


Fla. man being extradited to Mont. from N.D. WOLF POINT, Mont. (AP) — Montana authorities say a Florida man has been


arrested in North Dakota and is being extradited to Montana to face a negligent homicide charge in the death of another Florida man. Roosevelt County Sheriff Freedom Crawford said police took 46-year-old Charles Bowman Bowen into custody Jan. 27 in Williston, N.D., and he’s being held in the Williams County Detention Center. Bowen appeared Jan. 30 before District Judge David Nelson in Williston. The body of 49-year-old Brian Doyle was found Jan. 20 in a ditch along U.S.


North Dakota, died after he was run over by a motor vehicle. Home towns of the two Florida men have not been released.


Highway 2 near Bainville, a small community near the North Dakota border. Crawford said Doyle, who worked for an oil fi eld maintenance company in


Oilfi eld material in Minot tested to be safe MINOT (AP) — State offi cials said bags of hydraulic fracturing sand stored at


partment tested the Minot material in the wake of municipal landfi lls in western North Dakota rejecting some oil fi eld waste because of elevated radiation levels. Health Department program manager Dan Harman said that the level of radio- activity in the Minot tests was far below what most people encounter in nature on a daily basis. He said radioactive readings were so low they could not be mea- sured by standard Geiger counters, and more specialized equipment had to be used.


Natural gas plant planned near Ross, N.D. A Houston-based gas company has announced plans to build a new plant near


expected to be completed in spring 2013. It’s not immediately clear how many jobs will be created. Gov. Jack Dalrymple said he applauds the development of the new plant. “We are making remarkable progress in the capturing and processing of North


Dakota’s natural gas,” he said. The Governor’s Offi ce said North Dakota’s natural gas production increased 53


a downtown Minot site do not pose a health risk to the public. The sand is used in the recovery of oil from shale rock. The state Health De-


Bigger oil royalty


Cont. from page 1 Gov. Jack Dalrymple is the chairman of the board, which also includes Attorney


General Wayne Stenehjem, Treasurer Kelly Schmidt, Secretary of State Al Jaeger and Wayne Sanstead, the state superintendent of public instruction. Dalrymple said he did not expect the increased rate to dampen enthusiasm for the lease sale. Oil production in the seven affected counties has been lucrative, he said, and state


leases are attractive because they bestow the right to drill for oil on the land for fi ve years.


Some private leases only allow three years for development before the land is eli-


gible to be leased again. “I think it was pretty clear that we need to sort of get in sync with the market out


there for leases in certain counties,” Dalrymple said. “We tried to be careful to not raise it in ... new areas where drilling is less certain.” The royalty income goes into North Dakota’s Common Schools Trust Fund, which had $1.5 billion in assets in its most recent quarterly fi nancial report. The agency oversees 17 trust funds in all, with assets of about $2 billion. Money from the schools trust is distributed to North Dakota’s public schools.


They are slated to get $101.6 million in trust money during the next two years. Gaebe said he could not estimate the amount of added money the trust would


obtain from the higher royalty rate. Separately, the board voted to exclude some environmentally sensitive tracts of


land from the Feb. 7 lease sale after hearing pleas from the state Game and Fish De- partment and the North Dakota chapter of the Wildlife Society. Thirteen tracts in Billings and Golden Valley counties are affected by the delay. The Wildlife Society said some of the land could be designated as wilderness. “While we are supportive of the state’s economic development, we do not see the


Ross, N.D., that could process up to 75 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. Plains All American Pipeline announced the project Jan. 27. The company’s subsidiary, Plains Gas Solutions, will operate the plant, which is


need to rush forward and develop every single acre of mineral assets at this time,” said Mike McEnroe, a Wildlife Society spokesman, said in a letter to Gaebe.


Thursday, February 2, 2012 ■ Page 7


percent to 521 million cubic feet per day between January and November 2011. — Associated Press


North Dakota sees more geothermal installations DICKINSON (AP) — Lorraine Manz, a geologist with the North Dakota Geo-


logical Survey, said geothermal system installations have increased by 26 percent in North Dakota compared to last year. Geothermal systems move heat through a network of pipes approximately 200 feet below ground. Fluid circulates through the pipes, moving heat into the ground to cool off buildings and warm air from the ground to heat them. The systems are less expensive to operate and more eco-friendly. Installations have jumped from 897 in 2010 to 1,135 last year in North Da-


kota.


BNSF opens $35M railcar service facility in Minot MINOT (AP) — BNSF Railway has opened a $35 million rail car service facil-


from crude oil loading sites in western North Dakota’s booming oil patch. Gov. Jack Dalrymple said dependable rail service also is critical to the state’s farmers. BNSF Executive Vice President Roger Nober said the railroad has hired 150 people in Minot in the past two years. About 330 BNSF employees now work in Minot and spokeswoman Amy McBeth said more hires are expected this year. The facility includes two inspection tracks that BNSF said will enable rail work- ers to inspect more trains.


ity in Minot. The facility was built in part to accommodate the needs of increased rail traffi c


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20