Page 6 ■ Thursday, April 12, 2012


BAKKEN NEWS


New process set to expedite drilling on public lands


By DINA CAPPIELLO Associated Press


ministration on April 3 unveiled new procedures to speed up drilling on public lands, an area where Republicans and the oil industry have pressed the administra- tion to do more to boost oil production and help drive down gasoline prices. The changes will move the Bureau of


WASHINGTON — The Obama ad-


Land Management, the agency respon- sible for oil and gas production on fed- eral onshore lands, into the digital age by automating permitting and leasing deci- sions. Today, those negotiations are done on paper, and the back-and-forth has re- sulted in permits taking, on average, 298 days to approve.


“The president has made it clear to us that he wants us to continue to produce oil and natural gas here at home.”


– Bureau of Land Management director Bob Abbey


tor Bob Abbey said that the new process unveiled April 3 and in place nationwide by May 2013 would drop it to 60 days or less, without compromising safety or the environment. “We have heard from the industry


that they believe that BLM’s administra- tive processes are too slow and result in unnecessary delay and added costs,” Ab- bey said in a conference call with report- ers. “And to some degree, their criticism is valid.”


lican presidential contenders and the oil industry are attacking the administra- tion for policies they claim have dimin- ished oil and gas production on public property — and contributed to high prices at the pump. North Dakota, where Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made the announcement on April 3, has played prominently in their attacks because the state is in the midst of an oil shale drill- ing boom, most of which is occurring on private property outside of the federal government’s control. “The president has made it clear to us


The announcement comes as Repub- Bureau of Land Management Direc- STOCK.XCHNG


that he wants us to continue to produce oil and natural gas here at home,” Abbey said. “While this alone is not a solution to high oil and gas prices, it will help re- duce reliance on foreign oil and our vul- nerability to up and down swings of the international market.” Data released by the Energy Informa-


tion Administration in March shows that crude oil production on public lands on- shore was at its highest level since 2003. By contrast, natural gas production


on federal property was at its lowest point since 2008, but higher than any year from 2003-07. The drilling boom under way in


North Dakota’s oil shale has helped drive the country to an eight-year high in oil production, a statistic President Barack Obama has used repeatedly on the cam- paign trail, and used in a new energy ad released April 3. But most of the drilling there is on private land. The explosion of oil wells on the Fort Berthold Native American tribal reser-


vation, where Salazar was concluding a two-day trip to North Dakota on April 3, came after a 2008 tax agreement with the state divided the royalties and after the Interior Department streamlined the permitting rules on the reservation from a 49-step process to a single, one-stop shop. Compared to three years ago, when one well was producing, there are now 245 in operation, a trend Salazar said put Fort Berthold “in the bull’s-eye of this energy boom which we have created.” Outside the reservation, however, only one rig out of the 208 drilling in North Dakota on April 3 sits on non- tribal federal property. When pressed about that statistic, Salazar said the non-tribal federal acre- age in North Dakota “is relatively small,” compared to other Western states. Ron Ness, president of the North Da-


kota Petroleum Council, which repre- sents more than 200 companies working in the state, said the permitting process on federal land is overly burdensome


and agencies are understaffed at present to deal with the rise in oil production in North Dakota and elsewhere. Ness said streamlining the permit


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process on federal land is welcome, “but proof is in the pudding.” The American Petroleum Institute


and Republican critics also expressed cautious optimism April 3, but again called for the administration to open up more areas to drilling and to simplify en- vironmental reviews. “Better government effi ciency is


certainly positive,” said Rep. Doc Hast- ings, R-Wash., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. “But the real problem over the past three years of the Obama administration isn’t slow computers but policies that punish and discourage American-made energy on public lands.”


(Associated Press writer James MacPherson contributed to this report.)


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