Bakken energy boom requires federal collaboration

June 16, 2013 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

The Bakken Federal Executive Group, which represents a dozen federal bureaus with responsibilities in the Bakken, has identified several items to advance the development of oil and gas resources in the booming Bakken Formation and ways to work with state agencies and industry to help reduce natural gas flaring in the area. The bureaus include the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Office of Special Trustee, Office of Natural Resources Revenue, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Oil wells producing from the Bakken Formation, US and Canada. Credit: US Energy Information Administration

The groups work to address common obstacles associated with the Bakken energy boom in western North Dakota and have identified such action items as forming teams of executive sponsors to resolve issues of staffing shortages, housing and facilities limitations, outreach, and permitting complexities. At the forefront of their permitting efforts is improving federal, tribal and state coordination to reduce duplication and facilitate timely responses.

Oil and gas development in the Bakken has been growing rapidly over the past five years, creating workforce and regulatory issues. The booming economy in the region has driven up wages and the cost of housing, making it difficult for federal agencies to staff to the levels needed to address the increasing workload. Federal applications for permit to drill (APD) have increased by more than 500 percent over this period, creating environmental challenges and challenges to intergovernmental permitting and coordination.

To address these challenges, the Bakken Group has taken steps to address federal employee housing; improving sharing of environmental data and best practices, such as increased use of on-line submittals of APDs; streamlining environmental analyses; and improving coordination with the oil and gas industry.

Last year, the BLM approved 664 drilling permits with 246 of those on federal mineral leases and 418 on Indian mineral leases. Since 2007, APDs on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation have increased from 0 to more than 400. About 900 APDs are anticipated this year.

The pace is not expected to slow. A recent U.S. Geological Survey report estimated that the Bakken and Three Forks Formations in the Williston Basin Province of Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota contain an estimated mean of 7.4 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and 6.7 trillion cubic feet of associated/dissolved natural gas.

For more:
- see this Executive Order
- see this report

http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/bakken-energy-boom-requires-federal-collaboration/2013-06-16