North Dakota "Oil Can" Town Hall Meetings

More than 450 people attended the five “Oil Can!” Town Hall Meetings this week. The presentations will be posted on our web site (www.ndoil.org) late next week. To see one of the newspaper articles about the Town Hall Meetings, click on http://www.willistonherald.com/articles/2008/11/13/news/doc491c59b610c3d272020048.txt. The article is also printed below.



Residents hear how 'Oil Can'

BY PATRICIA CAMPBELL
Staff Writer, Williston Herald
Published November 13, 2008



In an attempt to expand the public's understanding about the oil and gas industry, a series of town hall meetings were held on Tuesday and Wednesday in Bowbells, Powers Lake, Parshall, Stanley and Killdeer.

The 90-minute presentation titled "Let's Talk Bakken" was organized by the North Dakota Petroleum Council (NDPC) and the North Dakota Oil and Gas Research Council.

At the town hall meeting in Powers Lake on Tuesday, about 65 people attended.

Association of Oil and Gas Producing Counties Executive Director Vicky Steiner told the group that county and city officials can apply for energy impact grants to help offset the impacts of increased activity in the oil and gas sector. Her department also lobbies state legislators to increase the $3 million cap on the oil impact fund.

"We'll be asking for some additional money," Steiner said. "We have (grants)...if you are with a township, fire (department), ambulance, county, city or schools, and you suffer impact in the future from future oil drilling." She encourages people in the areas impacted by energy production to participate in the legislative session and fight for additional resources.

"The reason that we are doing the town hall meetings is to reach out to the public," she said.

The Bakken talk was part of the "Oil Can!" program developed by the NDPC, which is intended to open channels of communication among the oil and gas industry, the general public, state legislators and public officials, said Tyler Rupp, representing the NDPC.

"Our program is titled 'Oil Can!' as we believe oil can do a lot of things for us. Oil can coexist with grazing and oil can provide energy for America," said Rupp.

He believes town hall meetings are essential forums to educate people on the process of drilling and completing Bakken wells, as well as to hear citizen's concerns regarding energy activity.

"Over the course of the years to come, the petroleum council is going to work with its members to be good neighbors, as well as good stewards of the land," Rupp added.

There was a 20-minute presentation on drilling basics by Larry Dokken, production superintendent for BTA Oil Producers. Dokken said the process of drilling and completing Bakken wells includes everything from conducting seismic surveys and obtaining permits to the process of fracturing Bakken shale ��“ a technique of splitting and fissuring reservoir rocks so that hydrocarbon fluids like natural gas and oil can find paths to the well bore.

Dokken discussed the difference between drilling vertically and horizontally through Bakken shale. Lynn Helms, director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources, expanded on the effectiveness of each technique.

Helms said vertical drilling is no longer used because the recovery ratio is low compared to horizontal drilling. Helms said one of today's horizontal wells is equivalent to eight vertical wells in 1981.

Such technological improvements, coupled with an oil boom, has certainly driven oil production to unprecedented records, said Helms.

The state has about 4,200 wells producing about 186,000 barrels a day. Helms predicts the oil activity to continue through the year and over the next few years. One indication is the demand for permits remains high, with numbers near the record high of 1,098 permits in 1981.

"We are on track. If we keep going, we are going to come very close to that record, if not break it this year in terms of the number of permits," Helms said

He added people are working up to six days a week to keep up with the demand.

"So it's just incredible what is happening out there. All of these permits translate into drilling rigs," he said.

Regarding the expansion of pipeline capacity for North Dakota's oil and gas, there a few projects are in the works. The pipeline going to Wyoming started carrying an additional 12,000 barrels of oil a day, said North Dakota Pipeline Authority Director Justin Kringstad.

By 2010, the Enbridge pipeline going through North Dakota is expected to start carrying 52,000 barrels a day.

Meanwhile, oil and gas continues to move via railroad cars, said Kringstad.

"It is not the best option economically," said Kringstad.

Still, he doesn't think there are going to be problems getting crude oil out of the state.

"Either by rail or pipeline, there will be an option to get this crude oil out of the state," he added.







Marsha Reimnitz

North Dakota Petroleum Council

PO Box 1395

Bismarck ND 58502

701.223.6380

701.222.0006 fax

www.ndoil.org

ndpc@ndoil.org



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