Predicted -- Government Shutdown To Affect Fort Berthold Oil Patch

The Dickinson Press is reporting:

A federal government shutdown would further stall oil development on federal lands in North Dakota and would stop oil and gas management activities on the Fort Berthold Reservation.

While a government shutdown would affect some oil and gas activities in North Dakota, the majority of the state’s drilling activity is on private or state-owned land and would not be affected.

A lapse in federal appropriations would mean that the Bureau of Land Management “will not process applications for permits to drill and will only maintain minimal staff for inspections and enforcement on currently producing wells,” Jessica Kershaw, spokeswoman for the Department of Interior, said in a statement.

Lynn Helms, director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources, said the shutdown would be one more impediment on drilling in the Dakota Prairie National Grasslands and Fort Berthold areas.

Already, operators have been avoiding drilling on federal lands due to a lengthy permitting process.

The MillionDollarWay said as much on October 1, 2013. But a huge part of the story was missed: it sounds like oil drilling operations on the reservation have to actually stop because there would be no Federal regulators to inspect and enforce. Wow. 

When I think of the reservation, I think of WPX and KOG.

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