Federal Fracking Rules Delayed Another Month -- July 21, 2015

The Casper StarTribune is reporting:

The fate of a federal fracking rule will not be decided for at least another month.
A federal judge magistrate recently granted the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's request for an additional month to compile its official account of how the regulation was drafted. 

The account had been due by July 22 under the stay issued by U.S. District Court Judge Scott W. Skavdahl in June. The bureau now has until Aug. 28 to submit the record. 

The development represents the latest setback in the Obama administration's effort to update the rules governing oil and gas development on federal land.

The rule, first proposed five years ago, sets higher standards for well construction, requires greater disclosure of the chemicals used in frack jobs and imposes more stringent requirements for the disposal of drilling fluids.

Industry interests cheered the delay, saying it was evidence of their argument BLM is unprepared to implement the rule. Environmentalists said the delay has no bearing on BLM's readiness and instead reflected the laborious process of compiling all the comments the government received in drafting the standards.

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Bakken Cooperation

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:

The oil company that’s having a huge impact on the Little Missouri State Park north of Killdeer has pledged to move some hiking and riding trails away from its operations.

ConocoPhillips, developer of the 30,000-acre Corral Creek Unit - the biggest drilling unit in the Bakken - says it will pay $100,000 to move two trails away from a seven-pad drilling platform that will eventually contain 30 wells, service roads and three separate storage tank batteries.

The mega-unit, which is  not constrained to the usual two-section drilling spacing unit, was created in 2011 to give the oil company more flexibility in where it drills wells.

Jim Lowry, spokesman for ConocoPhillips, said the company has worked with the North Dakota Parks and Recreation Department to be as least disruptive as possible.

Note also:

Because of oil discoveries in the Three Forks formation, the company has already exceeded its original plans to drill 83 wells in the unit. It is now at 86 wells, producing 471,000 barrels a month, with another 20 wells permitted.

I've always maintained there are three "Bakkens":

• the geologic formation and oil reserves
• as a laboratory where drillers learn how best to produce tight oil
• a cooperative relationship among operators, private drillers, and the state (the Federal government to some extent)