Not that this is new to any rational-thinking folks out there, but the Oil & Gas claims that regulations are causing the sky to fall are rapidly being muted. From The Denver Post:
Colorado issued a record 8,000 drilling permits last year. In 1997, the number was just 1,000.
In recent months, drilling activity has slowed. With worldwide oil prices at $40 a barrel (they had been $147 a barrel in July), it’s easy to understand why.
Industry supporters would have you believe that energy companies have pulled out of Colorado because they fear the regulations coming online.
But thousands of existing well heads and permits would not be subject to new rules – activity could carry on as it had in the past. Drilling is down because of the tanking economy and other market factors.
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> The COGCC approved over 8,000 permits to drill in 2008.
> Fewer than 4,000 new wells were drilled in 2008.
> Permits are good for 1 year, so some of the wells drilled in 2008 were on permits granted in 2007.
> Thus, there are over 4,000 extant permits that have not yet been drilled.
> ALL of these permits allow operators to work under the old rules.
> However, every month over 300 of these permits will expire.
If the new rules were really so terrifying, then operators in Colorado would be drilling with every rig available while they still hold permits to drill under the old rules.
Instead, they have idled 50% of their rigs in Colorado.
The short of it is, the new rules really are not much of an actual concern to O&G operators. Instead, much noise is being generated because this is how lobbyists, minority party legislators, and other toadies make themselves feel relevant.
It’s time for the Colorado legislature to just approve these new rules this Friday and allow for the implementation of some modest protections for public health & safety as well as the environment and wildlife.
In a Grand Junction Daily Sentinel article published this morning, a Williams Energy executive was quoted, saying:
“New pipelines could boost the price for Rockies gas by reducing or eliminating “gas-on-gas competition” for pipeline space that drives down prices, he said. Williams has more than 8,000 new locations remaining to be drilled in the Piceance, he said. That will translate into far more wells because each location can accommodate up to 22 wells, thanks to the directional drilling abilities that companies now can bring to bear.”
That equates to 176,000 new wells that Williams already has planned when the prices rise. In his remarks to about 200 Williams employees, there is no report of any mention of the COGCC rules.