American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2016 - 113

a meaningful impact on public policy.
We believe that an overlooked way for
ordinary citizens to reform Washington is
to communicate their views, not only to
members of Congress, but to state legislators, and the community leaders who
know and influence state legislators. State
legislators must come together and collectively exercise their Article V power to restore balance.
Every reader of this article has the power to participate in curbing this abuse by
asking his elected officials: "Do you support the Regulation Freedom Amendment to require that major new federal regulations be approved by Congress?" This
is a simple, but extremely effective and impactful assignment.
Polls show that, by a two-to-one margin, voters support the Regulation Freedom
Amendment to require that major new federal regulations be approved by Congress. When that majority is mobilized,
Congress will respond.
And even the threat of a permanent curb
on their power may deter regulators from
some unreasonable over-regulation.
No matter who is elected president in
November, the time is now for a coalition
of reformers across America, citizens,
state legislators, and members of Congress
to work together to rein in the out-of-control federal bureaucracy and permanently
end "regulation without representation."
r
Editor's Note: The preceding article is
being published for informational purposes at the request of the Texas Alliance of
Energy Producers. Additional information
on the Regulation Freedom Amendment
may be found at www.regulation freedom.org.

TOMI COLLINS is national chairwoman of the Regulation Freedom
Amendment campaign. With more than
25 years in business leadership and real
estate, Collins combines her business
savvy and leadership skills to lead the
"No Regulation without Representation" movement. She may be contacted at www.noregulationwithoutrepresentation.org)
ROMAN BUHLER is the national director of the Madison Coalition.
He served for 14 years as counsel to the
U.S. House of Representatives, and was
Congressman Newt Gingrich's first
House committee counsel. Buhler may
be contacted at rbuhler@madisoncoalition.org.

U.S. Marginal Well Count Grows
24,000 Since 2012, IOGCC Says
OKLAHOMA CITY-Despite challenges, marginal wells have contributed
more than $300 billion of production in the
form of 2.85 billion barrels of oil and 19.9
trillion cubic feet of natural gas over the
past decade, the Interstate Oil & Gas
Compact Commission says.
IOGCC's Marginal Wells: Fuel for
Economic Growth, 2015 Report says the
inventory of U.S. producing marginal
wells has increased by nearly 24,000
since its last survey in 2012. The report describes production activity in 29 states for
the calendar years 2013, 2014 and 2015.
The report covers a time of dramatic
production shifts and extreme price swings,
and shows the vital role marginal wells
play in the nation's energy security and independence, observes IOGCC Executive
Director Carl Michael Smith.
In 2015, the report says, 786,000 marginally producing wells (408,000 oil wells

and 378,000 gas wells) contributed to U.S.
production (Tables 1A & 1B). Most U.S.
wells are classified as marginal, IOGCC
points out: 69.1 percent of all operating oil
wells and 75.9 percent of all operating gas
wells.
Over the past two decades, it notes almost 200,000 additional wells have been
deemed marginal producers, a one-third increase. That increase mainly has been on the
natural gas side, IOGCC says, explaining
the steady increase in domestic gas drilling
since 2001 continues to produce steady
growth in the number of marginal gas wells.
That count increased by 20,300 gas wells
since the 2012 survey, a 5.7 percent increase.
More than 29,000 marginal oil wells
(7.7 percent increase) have been added
since 2012, IOGCC adds.
IOGCC defines a marginal well as one
that produces 10 barrels of oil or 60 Mcf
of gas a day or less. While marginal well

TABLE 1A
National Stripper Oil Well Survey 2015
Number of
Stripper Oil
Wells

Production from
Stripper Oil
Wells (bbls)

Average Daily
Production per
Well

Alabama

638

734,617

3.2

7.5

Arizona

19,528

2.5

49.0

State

Marginal Share
of Total
Production

Arkansas

4,658

3,315,331

1.9

53.8

California

37,262

47,702,697

3.5

23.6

Colorado

9,992

5,829,735

1.6

4.6

Illinois

29,386

9,521,000

0.9

100

Indiana

4,320

1,996,902

1.3

90.0

Kansas

18,375

16,954,840

2.5

38.0

Kentucky

26,192

2,289,229

0.2

80.2

Louisiana

20,576

8,996,596

1.2

14.3

Michigan

2,305

3,624,877

4.3

55.0

Mississippi

992

1,170,601

3.2

4.9

Missouri

426

138,000

0.9

100

Montana

2,880

2,047,732

1.9

7.3

Nebraska

1,697

1,596,393

2.6

59.2

Nevada

69,285

4.4

24.6

New Mexico

17,263

16,462,950

2.6

11.3

New York

3,629

283,089

0.2

100

North Dakota

3,087

12,834,028

11.4

3.0

Ohio

13,213

5,473,187

1.1

21.4

Oklahoma

28,351

15,188,479

1.5

9.6

Pennsylvania

21,284

1,423,504

0.2

19.3

South Dakota
Texas
Utah
Virginia
West Virginia
Wyoming
Total

47,194

4.5

2.8

152,376

126,659,423

2.3

12.6

2,710

4,019,088

4.1

10.9

958

0.9

8.8

3,641

838,731

0.6

10.5

3,141

3,291,306

2.9

3.8

408,490

292,529,299

2.0

12.0

OCTOBER 2016 113

American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2016