American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2016 - 20

IndustryDigest
hosted the lease sale. Each parcel was
available for bidding for three hours
during the sale. According to the
agency, sale participants and the public
could monitor the sale's progress
through the company's website.
BLM notes it received authority to
conduct onshore oil and gas lease sales
through Internet-based bidding methods
under the Fiscal Year 2015 National
Defense Authorization Act. Before that
legislation, the Mineral Leasing Act
authorized federal onshore lease sales
only through oral auctions.
The agency published a rule
amending its regulations to fully
implement this authority in the Aug. 31
Federal Register. Under the change,
BLM can use either Internet-based or
oral auctions.
The rule change is based on the
results of a successful online auction
pilot conducted by the BLM in
Colorado in 2009, the agency says.
According to government estimates,
Internet-based auctions could increase
aggregate lease sale revenues by $2
million a year. BLM says online sales
have the potential to generate greater
competition by making participation
easier, thus increasing bonus bids. ❒

Quake Report Is Wrong,
Texas Alliance Asserts
WICHITA FALLS, TX.-Reports that
the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency links earthquake activity in
North Texas with wastewater produced
from oil and gas drilling misstate the
facts, says Alex Mills, president and
chief executive officer of the Texas
Alliance of Energy Producers.
Mills responded with an op-ed to
reports in several Texas newspapers that
EPA had announced it had linked
disposal well injections to an increase in
seismic activity in the Dallas-Fort Worth
area. The assertion was drawn from an
EPA report on the state's underground
injection control program delivered to
the Texas Railroad Commission.
The EPA report cites RRC action in
securing voluntary closures or injection
volume reductions for several Class II
disposal wells in and around Dallas
County in North Texas. In light of
research, its own analysis, and the fact
that earthquakes in some areas
diminished following disposal well
20 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

shut-ins or reduced injections, EPA says
"there is a significant possibility that
North Texas earthquake activity is
associated with disposal wells."
According to the federal agency
analysis, naturally fractured formations
may transmit pressure buildup from
injections for miles. It points out the
geological characteristics of the
Ellenberger formation-the preferred
disposal zone for most North Texas
wells-may allow pressures to follow
fracture pathways toward fault zones
miles away. EPA recommends daily
recording and reporting of injection
pressures and volumes from disposal
wells.
Mills says the reality is the EPA's 61page review of the RRC's UIC project
devotes only one page to induced
seismicity in North Texas, and fails to
offer any scientific evidence linking
injections to earthquakes. He points out
EPA commended the RRC for its
involvement in assessing the problems,
and establishing new regulations
specific to seismicity, including
solidifying its authority to take
appropriate actions relating to injection
well operations.
The media reports also downplay
EPA's praise for the RRC's mechanical
integrity testing program, Mills
continues. The federal agency says the
MIT program exceeds testing
requirements, but the newspapers didn't
mention the review of the RRC's UIC
program included anything other than
earthquakes, he says. ❒

Freshwater Is Selected
President Of IOGAWV
CHARLESTON, W.V.-The
Independent Oil and Gas Association of
West Virginia has selected Scott
Freshwater as its 2016-17 president. He
is joined by Vice President Ben Sullivan
and Secretary/Treasurer Marc
Monteleone. The new slate of officers
assumed their duties after the
association's summer meeting.
Freshwater is vice president of
Reserve Oil and Gas Inc., and president
of Contractor Services Inc. of West
Virginia. Both businesses are in
Spencer, W.V. He began his oil and gas
career in 1987 working in the field on
ConServ well servicing, pipeline
construction and well cementing

J. SCOTT
FRESHWATER

projects, the association says.
He attended West Virginia University
from 1989 to 2005, graduating with a
B.S. and M.S. in civil engineering.
According to the association,
Freshwater served on the IOGAWV
Board of Directors from 2011 to 2014.
After graduating from the University
of Kentucky and West Virginia
University School of Law, Sullivan
practiced law with the Charleston firm
of Lewis Glasser Casey & Rollins. In
2006, he joined the legal department at
EQT Corp., and in 2012 he began work
for Energy Corporation of America.
IOGAWV says he is a member of its
Safety and Environmental Committee.
Monteleone is a partner in the
Charleston offices of Bowles Rice and
serves at the firm's chief financial
officer, IOGAWV says. He served on
the association's board from 2010 to
2013, as secretary/treasurer. Monteleone
is on several IOGAWV task forces,
including one negotiating with pipeline
transmission companies on behalf of
producers. ❒

IOGA Seeks Go-Getter
To Be Executive Director
MT. VERNON, IL.-After 14 years
as executive director of the Illinois Oil
& Gas Association, Brad Richards has
accepted a business development
position with Bi-Petro Inc.
IOGA President Bryan Dicus, owner
of BJ Dicus & Associates LLC in
Carmi, Il., predicts Richards will be a
huge asset to his new employer, but
indicates the association has every
intention of continuing to draw from
Richards' experience and background.
"I look forward to continuing to
work with Brad now as an association
member representing his new company,
and hopefully can look forward to him
serving on our Board of Directors in the
future," Dicus says. "Brad was great to
American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2016

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