American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2016 - 98

ConventionCoverage: North Dakota Petroleum Council

After its initial foray refracturing Bakken
wells yielded mixed results, Whiting Petroleum formed a refrac steering committee
to identify which of the company's 1,400
Bakken wells are the best candidates for
recompletion. The steering committee's
members cover a variety of disciplines,
including a reservoir, completion and production engineer, as well as a fracturing
supervisor and a landman, says Completions Manager Charles Ohlson.

gas use," King reported. "We also found
that operators felt much safer when walking up to vertical heater-treaters. They
have told us it changed their way of

doing business."
Moreover, he said, the shorter minimum
distance requirement shrinks lease logistics. "It saves the cost of raw land purchase," King noted. "It saves costs for
clearing, plowing and graveling locations.
Production equipment cost savings include
less piping, insulation and containment."
He added that his researched showed
fire tube failure increasing as operators
ran them harder in an effort to achieve
North Dakota's new rail transport standards. Those failures result not only in
the cost of fire tube replacements, he observed, but also production lost from
downtime and other safety issues.
King reported third-party longevity
tests concluded operators could expect
the system to last 40-50 years. "When
you look at the amount of effort and cost
saved by eliminating the need to replace
fire tubes, there is a significant benefit,"
he concluded.
Board Of Directors
During the annual meeting portion of
NDPC's convention, Dillé offered his
thoughts on the importance of accurate
and effective communications. "Our Communication Committee has been working
hard to identify issues," he related. "It
continues to work with advertising and
public relations contractors to share the

positive impacts oil and gas development
has on our economy and way of life."
He called attention to hydrocarbons'
reliability as one of their key advantages,
and emphasized language's influence with
regard to peoples' thinking about energy.
Dillé affirmed the terminology employed
by The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels author
Alex Epstein, who does not refer to wind
and solar as 'renewable' but as 'interruptible' energy sources. "When the sun
is not shining and the wind is not blowing,
those sources are interrupted," Dillé reiterated. "I was glad I could still have a
hot shower this morning, even if the
windmills weren't turning and the solar
panels weren't generating electricity."
NDPC also elected its latest slate of
directors at the meeting. Serving on the
board for new three-year terms will be
Mike Armstrong, The Armstrong Corp.;
Jim Arthaud, Missouri Basin Well Service;
Ron Day, Tesoro Refining & Marketing
Co.; Dillé; Blu Hulsey, Continental Resources; Mark Johnson, Halcón Resources
Corp.; Bob Mau, MW Industries; Robbie
McDonough, Crestwood Energy Partners;
Jeffrey Skaare, Caliber Midstream; Craig
Smith, Crowley Fleck PLLP; Mike Smith,
QEP Resources Inc.; Robert Steede, Enbridge Pipelines (ND) LLC; Tad True,
True Companies; and Brian Wold, WPX
Energy.
❒

Pipeline's Fate A Big Topic At NDPC
MINOT, N.D.-A sizable piece of energy
infrastructure stands at a crossroads-or a
crossing, to be exact. Against that backdrop,
the subject of the Dakota Access Pipeline
was bound to arise at the North Dakota
Petroleum Council's 2016 annual meeting,
Sept. 19-21 in Minot. Indeed, DAPL surfaced repeatedly throughout the conference
in references both direct and veiled.
The project has gained nationwide notoriety, with North Dakota's Standing Rock
Sioux claiming the portion of the pipeline
slated to cross under the Missouri River
near their reservation threatened their water
supply and cultural heritage. Meanwhile,
midstream company Energy Transfer Partners and industry advocates uphold the
project's safety, economic benefits, and
attention to proper permitting protocol.
According to Andrew Black, president
and chief executive officer of the Association of Oil Pipelines, the completed DAPL
would traverse nearly 1,200 miles from
North Dakota to Illinois, carrying almost
98 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

500,000 barrels a day of light, sweet North
Dakota and Montana crude oil.
In remarks to NDPC, representatives
for the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Sahnish
(MHA) three affiliated tribes, L. Ken
Hall and Mark Fox, emphasized tribal
sovereignty and Native American solidarity. Although his tribal government
allowed oil and gas activity within its jurisdiction, Fox stated, the MHA upholds
other tribes' right to bar it.
"If a tribe does not want the oil industry
on its reservation or impacting its lands,
that is its right as a nation. Respect that;
go around," he encouraged. "Have no
doubt about our mutual respect for our
tribal nations that do not feel the same
way we do about certain issues. We
respect their rights and are going to stand
behind other nations 100 percent."
However, observed Andrew Browning,
executive vice president of the Consumer
Energy Alliance, efforts to stymie DAPL
have attracted anti-fossil-energy activists

such 350.org and "inherited the Keystone
XL Pipeline opposition apparatus." Although many call for keeping oil and gas
in the ground, Browning noted, they are
less vocal about detailed plans for powering
a modern economy without hydrocarbons.
"The anti-energy groups have not presented a viable alternative or coherent
energy plan," he expressed. "No one has
called them out on that. Keep in the ground?
What are you going to replace it with? I
have not heard these groups . . . challenged
on that. We need to start doing that."
Tribal Sovereignty
In his words to NDPC, the state's Republican gubernatorial nominee, Doug
Burgum, made no direct reference to
DAPL, focusing instead on the industry's
efficiency gains, although he did acknowledge the importance of pipelines
in that regard. "We have to make sure we
have access to transportation," he related.
"Pipelines move us down the cost curve.

American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2016

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