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OIG criticizes BLM permitting delays Says insufficient process management and lack of results-oriented goals lead to long review times for drilling permit applications Alan Bailey Petroleum News
The Office of the Inspector General, or OIG, in the Department of the Interior, has issued a report criticizing the length of time that it takes the Bureau of Land Management to process drilling permits for the oil and gas industry. The report also comments on the adverse impacts on agencies and industry of uncertainties in permit processing times.
“We found that neither BLM nor the operator can predict when the permit will be approved,” the report says. “Target dates for completion for individual APDs (applications for permit to drill) are rarely set and enforced, and consequently the review may continue indefinitely.”
BLM reported that in 2012 the average time it took to process a drilling permit application was 228 days. By comparison, state authorities claim that they process the same type of permit in 80 days or less. However, compared with state officials, the federal authorities face some significant complications - complications can include mandates for multiple use of land, compliance with federal laws that do not apply to state land, and dealing with land ownership issues, the report says.
A review under the National Environmental Policy Act of the potential surface impacts of the proposed drilling accounts for most of the drilling application processing time. And the involvement of several government agencies in this process adds complexity, the report says,
But, with annual revenues from oil and gas production on federal land averaging some $3 billion in recent years, the timely processing of drilling applications is important to federal finances. And the OIG made several recommendations for improving the BLM permitting process.
Improve the process management With possibly more than a dozen participants in the processing of a single permit, BLM should assign a project manager to oversee and coordinate the process, the report says.
BLM also needs to implement, enforce and report timeline targets for permit processing. Currently, while there are mandated deadlines for specific steps such as deeming an application complete, there are no required timelines for completing the processing of an application, the report says.
More generally, BLM should adopt a more performance oriented approach to managing the permitting process by setting performance measures for the process, the report says. Currently, the only measure that BLM uses is the overall percentage of pending permit applications processed. But this measure does not enable the agency to identify inefficiencies in the process, to pinpoint BLM offices needing the most attention and to determine corrective actions. Outcome based performance measures would be more constructive and help with productivity the report says.
The report also recommends that BLM make improvements to the computer system that is intended for the management of the permitting process. Because the system is cumbersome and complex, many field office employees do not use it - the system data are unreliable and inconsistent, the report says.
Inadequate staffing OIG also found that problems with the permitting can, in part, be attributed to inadequate specialist staffing in some BLM offices. In particular, some federal funding assistance granted under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 has become misdirected, as a consequence of some significant changes in workloads at various BLM offices. The Department of the Interior needs to work with Congress to ensure that funding support goes to the BLM offices with the greatest need, the report says.
But time could be saved in BLM offices through a greater use of existing practices that enable the pre-identification of site-related concerns and the avoidance of duplicated work. These practices consist of the pre-staking of well sites and the development of master plans for multiple drilling operations in specific areas, the report notes.
The report also recommends as far as practicable the implementation of some efficiency improvements that some BLM field offices have identified. Examples include the use of strike teams to bring together specialists from multiple BLM offices, and the use of aerial photography for the visual inspection of some drilling sites.
Tailored timelines? In general, BLM has accepted the OIG recommendations. However, the agency has pushed back on the question of setting a processing timeline, saying that the timeline can vary, depending on the complexities and other issues associated with a particular drilling plan. OIG countered that it would be possible for a BLM project manager to evaluate a specific permit application and set a timeline tailored to that application.
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