NDPC board chair Terry Kovacevich recaps 2013 at 32nd annual meeting
Mike Ellerd Petroleum News Bakken
In his opening remarks at the third day of the North Dakota Petroleum Council’s annual meeting in Grand Forks on Sept. 18, not only did the council’s board Chairman Terry Kovacevich point out North Dakota’s record-breaking oil production in July, but he also pointed out that the council itself broke a record with its membership at 501 members, up more than fivefold from the 87 members the council had in 2008.
That increased membership, Kovacevich said, is important in the face of a growing oil and gas industry in North Dakota that brings challenges. “This continued growth has brought with it some challenges, making our membership in the Petroleum Council more and more essential as we work with state, local and federal governments to find solutions to the local impacts, bottlenecks, workforce, housing and regulatory issues we and our communities face.” In addition, he said, the council is dealing with a host of other issues including regulatory matters, sportsman and conservation issues, flaring and the proposed Bureau of Land Management hydraulic fracturing rules.
Kovacevich was elected to a two-year term as chairman of the council’s board in 2012. He is a regional vice president with Marathon Oil Co. and has more than 35 years of experience in domestic and international oil and gas operations. Kovacevich was transferred to North Dakota as operations manager in 2006.
2013 North Dakota legislature The council was busy during the 2013 North Dakota legislative session, which Kovacevich noted was the longest session in the history of the legislature. There were more than 800 bills introduced in the session, many of which were either directly or indirectly related to the oil and gas industry. “An overall successful session,” Kovacevich said. “We saw changes to the oil tax structure, a new Tribal tax agreement, the development of the North Dakota Outdoor Heritage Fund, flaring tax incentives, positive changes to the One Call system, a bill to make acquiring easements easier, changes to the permitting process for some pipelines, water and surface rights bills, and an energy corridor study.” In addition, he said, the Petroleum Council worked for increased funding to address impacts to oil communities, and added that “never before seen levels of funding for oil impacts are a positive step toward meeting the needs of the communities.”
The council introduced a new legislative website at the beginning of the 2013 legislative session, and through that website, council members sent more than 600 email messages to legislators during the session.
Looking forward, Kovacevich identified several key upcoming legislative issues include flaring, oilfield waste, reclamation, landowner issues, royalty issues and a more organized opposition to issues the council does not support. Those issues, he said, will be addressed by the council’s seven ad hoc committees and their numerous subcommittees.
NDPC regulatory committee Kovacevich said the council’s regulatory committee had a busy year, working closely with a number of federal and state agencies. He said the committee has a memorandum of agreement with BLM and provided funding for a BLM worker program to provide additional staffing to address the backlog of drilling permits. The committee has also been involved in BLM’s controversial proposed hydraulic fracturing rule.
The committee worked with both BLM and the U.S. Forest Service to streamline the permitting process, Kovacevich said, and he noted that nearly 200 council members attended BLM permit application writing and inspection and enforcement workshops in April and September. The committee also continued working with the Forest Service to provide third-party completion of National Environmental Policy Act requirements for activities on the Dakota Prairie Grasslands.
On a state level, Kovacevich said the regulatory committee continues to work with the North Dakota Department of Health on disposal of oilfield wastes, including naturally occurring radioactive material, proper waste transport, proper use of pesticides and proper handling of wastewater and saltwater.
He added that the committee is working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, North Dakota state government and the North Dakota agricultural community on fish and wildlife issues, and recently began efforts to prevent the listing of four North Dakota species as endangered.
During the next few weeks, he said, the committee will be working to provide comments on the North Dakota Industrial Commission’s 2014 administrative rulemaking process.
“The committee meets quarterly with federal and state agencies to further address these important issues,” he added.
North Dakota Oil Can! The Petroleum Council’s stakeholder outreach program, “Oil Can!,” established in 2008, had what Kovacevich called “another very successful year” in 2013. “Oil Can! is an effort to educate and inform the general public about our industry and strive to continue to be better neighbors and communicate with local policy-makers, farmers and ranchers and the public in and around areas with increasing oil activity.”
The first Oil Can! fishing derby was held this year with more than 150 participants raising $14,000 for conservation projects. Another fishing derby is planned for next year.
The Oil Can! program put on two Bakken Rocks CookFests in 2013, Kovacevich said, one in Powers Lake and the other in Parshall, hosting more than 3,000 people at those two events. Next year CookFests will be held in Kenmare and Dunn Center in July.
Another campaign in the Oil Can! program is “Pick Up The Patch” which was started in April 2012 to clean up trash along highways. Thus far in 2013 more than 1,600 bags of trash have been picked up during numerous cleanup events, and since the program began last year, more than 3,800 bags of trash have been picked up.
In the past year the program also hosted an annual three-day seminar to educate teachers about the oil and gas industry with more than 50 teachers attending. That seminar included an oilfield tour.
Other news Kovacevich said the council has been running out of room in its Bismarck office and will be moving to the Broadway Center just a few blocks away where it will have expanded office space, workspace for guest members, a larger conference room and better parking. The new building also has a restaurant where the council can hold larger meetings.
The Petroleum Council continued with its advertising campaign, intended to reiterate the positive impacts that the oil and gas industry has on North Dakota. Five new television advertisements were developed, two of which will air this year and the other three in the spring of 2014.
In late 2011, the Sakakawea Area Spill Response program was formed to provide resources to assist in a response to an open water incident in the Williston Basin area, including Lake Sakakawea and its tributaries. There are currently 10 companies that actively participate in the program, and Kovacevich encouraged other companies to join the group.
Bismarck will host next year’s annual Williston Basin Petroleum Conference, scheduled May 20-22 at Bismarck’s Civic Center. The center is working to double the exhibit space over what was available the last time the conference was held in Bismarck in 2012. Bismarck has added more than 1,000 new hotel rooms since the 2012 conference. The Williston Basin Petroleum Conference alternates between North Dakota and Saskatchewan, and in May of this year it was held in Regina.
Closing remarks In closing, Kovacevich offered a few comments as the Petroleum Council enters another year and the industry continues to face challenges. “Oil country has seen enormous growth the last few years, providing unprecedented economic benefit for our state, including billions in economic impact and thousands of high-paying jobs,” Kovacevich said. “As we know, this great success comes with many challenges and impacts affecting all of us in industry, the state, the counties and cities, and our local citizens. I am proud of our members’ efforts in aggressively addressing these issues. However, we must not be complacent. I encourage each of you and your companies to continue your efforts as we go forward, and I am confident we will once again achieve, and to continue to achieve, great success.”
Did you find this article interesting?
Tweet it
 | Digg it
|
|
Click here to subscribe to Petroleum News for as low as $89 per year.
|
