Keeping up with inspections on public and tribal lands in North Dakota may be a struggle for federal inspectors, but state inspectors have their back.
The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources Oil and Gas Division, DMR, has 30 inspectors in the field checking saltwater disposal wells and injection sites monthly, and making stops at production facilities, including oil and gas wells and treating plants, quarterly.
Public Information Officer for the department, Alison Ritter, told Petroleum News Bakken that the disposal and injection wells get more frequent inspections because they require checking gauges to determine safe pressure levels. However, oil well sites don’t require such frequent inspection because operators are themselves monitoring those very closely.
“We try to get to producing wells quarterly, but because an operator is going to maintain that - it’s their workhorse - it’s what’s bringing in their revenue, they want to keep it in working order,” Ritter said.
The Associated Press reported on June 15 that the Bureau of Land Management, BLM, which oversees drilling on federal land, is behind on its inspections and is bringing in inspectors from other states to tackle the backlog. In North Dakota, BLM employs 10 inspectors, including three recent hires. They expect another seven to be brought in from other states, and admit to needing another 10. But Ritter said if state inspectors discover any problems at a site under federal authority, they will alert the agency.
“It also depends on the violation,” she said. “We have an agreement with the feds and the tribes, that if the state regulations are more stringent, then we would have the jurisdiction, but if the federal ones are more stringent, they would. So it just takes a lot of communication.”
At the local level, DMR has 30 inspectors in the state with two additional openings yet to fill in this current biennium which ends in December. When the state hits a total well count of 15,000, DMR is authorized to hire three more positions.
“Based on our model, we expect to hit that sometime in July,” Ritter said.
Even with a need for more inspectors, Ritter said the staff they have is staying on top of the workload.
“Their areas are a little larger, but I don’t think by any means we’d say we’re behind as far as staffing goes,” Ritter said. “For the most part, when you look at us compared to other states, we’re keeping up when it comes to well count versus inspectors.”
DMR’s inspectors are petroleum engineers and engineering technicians. Typically the petroleum engineers inspect drilling rigs and engineering technicians focus on injection wells and production facilities. But if locations are nearby, it isn’t uncommon for the engineers to make an unscheduled stop and inspect those facilities.
Ritter said the engineers inspect each drilling rig two times a week, saying the department has a “pretty detailed model” as far as how much time should be spent at a site and by whom. She adds that the state and federal inspectors coordinate schedules to avoid inspecting the same site within days of each other.
“There are definitely efficiencies in sharing our schedule,” Ritter said. “When we’ve been to a rig or a well site and we’ve just done an inspection, it doesn’t make much sense for them to get out to one. They can wait a couple months or a quarter; they don’t have to go there tomorrow.”
Efficiencies are not limited to the inspections process, though. DMR has encouraged BLM to follow North Dakota’s lead and consider using an electronic permitting system to gain a better handle on well sites.
“BLM does not use electronic permitting, they use paper,” Ritter said. “So we explained how ours works, how it speeds up the process. It helps not having to find this piece of paper that’s maybe stored on somebody’s desk.”
She explained that as the permit moves through the various regulatory stages, it is much easier to access and streamlines the process. “They could benefit from something like that,” Ritter said.
