American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2017 - 108

ConventionSection: Virginia Oil & Gas Association

VOGA Annual Meeting - Virginia Beach, Va.
Wednesday, June 21

8 a.m.-4 p.m. Registration, Hilton Garden
Inn Oceanfront
12:30 p.m. Executive Committee and Board
of Directors Meeting
6 p.m. Welcome Reception and Ice Cream
Social

Thursday, June 22

8 a.m.-Noon Registration, Hilton Garden
Inn Oceanfront
8 a.m. VOGA Golf Tournament
TBD VOGA Fishing Charter
4 p.m. General Membership Meeting
6:30 p.m. Reception, Family Barbecue and
Auction

Friday, June 23

7:30 a.m. Breakfast Buffet
8-12:15 a.m. Business and Technical Program
Update of Virginia's Oil and Gas Development for 2016, Rick Cooper, Division
of Oil and Gas, Virginia Department of
Mines, Minerals and Energy
"Indivisibles, CAVEMEN and NIMBYs
When Community Organizers Go BA-

state or local officials responding to emergencies. The House of Delegates approved
HB 1679, but it failed to advance in the
Senate.
"As part of the new regulations we
now operate under, chemical disclosure
is required," Landon says. "There are
provisions for trade secret protection for
proprietary chemicals, however there was
a need for protection from Freedom of
Information Act requests, which is
VOGA's intention with this legislation.
The legislation went a long way, but ultimately the association could not get it
through."
During the session, VOGA also monitored legislation involving orphan wells,
Landon recalls. SB 911, introduced by
Senator Richard Stuart, R-Montross, increases the surcharge for oil and gas permits for all activities other than geophysical
operations from $50 to $200.
"At least for an Appalachian Basin
state, Virginia has very few orphan wells-
25, plus or minus," Landon says. "It is not
a huge concern. The commonwealth has
done a good job in prioritizing them, to
address them based on their potential
impact to the public and the environment."
However, Virginia has not been an
exception to the nationwide drop in field
activity, which means the state has issued
fewer permits, and has brought less money

NANAS: An Analysis of the 'Keep It in
the Ground' Playbook, Beth Stockner,
Virginia Oil & Gas Association
"Interstate Pipeline Development in Virginia: Permitting, Challenges and Opportunities," Joseph Dawley, EQT Corp.
"The State Review Process," Ryan Steadley,
State Review of Oil and Natural Gas
Environmental Regulations Inc.
(STRONGER)
Coffee Break
"Marathon/Mark West-Growth of the Natural Gas Liquids Business," James Crews,
Marathon/Mark West
"Needs vs. Wants: The Role of Infrastructure in Economic Development," Steven
C. Wright, Chesapeake Economic Development Office
"Energy Policy in a Brave New World,"
Christopher Guith, U.S. Chamber of
Commerce's Institute for 21st Centurty
Energy
"Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards," Thomas Calhoon, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of
Infrastructure Protection
6 p.m. Dinner Banquet

into the orphan well fund, he says. Legislators have approved the measure and
it has been signed, Landon adds.
The governor also has signed SB 910,
sponsored by Stuart, Landon says. The
bill increases from 750 feet to 1,320 feet
the radius around gas wells on which operators have a right to enter and obtain
samples from water wells, and changes
the requirements for operators to replace
contaminated water supplies. The changes
make Virginia law consistent with new
state regulations that took effect late in
2016, Landon points out.
"The industry doesn't have any issues
with this," he says. "There been upward
of 10,000 wells drilled in Virginia, and
the commonwealth has not had any issues
with those wells harming water sources."
Regulatory Environment
With such a small production area in
Virginia, Landon says the association's
main federal regulatory concern centers
on new regulations from the Pipeline and
Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The final rule allows the agency to
impose emergency restrictions and new
safety provisions on natural gas and hazardous liquid pipeline facilities (AOGR,
November 2016, pg. 16).
"The association commented on those
pipeline regulations last year, and we

108 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

have been involved with the Independent
Petroleum Association of America on
that," Landon says.
VOGA also is monitoring what Landon
calls "the EPA's alphabet soup of Subpart
OOOO and, OOOOa emissions reporting
requirements." He adds, "People do not
understand the avalanche of federal regulations that the industry faced under the
previous administration. Now we have a
bit of an adjustment back to somewhat
more reasonable rules. VOGA is trying
to get the word out, and association members are cautiously optimistic."
The new Trump administration is another reason for industry confidence, Landon poses, adding that if commodity
prices also recover, the industry will be
in great shape.
He adds one more support for an industry revival is the positive assessment
provided by the 2016 review by
STRONGER (State Review of Oil &
Natural Gas Environmental Regulations)
Inc.
"Overall, I think the operators here in
Virginia always have felt that the commonwealth has some of the strongest and
most effective regulations, and that is
where STRONGER came down," he says.
"There were some comments raised by
the STRONGER reviewers, and some of
those have been implemented or state
regulators are in the process of implementing them."
According to the STRONGER review,
Virginia should:
* Evaluate whether bond requirements
beyond those required in the southwest
production area are needed in the Tidewater region, if development begins there;
* Develop mechanisms and agreements with local governments to improve
communications and transparency; and
* Increase the orphan well permit fee
and allocate additional resources to plug
the state's remaining orphan wells.
"It is interesting'" Landon continues.
"We went through a regulatory review
process in 2014-15, and those regulations
sat on the shelf. Then, the state asked
STRONGER to review the regulations.
In the middle of that, the commonwealth
decided to finalize those earlier regulations.
That was more the current administration
realizing that if it waited, it would not get
the regulations implemented before it was
out of office. The increase in the orphan
well fee and some additional bonding requirements in eastern Virginia came out
of the STRONGER process."
r

American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2017

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