American Oil and Gas Reporter - December 2018 - 93

ConventionCoverage: Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association
feel that this will help us be successful in
moving produced water."

Participating in the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association's municipality infringement panel at OIPA's fall conference are, from left, Oklahoma Oil & Gas Association
President Chad Warmington, moderator; Sean Flynn, health, safety and environment
manager for Marathon Oil Company; Brian Exline, vice president of land and business
development for Red Bluff Resources; and Tommie Herell, corporate business development
with Select Energy Services.

wouldn't have to deal with those issues.
Thankfully, we were not arrogant enough
to think we did not need to put some protections in place," he recalled.
Oklahoma's industry noticed possible
trouble in 2015, when Stillwater, Ok., effectively banned oil and gas operations.
Warmington said that prompted the associations to act, beginning with working
with the city council to develop more
reasonable ordinances. The concern also
prompted a request for state-level action,
and in May of that year Governor Fallin
signed SB 809. The legislation affirmed
the Oklahoma Corporation Commission
as the primary oil and gas regulator, he
described, adding the bill allowed municipalities "reasonable" restrictions on
issues such as setbacks, noise and lights.
When Kingfisher County commissioners
voted in April to revise permits for county
crossing permits, they opted to bar temporary lines that carried water containing
waste oil, sediment, saltwater or chemicals
from drilling sites (AOGR, October 2018,
pg. 96). An Oklahoma Supreme Court decision blocks the county's attempt to ban
temporary wastewater pipelines on private
property, Warmington reported. The ruling,
issued immediately before the OIPA meeting, said regulatory authority for oil and
gas operations rested with the Oklahoma
Corporation Commission.
According to Warmington, the commission sought to force operators into
negotiations with landowners. "At the
end of the day, it was really not about the
ban on produced water and temporary

lines; it was about trying to force us into
paying landowners for compensation beyond their lands. Once we realized that,
it became pretty evident we needed to
take legal action," he said.
In response, Herell reported, the two
associations formed a technical group
that brought together 10 operators and
five service companies. Selecting among
the participants' standard operating procedures, the committee produced a set of
best management guidelines. He added
that the American Petroleum Institute decided to push the Oklahoma product nationwide.
"It is very exciting that Oklahoma
companies are going to set the standard
for the ways we move produced water,"
Herell praised. "The OCC has reviewed
the best management practices, but it has
not put them into a rule making yet. We

Dealing With Yukon
Exline offered his company's experiences in Yukon, Ok., as another example
of local governments affecting oil and
gas operations. In October, after Red
Bluff Resources filed to drill a well within
Yukon, the city council acted quickly. It
approved an ordinance that mandated a
1,000-foot setback from businesses and
homes, set a 45-decibel noise limit on
well sites, and limited oil and gas well
activities to certain hours.
"Other municipalities are following
this, and I think the Kingfisher ruling
will help, but it does not directly impact
the municipalities' ordinances," Exline
assessed. "Yukon also banned soil farming
and saltwater disposal. Yukon has kind
of gone out on its own in being aggressive.
Industry has the law behind it, but it still
needs good relationships with these municipalities. We need to work with them,
but we have to do it in the way such that
they don't take advantage of us."
Herell urged OIPA members to use what
he called the "eat, sleep and fuel defense"
when dealing with municipalities. He pointed
out Yukon had enjoyed tremendous growth,
in large part because of businesses connected
with oil and gas operations.
"Speaking from a service company
perspective, Yukon is where most of our
employees from out of state stay," he offered. "But, we want to eat, sleep and fuel
in communities that are our friends. Maybe
prior to taking a legal hammer to those
cities, we draw their attention to the fact
that their revenues are going to go down
because the industry is not staying at their
hotels, Maybe operators are driving to El
Reno or Oklahoma City, where we seem
to have more friends."
r

Merger Combines Strengths
Of OKOGA, OIPA Committees
BRANSON, MO.-The merger between
the Oklahoma Oil & Gas Association and
Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, announced shortly before OIPA's
Nov. 13-15 conference in Branson, will
allow the two groups to combine their
strengths, David Le Norman, OIPA Wildcatter chairman, and OKOGA Chairman
Wade Hutchings said at the convention.

Hutchings pointed out the main driver
for even contemplating the combination
was the high degree of alignment seen
between the two groups. "We found that
more and more, all the issues that we
were facing at the Capitol, at the Oklahoma
Corporation Commission, or even out in
the communities were common issues,"
he described. "Collectively, the boards
DECEMBER 2018 93

American Oil and Gas Reporter - December 2018

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