American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2015 - 122

EKOGA Midyear Covers Broad Range
CHANUTE, KS.-The Eastern Kansas
Oil & Gas Association held its 2015
midyear meeting May 5-6 at the Community Building in Emporia, Ks.
Presentations and seminars about several topics filled much of the convention's
first day. Bill McCourry of Lone Star
Consulting kicked off the morning session
with a presentation that told producers
how to meet the Environmental Protection
Agency's requirement for Spill Prevention
Control and Countermeasure plans under
the Clean Water Act. He also urged operators to make sure they met their Tier
II reporting requirements under the Emergency Planning and Community Rightto-Know Act.
According to McCourry, SPCC plans
older than five years probably do not meet
EPA's requirements. Furthermore, he detailed, even those SPCC plans that have
been crafted during the past five years
must contain all documents that require a
management signature, as well as a:
* Flowline diagram;
* Potential for an oil discharge work
sheet;
* Emergency response equipment list;
* Emergency response contractors list;
* Records of inspections;
* Maintenance drainage report; and
* Record of employee training.
A plan that lacks these items is noncompliant, McCourry advised. Other required records he mentioned include annual inspection documents, which must

be kept with the spill plan.
The next presenter was Dub Sutton of
Century Wireline Services, who discussed
how a spectral neutron log could help
identify hydrocarbons behind pipe. He
shared sample logs and explained how to
read and interpret them. The technology,
he noted, potentially will improve operators'
ability to identify and ultimately recover
previously overlooked hydrocarbons.
Ryan Hoffman, director of the Kansas
Corporation Commission's Oil & Gas
Conservation Division, rounded out the
morning with a talk that outlined important
filing deadlines and their relation to formal
compliance proceedings. He also previewed
some new developments and reviewed
temporary abandonment requirements.
Hoffman highlighted increasing demands for access to the division's data.
The Conservation Division uses information from filings to demonstrate to
the public and other governmental entities
that oil and gas operations are being conducted in an environmentally safe manner,
he explained. It does so by showing how
wellbores are constructed or plugged to
protect freshwater resources, and how
waste is handled and disposed properly.
Some operators' failure to file this information has increased formal compliance
proceedings, Hoffman reported, after
which he went on to discuss the implications associated with each stage of those
proceedings. Ultimately, Hoffman encouraged, producers should communicate

Visiting with NASCAR Driver Clint Bowyer (seated) are, from left, Don Snavely of Journey
Inc., and Chris Dale and Deshon Orr, both with Verde Oil Company. This was the second
consecutive year in which Bowyer, whose car is sponsored by the Kansas Strong energy
education program, was the honored guest at EKOGA's midyear meeting, May 5-6 in
Emporia, Ks.

122 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

promptly with regulators throughout the
proceedings to avoid or mitigate any potential formal compliance action.
He also went on to explain new ways
producers could file U3-C annual injection
reports through the Kansas On-Line Automated Reporting system, which offers
operators reporting options of either filing
a single well, uploading the data for all
injection wells through a .csv file using a
Microsoft Excel® template, or creating
.csv files to upload into KOLAR.
Hoffman described as vital the input
from voluntary industry participation in
the process's development, and emphasized how important ongoing input would
be to improving KOLAR. Hoffman expressed a belief that such partnerships
would expand as KOLAR developed.
Finally, Hoffman reviewed the requirements under which Kansas wells
could be classified as temporarily abandoned and discussed the filing requirement
exemptions. Again, Hoffman stressed
that communication was the best method
for compliance, and explained that it was
important for operators to notify KCC
staff about an exempt well and again
when a well was returned to service, so
in both cases it could be coded accurately
in the well database. According to Hoffman, providing such information maintains
the well database's accuracy and minimizes unnecessary compliance actions.
Industry Outreach
After a lunch furnished by Consolidated
Oil Well Services LLC, the afternoon session got under way with remarks from
J.L. White, executive director of the Kansas
Oil & Gas Resources Fund's Kansas Strong
program, who discussed its activities to
educate Kansans about the oil and gas industry. White spoke about the mobile education truck and updates that were being
made to that unit, which travels the state
to educate students about oil and natural
gas. She also told EKOGA about Kansas
Strong's sponsorship of NASCAR driver
Clint Bowyer, a member of the Michael
Waltrip Racing team.
In a presentation that historically has
been an important part of EKOGA meetings, KCC District 3 Supervisor Steve
Korf discussed timely operational and
administrative issues, including compliance matters and concerns, reporting procedures and regulatory requirements.
David Bleakley of Colt Energy and
EKOGA chairman for rules and regulations rounded out the afternoon session's
speakers with a regulatory update and a
look at potential legislative concerns.

American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2015

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