American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2018 - 104

ConventionSection: Eastern Kansas Oil & Gas Association

Fresh Air Blowing Through
Eastern Kansas Patch
By Bill Campbell

GA President Rob Eberhart, treasurer of
Bobcat Oilfield Service Inc. in Louisburg,
who labels Keen "a trailblazer and very
knowledgeable."
And while Bleakley speculates that
the KCC's Oil & Gas Conservation Division staff may have been somewhat
worried at first about what direction a
commissioner from the oil and gas industry
might push them on issues; today, he
poses, "I think staff feel a lot better about
having someone who understands oil and
gas field operations and the KCC rules
and regulations as well as Dwight does. I
think they are very pleasantly surprised
at the attention he has given them.
"From what I have heard, Dwight has
completely engaged the Conservation Division staff, and has been to all the
districts and talked with the field people
to find out firsthand what is going on,"
Bleakley lauds.

LOUISBURG, KS.-When it comes
to healing hurts, time and talk can be
great medicine.
At his association's annual meeting
in August 2017, Kansas Independent Oil
& Gas Association Environmental Chairman Jon Callen reflected that, "The
Kansas Corporation Commission is as
unfriendly to work with as I have seen it
since 1980."
A year later, as the Eastern Kansas
Oil & Gas Association prepares for its
2018 annual convention, Oct. 2-4 in
Mayetta, Ks., Regulatory and Environmental Chairman David Bleakley calls
the industry's relationship with the KCC
much improved and even "a breath of
fresh air."
Bleakley credits a lot of the change to
the April appointment of Dwight Keen-
a past KIOGA chairman and former EKOGA director-as one of the state's three
corporation commissioners. "This is the
first time in a long time we have had an
oil and gas person on the commission
who has both field and regulatory knowledge of the industry," he says, adding
that EKOGA is very optimistic.
"I am not sure there was a better candidate," Bleakley enthuses.
"It is wonderful to have someone with
(Keen's) knowledge, drive and ability to
solve some of the problems that have
been plaguing our industry," agrees EKO-

Create Subcommittees
Not that Keen's presence on the KCC
is responsible for all the heightened communication, Bleakley quickly adds. He
credits Conservation Division Director
Ryan Hoffman for engaging the industry
early when he approached the commissioners about raising the division's Conservation Fee Fund assessment.
And while EKOGA wasn't necessarily
pleased at a 58 percent increase-on May
24, the KCC voted to raise the Conservation
Fee Fund from 9.1 to 14.4 cents a barrel

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on crude oil and from 1.29 to 2.05 cents
an Mcf on natural gas-one positive was
forming a finance subcommittee/working
group with industry participation to guide
the division's future budgeting, Eberhart
says. "We will have better insight and
play a much more active role in this
process going forward," he assures.
In fact, points out Bleakley, the finance
working group is but one of four new
subcommittees created under the Oil and
Gas Advisory Committee to the Conservation Division. The other three working
groups are focused on abandoned wells,
a general overview of oil and gas regulations, and induced seismicity.
On that last topic, Bleakley says EKOGA is intent on ensuring equitable treatment for the oil and gas industry. He references a Kansas Geological Survey report
discussed at a May 16 meeting in Hutchinson, Ks., following several tremors in
that area. The KGS research suggested
the Hutchinson tremors were caused by
pressure resulting from saltwater injection
into the Arbuckle formation from Class
II wells migrating northward from Oklahoma and southern Kansas, but dismissed
any effect from Class I injection wells
much nearer to the source of the tremors
(AOGR, August 2018, pg. 117).
He points to the apparent success of
several KCC orders to reduce pressures
and volumes in Class II oil and gas
industry disposal wells in areas of suspected induced seismicity while the Kansas
Department of Health and Environment,
which regulates Class I industrial and
municipal waste disposal wells, has been
reluctant to order similar curtailments.
"That simply doesn't make sense,"
Bleakley insists. "It is in the public
interest to apply the same precautions
applied to oil and gas industry disposal
wells to industrial and municipal waste
disposal wells. With respect to Class I
wells, the KDHE should be more forthcoming in publicly disclosing the types
of fluids, injection pressures and volumes,
and their proximity to each other and to
seismic activity."
As for working with the KCC on the
Conservation Division's budget, Bleakley
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