American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2019 - 139

bad legislation."
Much of that work takes place at the
committee level, he relates, and involves
educating lawmakers about the implications of various proposals. "A couple
negative bills from last year are still alive
for next year, but hopefully they will not
get hearings," Palace considers. "We want
to keep them at bay."
Although this session focused primarily
on issues other than oil and gas, Eberhart
notes, a couple unsuccessful bills targeted
Class II disposal wells because of purported links to induced seismicity.
"There continues to be a desire by
some legislators to focus on disposal
wells, despite the fact that earthquakes
have dropped dramatically since the KCC
instituted changes on volumes and locations in those affected counties," he observes. "If not for activists' efforts to
revive this issue on the gurney, we would
not even be having this conversation. The
problem has been identified and is, if not
solved, being addressed well enough that
other states are starting to look to Kansas
on this issue."
The outlook for the next Kansas legislative session remains cloudy, Palace
acknowledges. Not only will voters return
to the polls in 2020, but U.S. Senator Pat
Roberts' decision not to seek re-election
is stirring up Topeka even more than a
normal election year.
"A ton of people-as many as 20-
will get into that Senate race," Palace
predicts. "A lot of them will be our
friends, and they will be looking for
money. EKOGA does not have a political
action committee, but our members will
be getting some calls."
Moreover, he considers, "The leadership
roles look like they will be up for grabs,
so people will be jockeying for the Senate
presidency and House speakership."
Palace admits he has no idea which
issues will dominate in 2020, but suggests
financial constraints will not be one of
them. "It looks like we have plenty of
money because we keep getting reports
of revenue surpassing budget expectations,"
he reveals. "I think we are up another
$400 million (the third) quarter."
Clearing Confusion
According to Eberhart, another EKOGA priority straddles the line between a
straightforward policy matter and one
that entails public education. While many
policymakers view Class I injection wells
through the lens of concerns about possible
links to tremors, he points out that EKOGA
has a role to play in helping people understand the difference between that sort
of injection and the type common in eastern Kansas.

"We really want to separate induced
seismicity concerns from eastern Kansas
injection wells, which are used for enhanced oil recovery, not disposal," he
emphasizes. "Eastern Kansas wells are
shallow and don't have any natural pressure pushing oil out of the formation, so
to an eastern Kansas operator, the saltwater
we produce every day is a valuable commodity, not a waste product. That is a
real important difference between eastern
Kansas operators and those in the rest of
the state."
Injection is so essential to eastern
Kansas operations, Eberhart considers,
that losing the ability to do so could immediately hamstring them. "Our production would drop at least 60%-70% without
the ability to repressure the formation,"
he estimates. "Most of us would be out
of business."
That is why EKOGA sprang into action
last year when anti-industry activists submitted a petition to nullify nearly 1,000
injection well permits granted since October 2008 because companies' public
notices failed to include the correct protest
period, he recalls. "When the attack came
on the matter of 15- versus 30-day notification, EKOGA responded in force," he
recounts. "(EKOGA Director) Keith Brock
wrote an important legal document that

helped to resolve that situation."
Many in Kansas' northeast population
center are barely aware their state even
has oil and gas production, Eberhart describes, and when it does appear on their
radars, it often is in the context of headlines
about abandoned wells or earthquakes.
"All the time, peoples' response to hearing
I am in the oil business is surprise, or to
assume (the properties) are in Oklahoma,"
he imparts. "Then, when they hear about
abandoned wells and things such as that,
it makes them think we are at the end of
our oil-producing period instead of in
the middle of it."
However, he vows that EKOGA will
keep working to correct such misconceptions. One way it does so, he notes, is
by contributing to and cooperating with
the Kansas Oil & Gas Resources Fund's
Kansas Strong program, which is headed
by Executive Director Warren Martin.
"We are putting ads in our local papers
and letting people know what we do,
while Kansas Strong does a lot in the
classroom and Warren goes around talking
to social clubs and doing things at the
grass roots level," Eberhart details. "We
are focused on trying to help community
leaders understand what the oil and gas
industry does in Kansas."
❒








 







AUGUST 2019 139
https://www.cafebelami.biz/
American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2019
