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information & issues

Welcome to IPANM’s Information & Issues webpage!

IPANM is not afraid to take strong stances on many current issues threatening our industry. We have to! Seemingly minor changes to regulations or rules can have a major impact on the financial solvency of our small oil & gas producers. While we will never compromise on our duties to protect human health, fresh water and the environment in our daily activities, we will fight unnecessary government overreach when new regulatory proposals are not based on sound science and do little to protect the environment.

Below, we’ve identified serious issues facing our producers. Please click on the corresponding button to learn more about each issue and IPANM’s stance on the issue. (Note: Some of this content may be restricted for members only. To access this exclusive content, please join our association!)

Methane
Infrastructure
Hydraulic Fracturing
Produced Water
Cultural Properties
Royalties
Industry Benefits
Setbacks & Chaco Canyon
Administrative Penalties
Injection Wells
Endangered Species
Horizontal Drilling Rule
Drilling & Leasing
Spill Rule
Financial Assurance
Seismicity
Endangered Plants
Anti-Industry Politics

RECENT NEWS: All Issues

ONRR Updates Indian Valuation Amendments and Reporting
Effective July 1, 2015, ONRR will have new reporting requirements associated with oil production on Indian Lands.
BLM to Hold Outreach Meetings on HF Rule
Next week, June 18 and 22, the BLM will hold outreach meetings for industry on the new BLM Hydraulic Fracturing
Texas Preemption Bill on its way to Governor's Desk
Yesterday, HB 40, a bill to clarify the authority of the state of Texas to regulate oil and gas drilling,
BLM to Hold HF Workshops - Santa Fe, Denver and Houston
With the new BLM HF rule coming into effect on June 24th, industry is scrambling to determine its effect and
ONRR Publishes New UCA for San Juan
On April 15, 2015, ONRR published new Unbundling Cost Allocations (UCAs) for the San Juan Transportation System and the San
BLM Seeks to Change Royalty Rates, Rantals, Bid Amounts and Bonding
Tomorrow in the federal register, the BLM will be publishing an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking that will substantially impact
BLM Hydraulic Fracturing Rule
On March 20, 2015 the U.S. Department of the Interior released the new Hydraulic Fracturing Rule that will regulate hydraulic
April 22 Deadline to Report Wellbore Communication to NMOCD
On March 23rd, the NMOCD posted on its website a notice to all operators requesting information relating to wellbore(s) that
BLM Postpones April Lease Sale
Last week, April 2nd, there was a meeting between several company representatives, the BLM and members of the New Mexico
Mora County Repeals Anti-Oil & Gas Ordinance
The Mora County Commission voted unanimously to repeal the "Mora County Community Water and Local Self-Government Ordinance" on the grounds
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Hot Topics

Wildlife in the Oilfield
Industry Benefits
Legal Challenges
Sign Up for Updates

 

Members

Join IPANM
Member Benefits
Map of Members
Password Reset

 

News

Oil & Gas Newsroom
Member Newsroom
Newsletters
Regulatory Updates

Annual Meeting

2025 Meeting Info
2025 Golf Outing
2025 Sponsors
Sponsor An Event

 

 

 

 

About IPANM

Who We Are
Our Board
Administrative Staff
Contact Us

Web Tools

Calendar
Memberzone
BillTrack 50
Facebook Page

Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico

IPANM Administrative Offices
P.O. Box 6101, Roswell, New Mexico, 88202
Bus. - 575-622-2566 | Fax. - 575-622-2566

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Natural Gas (NG)
WTI Crude Oil (CL)

 

Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico

IPANM Administrative Offices
P.O. Box 6101, Roswell, New Mexico, 88202
Phone 575-622-2566

Search

Website designed by Siarza Social Digital

Natural Gas

WTI Crude Oil

Effective July 1, 2015, ONRR will have new reporting requirements associated with oil production on Indian Lands.

This final rule was posted in the Federal register on May 1, 2015. The simplified impact of this rule is an increase in the effective royalty value that will be paid on oil production produced on Indian lands by approximately 3.82 percent to 3.93 percent, or collectively about $ 20 million annually on Indian lands.

If you are an operator or reporter to ONRR related to Indian Lands, you should review this important rule change to ensure your compliance on reporting and valuation going forward. A link to the final ONRR rule can be accessed at this web address:

http://www.onrr.gov/laws_r_d/FRNotices/AA15.htm

Next week, June 18 and 22, the BLM will hold outreach meetings for industry on the new BLM Hydraulic Fracturing rule that becomes effective June 24. The meeting on June 18 will be at the Walter Gerrells Exhibition Center in Carlsbad, and the meeting on the 22nd will be at San Juan College, Little Theater. Each meeting will be from 9am to noon and will include question and answer sessions on implementation of the new rule. Please see the links below for the agendas.

In the meantime, to prepare for both the meeting and the June 24th implementation date, we have taken the actual rule provisionm which is only six pages, out of the 299 page federal register submission (see link below). In addition, the BLM has been working with representatives of IPANM, PBPA and NMOGA to develop a flowchart of relevant dates for operators (linked here in draft form). Prior to the BLM presentations, a powerpoint, answers to questions asked and templates will also be provided. The task force is also working on a template affidavit to address the trade secret issues raised in section 3162.3-3(j). When these documents become available, we will notify our membership.

We also hope to have a three hour workshop on the ins and outs of implementation of the HF rule on the Wednesday before the IPANM annual meeting so that we can more fully discuss how the BLM is moving forward with permitting and approving the HF permits.

2015 BLM HF rule
BLM HF Rule Outreach Agenda – Carlsbad
BLM HF Rule Outreach Agenda – Farmington
Draft HF Applicability Flow Chart

Yesterday, HB 40, a bill to clarify the authority of the state of Texas to regulate oil and gas drilling, passed the Senate on a 25 to 6 vote. On April 20th, the Texas House passed the bill on a 125 to 20 vote and the bill is now on its way to Governor Abbott’s desk.

The Texas bill, which is very similar to NM HB 366, drafted by IPANM and sponsored by House Majority Whip Gentry, has provisions to allow municipalities and local governments to continue to regulate noise, dust and traditional zoning issues. In fact, the Texas bill seems to give surface owners a bit more latitude in discussing surface locations. However, HB 40 has a limitation of ‘commercial reasonableness’ which requires that “a reasonably prudent operator is allowed to fully, effectively and economically exploit, develop, produce, process and transport oil and gas, as determined based on the objective standard of a reasonably prudent operator and not on an individual assessment of an actual operator’s capacity to act.” The bill further states that only the State has the exclusive jurisdiction to regulate oil and gas operations and although the local government may enact ordinances regarding surface issues, it is limited to the commercial reasonableness standard and may not effectually prohibit any activity.

With the new BLM HF rule coming into effect on June 24th, industry is scrambling to determine its effect and how best to comply. IPANM members are invited to attend a meeting in Santa Fe on April 29th from 1 to 5pm at the Santa Fe Marriott on Cerrillos Road. The BLM will be present to answer questions, to discuss the rule and steps moving forward. A conference call number will also be available. Please see the flyer linked below for details.

NM BLM Agenda

Please find below a message IPANM received from ONRR regarding updated information for several plants in the San Juan Basin. Please note that there is a pending rule for which we are intending to comment by the deadline of May 8th which will impact OIL producers including reducing the deductions available on POP contracts. We hope to have a summary of the rule out asap so that your companies can comment as well. In addition, I have been trying to get the ONRR to come to New Mexico to have a stakeholder meeting on the proposed rule, but have not had any luck yet. We will let you know if and when we can schedule a workshop on the ONRR issues.

From ONRR:

On April 15, 2015, ONRR published new Unbundling Cost Allocations (UCAs) for the San Juan Transportation System and the San Juan (Blanco) Plant for the years 2008-2014. ONRR also published new UCAs for the Torre Alta Transportation System and the Lybrook Plant for the year 2011. ONRR updated UCAs for the San Juan Transportation System and the Chaco Plant for the years 2008-2014. This update is due to the acquisition of more accurate information regarding this transportation system and gas plant. From this point forward, UCAs based on replacement cost will be rounded to the closest integer.
The new UCAs are available at the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) website, onrr.gov/unbundling, and relate to the allowable portion of contractual transportation and processing fees.
If you have any questions, please direct your inquiries to onrrunbundling@onrr.gov.

—
This message serves as guidance for determining value for royalties and is not an appealable decision or order under 30 CFR Part 1290, Subpart B. If ONRR issues you an order to pay additional royalties or assesses civil penalties under 30 CFR Part 1241 at a later date based on this guidance, your appeal rights will be provided at that time. While this message is not appealable, ONRR may use this guidance in conducting audits and as a basis for demanding additional royalties.”
End message
—

Tomorrow in the federal register, the BLM will be publishing an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking that will substantially impact future leasing on federal lands. The BLM will be seeking industry input on several questions relating to changing the royalty rates for competitive leases, increasing annual rentals, increasing minimum bid amounts, increasing bonding and increasing civil penalty levels. Included in the notice will be a five page list of questions which I would urge you or your land departments to review. Below are the notice of proposed rulemaking and the five page list of questions.

The BLM will be asking for comment within 45 days of tomorrows publication.

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

List of Questions

On March 20, 2015 the U.S. Department of the Interior released the new Hydraulic Fracturing Rule that will regulate hydraulic fracturing on public lands managed by the BLM. This will affect approximately 700 million acres of mineral estate underlying both federal and nonfederal lands and an additional 56 million acres of American Indian lands. The BLM estimates that the new well requirements would affect 3,800 oil and gas wells annually.

The new rule will expand the existing BLM regulations on oil and gas operations specified at 43 CFR § 3162.3-1 and Onshore Oil and Gas Orders 1, 2, and 7.

Summary by Baker Hostetler

On March 23rd, the NMOCD posted on its website a notice to all operators requesting information relating to wellbore(s) that have communicated with another wellbore(s) to the appropriate OCD office by April 22nd. The NMOCD states, “there has been evidence showing that inter-well communication and/or pressure increases may injure producing formations, injection intervals, casing or case seats and may create underground waste.” The request of the NMOCD requires all operators to give the agency information regarding “communication of any kind through drilling, completion, stimulation or production operations relating to both horizontal or vertical wells.” Reporting must be in accordance with 19.15.16.17 (C-103) and or 19.15.29 NMAC (on a C-141 form).

The NMOCD further states that “completion operators will be required to IMMEDIATELY report any instances of inter-well communication resulting from stimulation. Releases must be reported on a C-141 form while only pressure increases or decreases must be reported on a C-103 form.”

Affected operators must also IMMEDIATELY report any instances of inter-well communications on a C-141 form and they are also advised to contact the operator performing the stimulation.

Note that the NMOCD provides a “clarification” that “any fluid or gas released from an affected well will be considered a release. This includes but is not limited to, any mixture of completion and/or formation gases vented from the production equipment due to the inter-well communication.”

OCD Notice

Last week, April 2nd, there was a meeting between several company representatives, the BLM and members of the New Mexico Congressional delegation. The topic of the meeting was the potential merger of the New Mexico BLM and the Arizona BLM due to budget constraints. The Department of Interior is planning to move only the State Director from Arizona over to New Mexico to run the New Mexico office. Thus, the 12.2 million acres currently managed by the BLM will be added to the 13.5 million surface acres and 26 million subsurface acres already managed by the Santa Fe Office. It is also interesting to note that the Arizona office does not manage any oil and gas resources while the New Mexico office has the largest office in the country. As an IPANM member, it is important that our congressional delegation hears from us on this issue. Please consider contacting them.

In addition, today, the NM BLM announced that is has postponed the April 22, 2015 lease sale due to “priority workloads.” The 17 parcels totaling 3,295 acres from the Oklahoma Field Office will be added to the July 22, 2015 lease sale. This newest development is very concerning given the move to combine offices without a significant increase in personnel.

If you have any questions regarding the NM BLM lease sales, please contact Becky Hunt, Natural Resource Specialist at 505-954-2154 or rhunt@blm.gov.

Contacts for NM Congressional Offices –
Rep. Steve Pearce: 202-225- 2365
Rep. Michelle Lujan-Grisham: 202-225-6316
Rep. Ben Ray Lujan: 202-225-6190
Sen. Tom Udall: 202-225-6621
Sen. Martin Heinrich: 202-225-5521

The Mora County Commission voted unanimously to repeal the “Mora County Community Water and Local Self-Government Ordinance” on the grounds that Federal Judge Browning has found the ordinance invalid on Constitutional grounds. This is very good news and would not have been possible without the lawsuit filed by IPANM in November 2013 after passage of the original ordinance in April 2013.

This good news is also welcome in light of the recent demise of HB 366, drafted by IPANM and sponsored by Representative Gentry, House Majority leader. Rep. Gentry did a phenomenal job pushing the bill through two House Committees and across the House floor with a final 37-28 vote. Unfortunately, Senate Conservation Chairman Peter Wirth refused to hear the bill and it was left in their committee to die without a final vote. The same fate occurred with SB 421, drafted and sponsored by NMOGA. Paula Garcia, current chair of the Mora County Commission, testified strongly against both bills but also admitted that the Mora County Ordinance was not the “correct way” to limit oil and gas activities in the counties. We are pleased that Ms. Garcia followed through on her commitment to reverse Mora’s ordinance and hope that before that county adopts another ordinance, IPANM will be able to speak to the Commissioners.

I will be speaking at the Society of Petroleum Engineers luncheon in Farmington tomorrow and hope to send the final report on the session out by Tuesday afternoon. There are also several updates to send regarding BLM’s intent to merge the New Mexico and Arizona offices and IPANM’s request to ONRR for another training session in New Mexico this spring. We will keep you posted!