Tours Hosted and UB Energy Summit T The Utah Petroleum Association has been busy in the previous months in the field. In June, Representative Chew hosted a legislative tour where we joined the Utah Division of Oil, Gas & Mining and the Utah Mining Association to focus on mineral extraction and agriculture. With the growth in frack sand mining in the basin, we were able to educate legislators on how oil and gas is actually mining as well (that elephant just keeps getting bigger)! In-basin frack sand significantly reduces well costs, provides local jobs and tax revenue and helps reduce truck traffic between the basin and the Carbon County rail terminals served by HW 191 (precious capacity needed to serve our crude export operations). As another proof point to our repeated assertion that we are an industry of problem-solvers and flashing back to a headline from a previous edition of this publication, we once again invoke the work of noted poet Vanilla Ice, “If there was a problem, yo, I’ll solve it.” In August, we hosted a tour of the entire Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office (PLPCO) team, whose mission is “to coordinate, promote and implement Utah’s public land priorities.” PLPCO is a key partner for our industry and many others in the state, given their role in ensuring federal lands remain open and Bureau of Land Management acreage continues to be managed according to their statutory mandate of multiple use — and do not fall prey to the political whims of an administration. In a Salt Lake Tribune article, BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said the agency’s mission is to manage the lands in accordance with what the public wants and that polls consistently show people want to protect their public lands. This simply isn’t true. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) of 1976 requires “multiple use” on public lands. This means that every American has a place on public lands — whether a hiker, camper, cattle rancher or energy producer. Our nation’s wide-open spaces are available to be used in numerous ways. It is not the BLM’s job to pick winners and losers here. Their job is to ensure our public lands are available for all, for the greater good. Many thanks to Ovintiv, Crusoe and WEM for hosting. PLPCO’s bench of attorneys is critical in protecting the state’s ability to continue to grow and thrive, and we were honored to give them an up-close look at how the industry is evolving and innovating. In September, we then partnered with the Uintah Basin Energy Summit and Sen. Ron Winterton to host a tour for legislators, regulators from DOGM, BOGM and DEQ, Utah’s federal delegation offices, and other conference VIPs to do a show-and-tell of how our industry works from top to bottom. We toured a drill rig and talked about advances in drilling techniques that result in massive production gains paired with reduced surface disturbance. We toured the latest and greatest in multi-pad surface facilities with controls to reduce emissions and again improve efficiencies. We visited a water recycling facility to drive home how we are now making large reductions in our freshwater use by collecting and re-using produced water, and toured Crusoe’s Digital Flare Mitigation site where stranded gas is converted into computing power. A huge thanks goes out the Ovintiv, XCL, WEM, Crusoe; our partners at UB Tech, Duchesne and Uintah counties; and DRN for helping us with this sold-out undertaking. Special recognition goes to Travis Campbell and the Uintah County team, who put on another successful Uintah Basin Energy Summit. Over 550 attendees joined this year’s summit to hear from over 40 presenters, visit with industry partners and make lasting connections with supporters of Utah’s Energy Industry. Utah’s oil and gas industry has positive impacts outside the Uintah Basin, and this event is just one way to help promote and support the work the industry is doing to make our modern way of life possible. 9 UPDATE
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