Nebraska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission

Bill Sydow, Director, PO Box 399, Sidney, NE 69162 (308) 254-6919

The purpose of the Nebraska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is to regulate the oil and natural gas exploration and production industry in such a manner as will prevent waste, protect correlative rights of all owners, and encourage and authorize secondary recovery, pressure maintenance, cycling, or recycling, in order that the greatest ultimate recovery of oil and natural gas may be obtained within the state while protecting the environment.

Unknown

All Nebraska Residents

1959

1959

Not Applicable

Nebraska Revised Statutes 57-901 through 923

blank

Three

Governor

Yes

All Commissioners must be Nebraska residents. At least one Commissioner must have experience in the production of oil and gas. Each Commissioner is appointed to a four-year term.

$50 per Day

Yes

Four Years

Terms Rotate

4

8

4

8

4

7

Yes

Separate

$886,619

$900,600

$923,251

Yes. Federal, US EPA, $80,000 per year and declining yearly.

Yes. Cash and federal funds are allocated, budgeted, appropriated, and spent. Federal grant is applied to the operation of our Class II Underground Injection Control Program.

The Commission updated its Rules and Regulations by conducting a major rule-making during February 2012 through June 2014. New rules for well stimulation activities and the reporting of hydraulic fracture stimulation fluid chemistry to the FracFocus website were added as was a fee for inactive wells. The rules update also increased the bonding levels which operators must provide to the Commission. These revised rules and regulations are available on the Commission's website, www.nogcc.ne.gov.The Commission continues to make great strides in the electronic delivery of oil and gas information to the public via our website. The Commission's website is hosted from our headquarters office and we continue to add information daily. The data export functions from this site were migrated to our Geographic Information System (GIS) using a Google-style search engine that was developed and enhanced with the aid of the US Department of Energy, the Ground Water Protection Council, and Coordinate Solutions. Information for Nebraska's oil and gas wells, as well as the neighboring states of Colorado, Kansas, South Dakota, and Wyoming, can be obtained by any user. Production information for oil and gas leases can also be accessed. Nearly all of the accessible data may easily be uploaded into EXCEL, ACCESS, or text files by several clicks of a mouse key. Users can utilize several types of base maps including Google Terrain and Google Satellite backgrounds. Contour overlays were added to include the Contour of the Base of the Principal Aquifer, Precambrian Structure, Bouger Gravity, and Aeromagnetics. Overlays for the location of registered water wells and wellhead protection areas have been updated. Data for the overlays were obtained from the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Environmental Quality, respectively.Enhancements added to the well information section include the ability to view a schematic of the well bore showing the geological formations penetrated by the well and print a Scout Ticket summarizing key information for each well. The production information for each lease may also be viewed on a graph of monthly production rates versus time for all fields, secondary recovery units, and individual leases. Cumulative production values for oil, gas, and water are automatically updated and posted on the graphs.During the past four years, the industry has begun to develop their prospects in the panhandle and both the southeastern and southwestern portions of Nebraska after leasing hundreds of thousands of acres in 2011 and 2012. Not only engineers and geologists use our data but the land-men who are acquiring oil and gas leases for various exploration companies have also used the web-site extensively, too. They are able to assess whether or not acreage may be available for leasing by investigating well locations and production histories for leases. The website "hits" have increased from about 400,000 per month to over 2,500,000 per month over the past four years as people "mine" our data.Electronic filing of monthly reports by operators is encouraged. At the present time, 165 operators have posted bonds with the Commission. Of the currently bonded operators, 110 filed monthly production records during 2015 and, of those 110 operators, 83 filed monthly production and injection reports electronically. The companies who file electronically represent 75% of the operators required to file monthly reports. The data are quality checked for accuracy before they are brought into the Commission's system.In an effort to aid a shallow geological mapping project of the Natural Resources Districts in the panhandle, the Commission voluntarily undertook another log scanning project at our sole cost. Scanning of the collection of the 5"100' Geophysical Logs of deep oil and gas wells in four counties, curated by the Nebraska Geological Survey, began in August 2013. The project is nearly completed and an additional 12,000 well logs have been scanned in Banner, Cheyenne, Kimball, and Scotts Bluff Counties.All of our Commission orders have been scanned. The database continues to be populated so that individual wells and legal descriptions can be associated with each order. When completed, the data will be made available to the public. Once the scanning of the the well logs is complete, we will begin scanning the case files for approximately 850 hearings. Many of these files contain valuable geological maps and engineering evaluations that could be used by both the public and the industry.Since 2012, drilling activity has increased and then dramatically slowed with the price collapse of 2014. A total of 141 drilling permits were issued in 2012 and increased to 231 new permits in 2014. The collapse of the prices for both oil and gas in late 2014 hindered drilling activity in 2015 when 102 permits were approved. The position of our Staff Engineer was filled in August 2012 but for only two years. The position remains open due to a resignation and we are awaiting a rebound in pricing and activity before seeking to fill the position. Two other vacancies in our staff, caused by the retirement and death of two long-term employees, were filled during early 2016.Two reviews of our federally-delegated Underground Injection Control (UIC) program were conducted in the fall of 2015. The United States Environmental Protection Agency conducted their 5-year review of our program. The Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, as a part of the States First initiative, conducted a national peer review of the UIC program. Both reviews determined that the Commissions injection well program is highly effective, well managed, and meets or exceeds all federal requirements.Commission personnel remain very active in two national organizations. The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) has thirty member states and Nebraska has been a member since 1953. Bill Sydow, Governor Ricketts' official representative, served as the IOGCC vice chairman during 2009 and received the prestigious E.W. Marland Award in 2014. Nebraska was a founding member of the Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC) and Mr. Stan Belieu, the Commission's Deputy Director, served as the President of the GWPC during 2012 and 2013. Mr. Belieu continues to be active in the development of a joint IOGCC-GWPC project which is known as FracFocus. This website allows oil and gas exploration companies to easily inform the public of the volumes and constituents of fracturing fluids on a well-by-well basis and was adopted as a part of our 2014 rule-making. Mr. Chuck Borcher, our Commission's Information Systems Infrastructure Support Technologist (ISIST), continues to work with other states' professionals to further develop the Risk Based Data Management System (RBDMS). RBDMS remains the database system for our Commission.