Watching Government: Taking concerns to Washington

May 20, 2013
Heavy rain didn't dampen Western Energy Alliance members' enthusiasm the morning of May 7 as they posed for a photo on the US Capitol's eastern steps during their 2013 Washington call-up. They had too many places to go and people to see.

Heavy rain didn't dampen Western Energy Alliance members' enthusiasm the morning of May 7 as they posed for a photo on the US Capitol's eastern steps during their 2013 Washington call-up. They had too many places to go and people to see.

County commissioners and local business leaders had joined about 65 members of the Denver-based regional association of independent oil and gas producers to visit federal lawmakers and regulatory agencies during their 3 days in Washington.

They had plenty to discuss, starting with US Bureau of Land Management plans to issue regulations for hydraulic fracturing and related operations on federal lands. Like most other US producers, WEA members believe states are doing a very good job already.

Start with the difference between the time it takes for states and BLM to approve drilling permit applications—an average 25 vs. 307 days, suggested Tim Wigley, the association's president, later that morning. "If an agency like BLM can't handle this quickly now, how will it do with additional regulations?" he asked.

Michael G. Edwards, senior director for investor relations at PDC Energy, said technology has revived interest in Wattenberg field. PDC is the second-largest leaseholder, behind Noble Energy Inc. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., in a reworked field which was heavily explored in the 1970s, he told OGJ.

PDC works mostly on private land, he added. "It's hard to deploy capital to federal land where there's so much uncertainty," Edwards said.

WEA understands fully the surge in oil and gas activity from more resources becoming accessible has brought exploration and production to many counties for the first time.

Possible ballot initiative

Some Colorado communities already have banned fracing, Wigley said. "Now, there's talk of a 2014 ballot initiative," he continued. "I don't want to think about what it would mean if it passed."

Some homeowners have become concerned about what oil and gas operations might do to their property values and how they live. Edwards, who previously worked for a Los Angeles basin producer, said companies there tried to blend their activities in.

"We need to do a better job of explaining what we do," Wigley said. "Colorado is becoming the new Oregon of the Rockies. It's not purple, but solidly blue, along the Front Range."

"Talking with stakeholders is important," Edwards said. "It's not about advertising campaigns, but one-on-one discussions. Some of our employees' neighbors don't know people they see every day are in the oil and gas business."

One-on-one visits also work with new US House and Senate members. Many were on WEA members' schedules, Wigley said.