The 21st annual Osage Oil and Gas Summit was held this year at the new Pawhuska Osage Casino Hotel.
The goal of the summit is to bring new oil producers, shareholders, minerals council members, landowners and industry experts together to discuss production and environmental and production issues, new techniques and some of the history of the Osage mineral estate.
Anthony Shackelford, a new member of the minerals council, helped organize the summit and said he wanted to bring people together to discuss new techniques to develop the mineral estate.
“Some of these oil producers are generational producers and they’re using methodology parts and things like that, that have been created at the turn of the century,” Shackelford said. He and other minerals council members believe there is still oil to be produced on the reservation, but it’s a matter of finding new techniques to extract them.
“But with time, technology sometimes doesn’t move as fast as the time does. And so, like right now, there’s a lot of oil still around. It’s our firm belief, but there’s different technologies and stuff that exists,” he said.
The summit agenda included presentations on future development on tribal lands, an update from the Environmental Protection Agency, mitigating methane and converting orphaned wells into assets for shareholders.
Wilson Pipestem, who is an Osage headright holder and former legal counsel for the Osage Minerals Council gave a presentation about the 1906 act and how it is informing decisions made in the present day.
“Every inch of the Osage reservation is held in trust for the Osage tribe, that has never changed,” Pipestem said.
“And so that’s why when you come to, you know, try to get at lease with the Osage Minerals Council, there’s one negotiating party and it’s the Osage Minerals Council.”
The summit comes at a time of big change for the mineral estate-which is getting a lot of attention because of Martin Scorsese’s new film, “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Production is down and the OMC is battling new restrictions and regulations many believe are prohibiting production and thus, making quarterly shareholder checks low. Shackelford acknowledged these factors and said he has his eyes on the future.
“So for over 100 years it’s been the producers go in and they drill the wells, they do the heavy lifting and then the money comes back and it’s all on economics as well as because there’s certain times of the year, if the oil prices are down, the producers aren’t as eager to drill more wells there. The regulatory keeps them from producing to making those decisions,” Shackelford explained. He told Osage News the Minerals Council always has an eye on the future – in other words, how they can increase production and new ways to benefit shareholders. He said the Minerals Council has visitors who are presenting new techniques on drilling – like polymer injecting whi will make drilling for oil more cost-effective.
Cara Dillon works for BGI Resources, an oil producer operating in NW Osage County. They’ve been in business since 2010. She said they’ve had a great partnership with the Minerals Council and sees a lot of opportunity to develop new wells in their field. Dillon handles permitting for the company.
However, a 2014 lawsuit filed by individual landowners who claim the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 has yet to be followed, has made the permitting process difficult.
“We want to produce, we want to keep exploring and it’s just been a struggle,” Dillon said. Ultimately she said, her company knows there is opportunity within Osage County.
Other presentations at the conference addressed the problem of orphaned and abandoned wells, a problem Osage News reported on earlier this year.
Staci Taruscio is the CEO of Rebellion Energy Solutions, a company that deals in carbon credits. Carbon credits are a way to reduce carbon emissions, something that contributes to global warming and climate change. Both The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 and the Paris Agreement of 2015 laid out goals to reduce carbon emissions.
According to carboncredits.com, a website that explains and promotes carbon credits, the process is laid out like this: “Carbon credits, also known as carbon allowances, work like permission slips for emissions. When a company buys a carbon credit, usually from the government, they gain permission to generate one ton of CO2 emissions. With carbon credits, carbon revenue flows vertically from companies to regulators, though companies who end up with excess credits can sell them to other companies.”
Taruscio explained the process to those attending the conference and said there can be a balance between energy production and the environment.
“We believe that you can live in harmony and exist together. And so when I talk about plugging Orphan Wells, I am talking about plugging wells that have reached the end of their productive life and no longer have hydrocarbons to produce.”
One issue the Minerals Council will discuss is a multi-million dollar well-plugging grant the Nation received. In past years, the Minerals Council has been able to administer those grants but was denied in its current application by the Department of the Interior. Shackelford explained there could be a way to partner with the Osage Nation for the grant money, given the Minerals Council has its own geologist on staff and the expertise from other council members in this area.
“I think it’s something that we should pursue,” Shackelford said.
“I will be voting for that because I think it’s important – it does several things, but it allows for us, first and foremost, to address the certain issues out there in the oil field where there’s methane gas and there’s certain wells that need to be plugged.”
