The BIA in Osage County has a clear mandate by Federal Law to work for the benefit of the shareholders of the Osage Mineral Estate. Since 2014 this has not been the case. Daily oil production there has dropped to just over 10,000 BOPD, a 28% drop in overall production.
A major cause of this decline in oil production is the failure of the BIA to issue new drilling permits in a timely fashion. Before 2014, the average of new permits per year was 200. Since then, there have been fewer than 100 issued. This inaction will continue to hurt oil production in the future for decades to come.
The data shows that the BIA is working in the best interest of surface landowners. All of the above actions that have caused the decline in daily oil production have come since a meritless lawsuit was filed against the BIA and oil producers on behalf of surface landowners in 2014. Even though this suit was dismissed in 2018, the BIA has continued to delay issuing new permits and created new roadblocks, such as locking up well records that were previously available to producers. Producers cannot and will not drill new wells without this information. This shows a continuing pattern by the BIA of placing the interest of the surface landowners above the interest of the shareholders of the Osage Mineral Estate.
Go to http://www.angelfire.com/tx/braindanceink/EISINFO.html to see how you can help.
Jim Ryan
San Antonio, TX
By
Letter to the Editor
Original Publish Date: 2020-02-03 00:00:00
