Oil industry representatives met with the state Department of Mineral Resources – to get answers to some questions about new flaring rules.
Those rules – adopted by the state Industrial Commission earlier this month – say if an oil well isn’t connected to a gas-gathering system, or isn’t using the natural gas for on-site purposes, production could be scaled back temporarily until flaring is reduced.
"I think their biggest overall question was -- how is compliance really going to work?" said Department spokesperson Allison Ritter. "They thought it would start with compliance at the well site and work its way up to pad, field, county and state."
But Ritter says it's exactly the opposite.
"We're going to look at it from a statewide approach," said Ritter. "If an operator is not in compliance with the statwide goals, we'll then break it down into the county level. And if they're meeting their goals on a county level, that's where the buck stops."
Ritter says she believes the industry representatives came away from the meeting with a better understanding of the rule.
"We have this great framework and this great understanding of this order," said Ritter. "But as I said before -- we need to evaluate it on our level and make sure that it works for us, and that we can get the job done, to audit that production, make sure the companies are meeting those goals. But on the same end, we want to make sure the industry has the understanding that, okay, here's the date -- and we need to be in compliance, and what do we have to do to get there."
