State Mineral Resources director Lynn Helms says he’s convinced the federal Bureau of Land Management will be adopting new rules on hydraulic fracturing.
Helms says while most of the rules duplicate what North Dakota has already adopted – there are some others that could slow down the federal permitting process.
"It's going to impact development on the National Grasslands and on the Ft. Berthold reservation," Helms said. "It's going to create additional workload and paperwork."
Helms says BLM has also lost a number of staffers.
"Added workload and less people -- you know what that means," said Helms. "Things slow down."
Helms says the new rules could also impact drilling on private lands.
"One of the little-known facts about North Dakota is, in the process of farm foreclosures in the 1930s, BLM acquired lots of minerals," said Helms. "They're very small tracts. But about 90 percent of our spacing units have federal minerals. So even though they're dominantly private land, there could be one or two or three well bores that will have to get a federal permit."
The deadline for commenting on the proposed new BLM rules is this Friday.
