Venting

The Interior Department’s plans to rescind most of an Obama-era rule governing associated natural gas flaring and venting on public and tribal lands is welcome news for operators of marginal, aka stripper, wells on such lands. Oil and gas industry experts and analysts say the rescission could save smaller operators’ livelihoods and spare tens of thousands of wells from becoming uneconomical and shut in.

The Department of Interior (DOI) moved Tuesday to rescind most of an Obama-era rule governing associated natural gas flaring and venting on public and tribal lands while revising the remaining provisions, calling the parts of the rule marked for rescission “unnecessarily burdensome” for the oil and gas industry.

Legal wrangling over an Obama-era rule governing associated natural gas flaring and venting on public and tribal lands will continue, for now, after a divided federal appeals court denied two motions by the rule’s supporters for a stay, and two motions by its opponents for a dismissal.

Just six weeks after a federal judge in California ruled that parts of an Obama-era rule governing associated natural gas flaring and venting on public and tribal lands should take effect, a federal judge in Wyoming on Wednesday reversed course and issued a stay, giving the Trump administration more time to revise or rescind the rule.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is pushing back against efforts in federal district court to derail the Trump administration’s decision to postpone the compliance dates for rules governing associated natural gas flaring and venting on public and tribal lands, calling the rules suspension “a commonsense, time-limited solution to a practical problem.”

Following through on plans it announced in October, the Trump administration announced that it has temporarily suspended or delayed parts of an Obama-era rule governing associated natural gas flaring and venting on public and tribal lands until January 2019.

The Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) and the Western Energy Alliance (WEA) late Friday sued to halt the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) natural gas flaring and venting rules, some of which are set to take effect in January.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) told a federal court in Wyoming that a decision by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to expand the definition of “waste” is untenable as it pertains to venting and flaring associated natural gas on public and tribal lands.

The Trump administration said Wednesday it plans to temporarily suspend or delay parts of an Obama-era rule governing associated natural gas flaring and venting on public and tribal lands until January 2019.