{"id":626176,"date":"2018-09-15T07:00:54","date_gmt":"2018-09-15T13:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=626176"},"modified":"2018-09-14T13:19:13","modified_gmt":"2018-09-14T19:19:13","slug":"oil-conservation-commission-will-take-up-well-density-issue-this-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/09\/oil-conservation-commission-will-take-up-well-density-issue-this-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil Conservation Commission will take up well density issue this fall"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_625331\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-625331\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_2270-771x514.jpg\" alt=\"A gas well in Rio Arriba County\" width=\"771\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_2270-771x514.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_2270-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_2270-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_2270-1170x780.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_2270.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Laura Paskus \/ New Mexico Political Report<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A gas well in Rio Arriba County.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The New Mexico Oil Conservation Commission delayed a decision to approve an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpoliticalreport.com\/876098\/state-will-consider-boosting-gas-well-density-in-northern-nm-en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">energy company\u2019s request<\/a>\u00a0to increase well density in two northern New Mexico counties. At its meeting on Thursday, the commission also rejected a community group\u2019s request to intervene in the hearing.<\/p>\n<p>Hilcorp Energy Company\u2019s Justin Furnace emailed a statement on Thursday evening.\u00a0\u201cThe Commission made it clear today that the application has merit, but at the Commission\u2019s request, Hilcorp will be re-notifying affected operators in the San Juan Basin to ensure that they are aware of the proposed change,\u201d Furnace wrote.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpoliticalreport.com\/877983\/877983-en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico Political Report<\/a>,\u00a0a nonprofit news organization\u00a0focused on promoting a greater public understanding of politics and policy in New Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Hilcorp asked the state to amend the \u201cpool rule,\u201d or well density requirements, in the Blanco-Mesaverde Gas Pool in San Juan and Rio Arriba counties.<\/p>\n<p>Under the current rules, companies can drill four wells within the designated 320-acre spacing units, and only two can be drilled within each 160-acre section. Companies can also ask the state to increase the density of wells on a case-by-case basis, something Hilcorp notes in its application New Mexico has allowed the company to do in 62 instances this year.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than continuing to file individual applications, each with its own public notice and hearing, the company is now asking New Mexico to change the spacing rules for the entire Blanco-Mesaverde pool.<\/p>\n<p>The company currently operates 5,239 wells within the Blanco-Mesaverde Gas Pool.<\/p>\n<p>According to a fact sheet sent by the company, Hilcorp has identified thousands of existing wells capable of yielding gas, but is restricted from developing those due to the current \u201cpool rule.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mike Eisenfeld of the San Juan Citizens Alliance learned about the request when he spotted a legal notice that ran in\u00a0<i>The Farmington Daily Times<\/i>\u00a0for two days in August. The community group asked the commission to delay its decision to give interested parties to prepare an intervention or provide testimony on issues such as environmental impacts.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The commission denied that request, which Eisenfeld said the group would appeal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBasically, this is a Texas company coming in without a lot of concern for the extent of development that has already occurred,\u201d said Eisenfeld, noting that the delay was aimed at allowing Hilcorp to notify other energy companies of its request. \u201cWe think this is a really big issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The commission\u2019s next meeting is on Oct. 11 in Santa Fe. The New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department confirmed that Hilcorp\u2019s request was continued to the Nov. 19 docket. Information about hearings and agendas can be found online\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.emnrd.state.nm.us\/OCD\/hearings.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New Mexico Oil Conservation Commission delayed a decision to approve an\u00a0energy company\u2019s request\u00a0to increase well density in two northern New Mexico counties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":625331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[119,147,107],"class_list":["post-626176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-energy-policy","tag-environment","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}