With our newest nominee for natural resources representative from New Mexico Deb Haland who promises to ban fracking on federal lands. What issues will this cause for our private ownership of leases in private land?
Kathy- that is the big question that nobody knows the answer to. The US government can do many things on federal lands that they can’t do on private lands. However there are many ways to stop or effectively stop drilling on private lands. One of them is through the EPA and banning the chemicals used in fracking. That leaves sand, water & pressure. Only the engineers out there know what will happen to the recovery process if certain chemicals are prohibited.
My personal opinion is private lands will remain just that, private. Smarter heads will prevail when they realize most everything used in everyday life is derived from oil and natural gas, from lubricants (including for windmills), gases for sealing solar panels, plastic, make-up, etc. So to have to import those things will drive up the cost to the US consumer to prices that NOBODY is going to pay.
For those reasons, I don’t think private lands have much to worry about, but there will be a fight.
Hope this helps some.
Todd M. Baker
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I can think of several issues. First, there are many owners, especially in New Mexico, who own overrides and other pieces of the minerals on federal lands. Second, what if you are a private landowner next to federal land, and they cannot configure a horizontal well unit without combining the two? Farewell to development of your land as well. There are pockets of private land within federal lands also. Finally, do we really think the leave it in the ground nuts will be satisfied with stopping at federal lands?
This ban is a large foot in the door, with the next step being going after private lands. Anyone who thinks otherwise is naïve, to an extreme. And anyone who thinks a federal ban will actually benefit private holdings in the long run is equally naïve.
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I agree with Wade. All you have to do is look at the number of wells in New Mexico which include the word “Fed” to get an idea of what could happen. Haaland is part of the extreme progressive anti-oil and gas movement. You should be contacting your Senators to urge that she not be confirmed,
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Thank you! I have already emailed my congressmen!! My only problem is they are all Blue. I never expected to profit more because of this. I just need more ammunition for my letters and emails. Knowledge is power!!
Merry Christmas to all. This article may help see the hypocrisy of the left. As a NM royalty owner for over 50 years, the money to the state from producers and royalty owners is quite large. If the government reduces future production then they have no choice but to increase taxes on everyone. We have also seen what happens when private ventures meet with state and local governments to get stadiums, Netflix’s built! I have yet to see it benefits the taxpayers.
I’d like to add to the frac equation - the chemicals used in frac fluids are typically house hold and food chemicals. Nothing unusual here. Fracking fluid is 99.5% water and sand. 0.5% is made up of safe chemical additives, most of which are found in common household products, like toothpaste and makeup remover, or in the foods you eat. www.cred.org › what-is-fracking-fluid
Where does benzene fit into that equation?
The part that doesn’t seem to get mentioned is that the produced hydrocarbons (from a fracked or unfracked well) are WAY nastier than the fluids pumped down the hole. Myself, I drive a diesel so I deal with a lot higher concentrations of benzene all the time. I wouldn’t brush my teeth with frac fluid or 47 API crude, but to each his own.
Having a NM Democrat in charge of the BLM would seem like a good thing for oil and gas on the surface, as they are more likely than a general Democrat to recognize the huge financial impact that production on federal lands has on the state budget and jobs. But this is not the right NM Democrat. Will see how much free reign she is given by the administration.
I was wondering what NMoilboy would say regarding this. We have dozens of Federal Leases ORI that contain fracked wells, and profit handsomely from them. I personally am for fracking. I think the new administration of President Biden, will think hard on banning fracking because as NMoilboy says…it’s so valuable economically. We shall see…
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