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North Dakota Association of Oil and Gas Producing Counties
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Basin Bits Magazine
This semiannual magazine, published in the spring and fall, is the official publication of the ND Association of Oil and Gas Producing Counties.
To sign up to receive a copy of the magazine, please click here.
To read the latest Basin Bits edition via PDF, click this link.
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Uniform County Truck Permit System
This is a county road permit system for over-weight or over-width vehicles on county roads. Since 1986, the NDAOGPC has operated the Uniform County Truck Permit program as a service to counties and the petroleum industry.
For more information or to get permits, click here.
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 Thank you for your continued interest in the activity of the ND Association of Oil and Gas Producing Counties. We hope that you will find this week's newsletter as a valuable source of information related to the political subdivisions within western North Dakota.
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Interim Committee Discusses Oil Tax Distributions
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The Economic Impact Committee met this week in Bismarck to discuss transportation infrastructure, funding for such infrastructure, and child care service development in the state. Brady Pelton, Deputy Executive Director of the ND Association of Oil and Gas Producing Counties gave a presentation on oil tax distributions in North Dakota and how the state compares to others in collecting and distributing oil tax revenue. Pelton explained North Dakota's oil tax system, which ranks second highest in the effective tax rate on oil production. North Dakota's 6.5% Oil Extraction Tax and 5% Gross Production Tax combine for a total tax of 11.5%. Due to certain tax exemptions on the Oil Extraction Tax, the total effective tax rate over ten years of production from a typical unconventional oil well is 11.15%. In his presentation, Pelton described a study that is being updated by Headwaters Economics that analyzes state oil tax mechanisms in states where unconventional oil extraction is occurring. Seven states, including North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, Montana, Oklahoma, and New Mexico, are the subject of that study. Pelton explained that comparing other unconventional oil plays is appropriate. Those plays have several common characteristics, particularly in that unconventional plays require more wells on a continuous basis to maintain production, expanding potential employment, income, and tax benefits. Other common characteristics of unconventional oil plays are heightened and extended public costs associated with industry development. Through the Headwaters Economics study, it was identified that for oil tax revenue collected from a typical unconventional oil well, North Dakota ranks second behind Wyoming in the total amount of tax collected over a ten year time-span.  |
The chart above shows distribution of production tax revenue is seven oil producing states based on a typical unconventional well.
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Headwaters Economics is also preparing a comparison between the seven unconventional oil play states on how exactly oil tax revenue is distributed. North Dakota was found to distribute about 15.7% of total tax revenue to local entities such as counties, cities, school districts, townships, and other political subdivisions. This includes both distributions from the Gross Production Tax and funds granted through the Energy Impact Grant program. Compared to the other seven states in the study, North Dakota ranks 5th in the amount returned to the local level. You may access the presentation by clicking this link. For more information: KX News report - Barbara SharpBismarck Tribune report - Nick Smith |
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Vision West ND Federal Partners Participate in Roundtable
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Rick Garcia, Regional Administrator for HUD Region VIII, speaks to attendees at the Vision West ND Federal Partners Roundtable in Dickinson.
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Federal, state, and local leaders met this week in Dickinson to discuss the progress being made in regional planning through the Vision West ND project. Federal partners to the project include the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, and the U.S. Dept. of Transportation. Representatives from each of the federal agencies were on hand at the roundtable to answer questions on how the federal government may assist the western region of North Dakota in the implementation phase of its regional plan.
"Through this process, Vision West ND will create an opportunity for local leaders to have face to face contact with regional federal partners in the Vision West ND project," said Vision West ND Program Director Shirley Brentrup. "This will raise the awareness of regional federal offices on the issues being faced in our region and could create cooperative relationships between them and our local leaders," she said. Several federal programs exist that may help address the impacts and quality of life issues in western ND. State programs, the federal representatives added, could be leveraged to access even more federal dollars.
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Vision West ND Federal Partners Roundtable participants listen to IRRRB Commissioner Tony Sertich as he discusses a regional trust system used in Minnesota.
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Tony Sertich, Commissioner for Minnesota's Iron Range Resource & Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB), presented on the possibilities that may exist in North Dakota for setting aside amounts of oil tax dollars specifically for use by the oil-producing region to deal with the impacts of large scale development. The IRRRB receives no state funds, yet works to diversify and expand beyond the "3T" (taconite, timber, and tourism) industries that dominate the northeast region of Minnesota. The IRRRB receives 63% of the in-lieu-of tax placed on the mineral resources extracted from the region. A portion of those locally held funds are placed in a trust fund for future use by the region. Sertich said that the trust fund has been accessed during "bust times" in the region's history and acts as a safety net to protect the region should the "3T" industries decline.
Dr. Dick Gardner, who works with the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, also presented to the group on how the process used by the IRRRB in Minnesota could be adapted to North Dakota. A white paper of the Western North Dakota Energy Project was shared by Gardner. The white paper provides more detail for policy consideration on the development of a regional trust fund for the counties of western ND directly affected by the energy development of the Bakken shale formation. That white paper is available through this link.
For more information:
Dickinson Press - Bryan Horwath
KFYR-TV News - Marisa DeCandido
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Lignite Research Council Update
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The Lignite Research Council, a private/public partnership organization designed to promote a coordinated research program to preserve and enhance the lignite industry, met in Bismarck this week on November 19. John Phillips, a Coal Conversion Counties representative from Beulah, serves on the Council. He provided an update on the most recent LRC meeting, found below.
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John Phillips serves as a member of the Lignite Research Council as well as on the Executive Committee of the NDAOGPC.
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"Serving on the Lignite Research Council board has been a very informative and educational experience as work continues to not only preserve the use of lignite coal in providing the stable electrical base load we all expect, but to also grow and expand the byproduct potential. The LRC deals primarily with Research and Development project funding but also funds lobbying and marketing efforts to preserve the use of coal that is consistently threatened by the present administration with the introduction of more stringent CO2 capture requirements on electrical generation plants.
Several R & D projects are ongoing, including continued research on how to minimize NOx emissions from coal-fired power plants, coal industry health impacts, and a reasonable means to address CO2 capture regulations.
New projects approved for funding at the meeting include:- Investigating the Use of Fly Ash and Nanomaterials for Sustainable Concrete Infrastructure. The main objective of this project is to test the hypothesis that ordinary Portland cement can be fully replaced by fly ash and nonmaterial in concrete.
- Continuation of Underground Coal Gasification Study in Western ND. The main objective is to continue researching underground gasification and liquids production to utilize the deep coal seams that will not be mined.
- Alstom's Chemical Looping Combustion Technology with CO2 Capture for North Dakota Lignite Utilization. The goal of this research is to be able to develop a boiler system that can capture 90% of the carbon in the fuel as CO2 at a cost that raises the cost of electricity by less than 20%.
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ONEOK to Invest and Aid State Flaring Challenge
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 North Dakota's largest processor of natural gas announced plans Tuesday to spend up to $390 million on a new processing plant in McKenzie County, a project the company's president says will "considerably" reduce the amount of natural gas flared when combined with its other facilities. For more information, click here. |
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Planners Present Proposal to NDAOGPC Executive Committee
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Jason Petrunia, planningAlliance, and Maarten Ingen-Housz, Nichols Applied Management, prepare to discuss their proposal for planning in western North Dakota.
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Jason Petrunia, a practice area lead for planningAlliance presented to the NDAOGPC Executive Committee this week in Bismarck. His organization proposed producing a "roadmap" for future infrastructure needs based on the perspective of the oil and gas industry and communities' ability to grow and sustain themselves. The plan would incorporate the many studies currently underway or completed that relate to energy impacts, including those on population projections, assessed infrastructure needs, industry growth direction, and transportation needs.
Petrunia noted that it was crucial to have the energy industry at the table in order to properly forecast future needs in the region. In addition to NDAOGPC Executive Committee members were ND Commerce Commissioner Al Anderson and ND Petroleum Council President Ron Ness. No action was taken by the Executive Committee in response to the $150,000 request to begin Phase 1 of the project.
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Panel Discusses Smart Growth in Louisiana
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"Think about the opportunity." Those were the words of encouragement from Denise Bode, Cornerstone Corporate Government Affairs, and Dan Borne of the Louisiana Chemical Association. Northwest Louisiana is undergoing a gas shale play that will mean an opportunity to expand the plastics and chemical manufacturing and other business that can use the new found gas from the state and from other states like North Dakota.
Bode, Borne and Vicky Steiner, Executive Director, NDAOGPC, presented a panel to the 2013 Louisiana Smart Growth Summit in Baton Rouge Wednesday. Susana Schowen, Louisiana Economic Development and Elizabeth "Boo" Thomas, President of the Center for Planning Excellence, also discussed the need to plan as the new gas play unfolds so that the economic activity creates sustainability. Steiner also explained how the HUD-sponsored Vision West ND project utilized grassroots planning efforts in communities to establish priorities. She said the state's population forecast studies have been most helpful to cities to plan for the right sized community.
During the question and answer part of the program, the group was quite curious about the crew camps that they'd read about in North Dakota. Steiner said the "crew camps have been good overall," especially since they take the pressure off the cities while the additional housing is being built. She explained that the counties, which are similar to the Parish government in Louisiana, control a one year special use permit on the crew camps so that they can evaluate when the transition should occur. She said it was the random RV campers in the farmer's pasture or a tree row that seem to pop up that cause planning concerns for a county. Protection of the water and sewage disposal needs to be addressed in a rapidly growing oil and gas play. One official from Louisiana was wondering how to integrate the crew camp model into the city as the need for oilfield housing diminished.
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Upcoming Events
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November 26, 2013
The Theodore Roosevelt Expressway (TRE) Association will hold its annual update meeting on Tuesday, November 26 at the Watford Hotel in Watford City, ND. The agenda will feature a welcome from Watford City Mayor Brent Sanford as well as updates from Energy Impact Coordinator Rory Nelson and NDDOT Director Grant Levi. Also presenting at the update meeting will be representatives of economic development organizations and the Ports-to-Plains Alliance VP Joe Kiely. The agenda for the event is available here.
November 28-29, 2013
The office of the NDAOGPC will be closed Thursday, November 28 and Friday, November 29 for the Thanksgiving Day holiday.
May 20-22, 2014
The 22nd Annual Williston Basin Petroleum Conference will be held May 20-22, 2014 at the Bismarck Civic Center in Bismarck, ND. There have already been over 200 hotel rooms reserved for this conference. We recommend booking the hotel rooms that you need now. Conference registration opens on January 29, 2014.
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Please take your time to review all materials and links provided for your convenience. We at the ND Association of Oil and Gas Producing Counties will continue to provide you up-to-date information on upcoming events and news happening in North Dakota's oil and gas producing counties! Sincerely, Vicky Steiner
Executive Director
Brady Pelton
Deputy Executive Director
ND Association of Oil & Gas Producing Counties |
400 East Broadway Avenue Suite 304 Bismarck, ND 58501
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Copyright © 2013. All Rights Reserved.
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