Hoeven sponsors bill to speed up energy development

U.S. Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) on Jan. 17 reintroduced legislation to lift specific federal permit requirements in certain energy development plans.

“This legislation is all about ensuring that we have common-sense regulations in place for our energy producers,” Sen. Hoeven said last week.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Mineral Spacing Act, S. 180, would streamline the oil and gas permitting process and would recognize fee ownership for certain oil and gas drilling or spacing units, among other purposes, according to the congressional record.

“The BLM Mineral Spacing Act would improve the permitting process where the federal government is a minority mineral owner,” said Sen. Hoeven, who was joined by original cosponsor U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) in introducing the bill.

“Our legislation gives control back to the majority mineral owners and enables the BLM to better utilize its resources,” Hoeven added.

S. 180 regards spacing units, which are a legally described boundary designated by a governmental agency, such as a state public utility commission, as a “common source of supply” of oil and gas for purposes of dividing fairly, among the various owners, production from a particular well or wells, according to Law Insider.

Currently, if the federal government owns any subsurface piece of a spacing unit, an energy producer must receive a federal BLM drilling permit, among other required permits from the state or other authorities, according to Sen. Hoeven’s statement.

If enacted, S. 180 would remove the BLM permitting requirement when less than half of the subsurface minerals within a drilling spacing unit are owned by the federal government; and when the federal government doesn’t own or lease any surface rights within a drilling spacing unit.

Sen. Hoeven pointed out that S. 180 also would retain the U.S. government’s rights to receive royalties from energy production within a set drilling or spacing unit and would require energy producers to continuing following all state laws, regulations and guidance related to energy activity in each jurisdiction.

The lawmaker originally introduced the same-named S. 2151 in November 2017, but the bill did not make it out of committee review during the 115th Congress.

The newly introduced S. 180 has been referred to the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for consideration.