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Already equipped with some of
the most stringent oil and gas
regulations in the nation, North
Dakota will once again be tightening
the rules which govern the
oil and gas industry operating within the state.
The changes will be made on April 1, 2014.
It will then be the responsibility of the state to
regulate all gathering pipelines that carry oil, gas,
water or carbon dioxide from a well site to larger
collection areas, or to pipelines governed by the
Public Service Commission, which, until now,
have gone largely unregulated.
“Becoming the first state in the nation to
regulate gathering lines is going to be a significant
change and is one that we fully support as
an industry,” says Ron Ness, president of the
North Dakota Petroleum Council. “In the future,
we will need to put substantial amounts of
pipeline in the ground, and in order for us to do
this, we will require quality sound pipeline systems
to prevent against leaks and other mishaps.
This is certainly a major initiative moving us in
that direction.”
GIS data for pipelines
One particular rule of note will have North
Dakota’s Industrial Commission develop a program
in which every pipeline put down since
August 1, 2011 will be required to be registered
into a state Geographic Information System
(GIS) map with pertinent pipeline information,
such as location and depth, provided by the oil
and gas pipeline companies.
“The requirement to submit GIS data for
pipelines put in place since August 1, 2011
will be a great help to the surface owner” says
Alison Ritter, public information officer for
the North Dakota Department of Mineral
Resources. “Having the GIS data on-hand for
those who may purchase or inherit the land
“Becoming the first state in the nation to
regulate gathering lines is going to be a
significant change and is one that we fully
support as an industry.
will help them fully understand what it is that
they have buried there.”
Although, the new rules concerning the regulation
of gathering pipelines seems to be getting
much of the press, it was only one of several
administrative changes that were brought before
the Industrial Commission for approval back in
December.
“We are in a larger rule changing process,”
says Ritter. “We have over 40 different sections
of code that we are adapting the rules of, ranging
from small things such as definitions, to major
overhauls, like the addition of these gathering
pipeline rules. It really runs the gamut.”
Making a workable rule
As the only state looking to have rules in
place for the regulation of gathering pipelines,
officials from the North Dakota Department
of Mineral Resources were forced to look north
toward Canada for a template to base their
changes on. Many of the rules now being used
in North Dakota are modeled on an 86-page
document from Alberta that covers gathering
pipeline regulations, particularly those sections
that deal with self-certification.
“Historically, the states just don’t regulate
gathering pipelines,” says Ritter. “So, we are
kind of leading the way when it comes to getting
those gathering pipeline regulations into
place.” The process of bringing Bill 1333 to law
has been a nearly year-long endeavor for the Department
of Natural Resources. Officials have
taken into account a great deal of input during
the public comment period from concerned
stakeholders—citizens, industry and environmental
groups—with all input being weighed
into the final result.
“The biggest challenge that our department
faced was in just making sure that every comment
that we received was carefully reviewed
and taken into consideration before responding
back to each one,” says Ritter. “The challenge
then became taking those comments and trying
to fashion them into a workable rule.
Thousands of miles of
pipeline to come
Although the implementation of the new
rules concerning gathering pipelines was not precipitated
by any single event, it was felt that now
was the time to bring these changes to the industry
in order to help stay ahead of the ever-increasing
production occurring in the Bakken. Currently,
North Dakota has approximately 18,000 miles of
gathering pipeline crisscrossing the state, with some
estimates anticipating an additional 12,000 miles
of pipeline to be added in the future.
“I think that the issue is that we are just getting
to have a lot of pipelines in North Dakota
and there are going to be a lot more pipelines
yet to come,” says Ness. “We just want to make
sure that the parties putting them in are doing
them properly.”
When pipelines are not installed properly,
incidents—like the large spill in Bottineau
County that began as a pinhole leak and was determined
to be caused by shoddy construction
practices—highlight the importance of having
rules in place to regulate the installation and
placement of gathering pipelines.
“These rules will hopefully make companies
slow down a little and perhaps be more cautious
about what they are putting in the ground,” says
Ritter. “It will be more beneficial for the industry
to certify what it is doing, because it allows
for more accountability and encourages to not
put some of these pipelines in quite so hastily. If
we can require these companies to say what they
are doing—and then certify what they are doing—we
will then be able to limit the possibility
of having some sort of event on their pipeline.”
Companies cooperating
The oil and gas industry has been very responsive
to the new rules for gathering pipelines
and they have been eager to submit their GIS
data to the system prior to the April 1, 2014
date of effect. One of the positive measures in
the new rule is that the Department of Mineral
Resources is not imposing restrictions on
companies, such as maximum pipe thickness or
minimum burial depths. This will allow companies
to retain some autonomy and flexibility in
regards to how they wish to install pipelines and
where they wish to place them.
“One thing that people may need to understand
about this rule is that it’s a self-certification
rule, where the company simply needs to certify
what they have done to that pipeline,” says Ritter.
This way, if there is an issue with the pipeline,
we can go back and say that a company
BASIN BITS | Spring 2014 99