BLM Press Release: Health-of-the-Land Awards

The Bureau of Land Management

NEWS

BLM'S Dombeck Honors Two Companies, Trade Association at Petroleum Workshop

Bureau of Land Management Acting Director Mike Dombeck today honored two companies and an oil and gas association at the National Petroleum Exposition and Workshop in Las Vegas, Nevada. Dombeck presented the BLM's "Health of the Land Awards" to Foreland Corporation and Conoco, Inc., and the Bureau's "National Partnership Award" to the Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Association (RMOGA).

"Foreland, Conoco and RMOGA are outstanding partners in the BLM's efforts to improve the health and productivity of the land," Dombeck said. "With their help, the BLM has been able to be a better steward of the public lands, which the Bureau protects and manages for the benefit of all Americans."

The Health of the Land Award to Foreland Corporation honors the company for its management over the past three years of an oil lease on public land. In 1993, the BLM stood to inherit a lease on public land from an operator who was behind on oil royalty payments to the Federal Government and who also faced environmental cleanup costs estimated at as much as one million dollars. Dombeck noted that Foreland Corporation and its subsidiary, Eagle Springs Production, stepped in to assume all of the operator's liabilities, which included acquiring the lease and buying the mortgage held by a bank on the oil field property.

As the new operator, Foreland worked to resolve cleanup issues with the Nye County, Nevada, Division of Minerals, the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, the Minerals Management Service (MMS), and the BLM. "Not only is Foreland on schedule -- and almost finished -- in paying back royalties to MMS," Dombeck said, "but the company has quadrupled oil production from the field in just three short years."

The Health of the Land Award to Conoco, Inc., recognizes the company for its work on Douglas Arch in northwest Colorado. Dombeck said, "Conoco has taken numerous actions to minimize the impact of its drilling activities on the land and has truly gone the extra mile in protecting the environment. For example, though not required to do so, Conoco has voluntarily rebuilt and re-routed old roads while installing silt dams to minimize erosion and reduce land disturbance."

Dombeck presented the BLM's National Partnership Award to the Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Association (RMOGA) for its role in helping the Bureau "reinvent" its oil and gas program, in accordance with Vice President Gore's Reinventing Government Initiative. The initiative, formally known as the National Performance Review, seeks to create a Federal Government that works better and costs less.

Dombeck said the BLM has been streamlining and simplifying its oil and gas regulations, such as reducing the royalty rate on heavy oil, simplifying unitization procedures, and improving bonding procedures. "But the Bureau could not have done this without the input and support of our customers and stakeholders like RMOGA, which stands out in helping the BLM improve the way it does business. Among other things, RMOGA has gathered data for evaluations of Bureau programs and has readily supplied members for task forces that deal with oil and gas issues."

Dombeck, who noted that the BLM is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, said the Bureau's core mission "is to improve the health and productivity of the land. But to do our job right, we need partners like Foreland, Conoco and RMOGA. We are grateful to each of them for helping us carry out our mission."

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