Months after voting to limit how much natural gas is produced in Oklahoma’s largest-producing wells, Oklahoma Corporation Commissioners plan a public hearing in August on extending the order.
The Oil and Gas Conservation Division of the Commission announced a hearing will be held August 20 at 9:30 a.m. in the Commission’s headquarters building at the state capitol. The Division, according to the announcement, plans to recommend that the statewide proration formula for unallocated gas wells should be set at the greater of 50% of the calculated wellhead absolute open flow potential or a rate of 2000 MCF a day. The formula would apply for the period of Oct. 1, 2020 through March 31 of 2021.
When the first proration order was approved in March of this year, Commission Chairman Todd Hiett and Commissioner Dana Murphy voted for the measure. The proration formula applied for the period from April 1 to Sept. 30.
A majority of elected members of Oklahoma’s Corporation Commission voted Thursday to limit how much natural gas is produced by the state’s most prolific wells. Previously since 1999, the commission had routinely approved a formula that required well operators to limit production at 65% or a maximum allowable production of 2 mmcf/d.
Commissioner Murphy advocated for the proration formula suggesting that restricting wells to 50% of absolute open flow potential would provide limited impact on the state’s natural gas production.
If the Commission’s headquarters building is still closed to the public because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the hearing will be held virtually.
The cause number of the case is 202001262.
