Osage County oil producers blame study for crippled industry

PAWHUSKA, Okla. (AP) – Osage County oil producers have expressed their frustration with an environmental survey that has brought well drilling to a standstill.

The Tulsa World reports that producers voiced their opinions at a meeting Monday held by the U.S Bureau of Indian Affairs. Oil drillers blame the bureau and its environmental policies for crippling the industry in the area.

In August, the bureau announced that it would conduct an environmental impact study, which would last until the end of 2015, on the entire county. To get a permit while the study is ongoing, producers must complete their own environmental assessments on individual well sites. Producers say that the extra cost of doing their own assessments is not viable at current oil prices.

There are no wells currently being drilled in the county.

Mike Mackey, who owns the Osage Wireline Inc., says that he has already laid off half of his employees.

“How long can this go on?” Mackey asked. “For me, at least, not much longer.”

“We’re out here starving on the vine,” said Stephanie Erwin, a head-rights owner in the Osage Nation. “In Osage County, the economy is the Osage mineral estate.”

Many of the oil producers have questioned why the study was started in the first place. Some blame a class-action lawsuit filed last year against the bureau and oil producers by property owners, who accused the two parties of lax environmental enforcement, resulting in polluted land and water.

The U.S Bureau of Indian Affairs said Monday that the study started long before the lawsuit was filed, and that meetings had been called in January 2014 to inform the public.

“What meeting?” asked Rob Lyon, president of the Osage Producers Association. “We didn’t know a thing about it.”

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Information from: Tulsa World, http://www.tulsaworld.com