Despite the tone of the article below, there is much opposition in the community to this development, opposition whose voices need to be heard.
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Reservation officials discuss oil exploration
Business News - Native Business News
New Town, North Dakota (AP) 5-08
The chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes sees new opportunities in oil exploration but says it may come at a price.
“We are working with the best interest of all the people – Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara and our neighbors – at heart,” Chairman Marcus Wells Jr., said at a reservation energy conference during late May.
“The development comes with a byproduct, which is a lot of congestion and lot of traffic,” he said.
Most of the Fort Berthold reservation was not explored for oil during the 1980s because federal law required 100 percent of mineral owners sign leases, Wells said. After the law changed to 51 percent in 1997, lease deals became more of an option.
The Tribal Council now has an energy department, headed by Fred Fox, to keep up with all the activity.
One of an estimated $300,000 worth of oil and gas leases signed by Wells during the conference Tuesday was for minerals under the Parshall town site, which would be tapped by horizontal drilling from a well that could be two miles away. Horizontal drilling also is being done under Lake Sakakawea.
“We want to know that we can develop our energy. But, yet, keep in mind that our natural resources and our land is the only thing we are going to have for the rest of the tribes’ eternity,” Fox said.
Marathon Oil manager Terry Kovacevich said it took more than two years to get a well on the reservation. He said the company will not know until at least July how much the well produces.
“It’s really exploratory on Fort Berthold,” Kovacevich said. “There are not a lot of Bakken wells surrounding us. Geologically, there’s a good chance of success.”
Marathon moved one of its six rigs to the reservation from Dunn County, on the other side of the lake.
Ryan Bernstein, an attorney for Gov. John Hoeven, said he hopes an agreement can be signed soon to streamline the system of state and tribal taxes. Wells said the Tribal Council told its attorneys to finish their review by the end of this month.
Kovacevich said a uniform tax rate would provide more assurances for oil companies.
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