Blackfeet oil & gas exploration

Sun Apr 29 18:19:57 UTC 2012

Blackfeet ask for more openness about oil, gas exploration
By  TRISTAN SCOTT of missoulian.com | Posted: Sunday, April 29, 2012 

(http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/missoulian.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/a8/9a835a7a-6a51-11e1-b53b-001871e3ce6c/4f5ab05b7cc1d.i
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KURT WILSON/Missoulian   
An oil drilling worker walks out of a rig working near Starr School on the  
Blackfeet Reservation, where about 80 wells have been permitted in the past 
two  years. One estimate says the reservation sits on top of about 109 
million  barrels of oil and 8.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. 

BROWNING – Speaking to an uncomprehending group of federal and tribal land  
managers, Diane Calflooking Burd delivered an impassioned and articulate  
entreaty in her native Blackfeet language. 
Then, after a long pause, she drove her point home in English. 
“That’s how all this technical language from the oil companies sounds to 
us,”  she said. “We need an interpreter, because they don’t tell us nothing.”

Calflooking Burd was among several dozen tribal members who gathered last  
week in a conference room at the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in 
Browning  to learn more about oil and gas exploration on the Blackfeet 
Reservation. The  meeting was arranged by the Bureau of Land Management and BIA, with 
the purpose  of informing tribal members who have leased portions of their 
allotted land to  energy companies for oil and gas exploration. 
***** 
Calflooking Burd and other stakeholders called for more  transparency from 
energy companies and better communication and outreach from  the BIA and the 
BLM, which oversee mineral leases on the reservation. 
“They have an obligation to the people,” said Debbie White Grass Bullshoe, 
 whose elderly family members have holdings on the reservation. “If I’m 
going to  help my mom sign, I want to know we’re in for. We need to be better 
educated  before we decide to sign. These oil companies wouldn’t be here 
without us.” 
Meanwhile, across the street at the Blackfeet Community College, an event  
called “Our Land, Our Future” featured musician Jack Gladstone, an enrolled 
 member of the Blackfeet Tribe and a popular singer and songwriter. He 
performed  songs like “Fossil Fuel Sinner” and condemned the practice of 
hydraulic  fracturing oil wells, calling it an “uncontrolled experiment” with 
potentially  devastating consequences. 
The juxtaposition of events highlighted two prevailing views about drilling 
 on the reservation – while an oil boom would be a financial windfall for 
an  impoverished tribe desperate for jobs and financial resources, it could 
also  undermine the land’s natural resources and cultural significance. 
“When we accept the wealth, we also are destined to accept the liabilities  
and the hazards, and that is the concern,” Gladstone said. 
***** 
Three oil companies – Anschutz Exploration Corp., Rosetta  Resources and 
Newfield Exploration Co. – are currently leading oil and gas  exploration on 
the reservation, and have meted out nearly $30 million in  one-time bonus 
payments and annual rental agreements to the tribal government  and individuals 
holding mineral rights, according to Grinnell Day Chief, the  tribe’s 
director of oil and gas. 
The Blackfeet Reservation is part of the Bakken Shale formation, which is  
known for the oil boom sweeping North Dakota and eastern Montana. Known to  
geologists as the Montana Thrust Belt, the reservation’s western edge is 
thought  to hold significant oil and natural gas reserves, and the companies 
are looking  to replicate their success in North Dakota – a prospect that has 
garnered mixed  reactions. 
“This is my piece of the pie,” said George Calf Tail, a tribal member who  
receives dividends on numerous leases, and who stands to earn 23 percent  
royalties on producing wells if oil is recovered. “This is good for us, but 
the  tribe has to regulate and control the development. Just look at North 
Dakota.  You have the dregs of society transforming communities into evil 
places. We  don’t want that.” 
Calf Tail was referring to the spike in crimes that has coincided with the  
booming oil production across Montana’s Northern Plains, where tens of 
thousands  of workers are converging on the rural region. 
Calf Tail, who is running for the Blackfeet Tribal Council, said he 
believes  responsible development will occur only if tribal members stay informed 
and  exercise their rights. 
“People don’t have a lot of information, so I’m happy for this turnout  
today,” he said. 
***** 
Unemployment among reservation residents hovers around 70  percent, and the 
revenue from mineral interests has been used to boost  dividend payments to 
approximately 16,500 enrolled tribal members. 
If the oil and gas exploration is successful and wells go into production,  
royalties are set at 20 percent and the tribe stands to reap substantial  
benefits. 
“I know the potential of my land. I could have a good monthly income off 
one  lease alone,” Calf Tail said. 
The four-hour meeting also featured lengthy discussions on how Indian 
mineral  royalties are managed and distributed, as well as a presentation on “
Hydraulic  Fracturing 101.” 
Barney Whiteman, a petroleum engineer for the BLM’s Great Falls Oil and Gas 
 Field Office, explained the science behind hydraulic fracturing – fracking 
– a  controversial extraction process in which hundreds of thousands of 
gallons of  water, sand and chemicals are injected into wells to create cracks 
and fissures  to draw out oil and gas deposits. 
Whiteman said the BLM’s role before approving a well site is to ensure that 
 the wells are properly designed and that the operator will dispose of the  
“flowback” fluid in underground injection sites. 
Between 420,000 and 630,000 gallons of water are required to frack each 
site,  he said, and chemicals make up 2 percent of the fracking fluid. The 
highest  potential for environmental hazards occurs above ground, he said. About 
40  percent of the flowback fluid surges back to the surface and must be 
collected  and transported to an injection site. 
Still, the integrity of the well can’t be ensured, and in the event of an  
earthquake or fault slip, “all bets are off,” Whiteman said. 
“We can’t say that it’s safe. I don’t think anyone can say it’s safe,” 
he  said. 
And that, Gladstone said, is precisely what worries him. 
“We’re not approaching this whole thing with caution, we are stepping on 
the  accelerator into the fog,” he said. “My concern and the concern of 
other people  is that from time immemorial our land has been nurtured and now 
that is  seriously imperiled.” 
Flathead Valley Bureau reporter Tristan Scott can be reached at (406)  
730-1067 or at _tscott at missoulian.com_ (mailto:tscott at missoulian.com) .

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