New state regulations governing oil and gas activities are on their way, and both regulators and the industry need to prepare for them and embrace the change.

“For regulators in the various states where wells are being drilled, we’re being asked to deal with things in ways that we’ve never been asked to deal with before,” said Dana L. Murphy, commissioner with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, at Hart Energy’s DUG Midcontinent conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “I have to tell you, it’s a really hard job now, very challenging.”

“What we are trying to do in Oklahoma is take a regulatory environment that was designed for vertical or non-horizontal
wells and actually adjust and move it to a plan for horizontal wells,” Murphy said at the March conference.

The tide turned in 2012, when permits for horizontal drilling surpassed permits for vertical drilling for the first time. Data for the first eight months of 2013 show 1,286 permits for horizontal wells compared to 465 for non-horizontals. “It’s almost like the new normal is dealing with horizontal wells,” she said.

New regulations, Murphy said, are necessary to keep up the new technology employed in the oil patch. And regulators, she said, were not the only ones who need to keep up.

“We’ve had more small producers come in and participate in these technical conferences who don’t even understand the existing rules, let alone the changes that we’re making,” she said. “There is going to have to be more collaboration.”

The industry needs to move past its annoyance with regulators and regulations because the agencies represent a public that is progressively more interested in the safety of its environment, particularly the water supply.

“It is not about the regulators needing to obtain the information,” Murphy insisted. “We’ve been able to get some of this data for a long time, but that’s not the issue. This is about the public’s demand to know. And now, as I think the industry has become aware, the public’s demand to know the details of what you are doing has become more important.”

Oklahoma is a proud, oil-friendly state, so the marshals tasked with keeping an eye on the industry within its borders are intent on keeping everyone on the same page, she added.

“As this technology moves and changes, the regulators have to try to adjust,” Murphy said, “and at the same time not impede your development, but make sure we’re looking out for the things we need to look at.”

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