The agency will hold an additional public hearing, and the comment period for its proposed new rules will remain open until near the end of the month. Mineral Resources had previously held hearings seeking public input on the earlier announced rules in Bismarck, Dickinson, Minot and Williston.

One newly announced rule update includes an effort to standardize the use of open tank receptacles that can hold a combination of produced water and fresh water for fracking in North Dakota’s oil fields. Produced water is wastewater that is a byproduct of oil and gas production, containing oil, drilling chemicals and salts.

Produced water is typically trucked or pumped away by pipeline for underground injection, though some is also reused for fracking or other purposes. When produced water spills as a result of a pipeline or storage leak, it can cause long-term damage to impacted land. 

Continental Resources, one of North Dakota’s top oil and gas producers, has already been approved to use these tanks, due to an exception that Mineral Resources can grant in certain circumstances after a hearing process. The proposed new rule was added after Continental spoke to Mineral Resources during the initial hearings for the new rules and suggested the state add language to its regulations that would give other oil and gas producers the requirements for utilizing tanks for produced water storage.

While presenting the additional rules to the Industrial Commission — the regulatory body made up of the governor, attorney general and agricultural commissioner — Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms said that technologies like Continental’s could reduce the oil and gas industry’s heavy use of freshwater for fracking.

“Originally we thought, ‘Well let’s just have every operator go through the hearing process like Continental did,’” he said. “But if we want to really push this innovation forward and promote it to industry, we need a rule that everybody can look at and know how to get there.”

The other three newly proposed updates are more technical in nature.

One seeks to provide oil and gas companies a clearer path for accessing a tax incentive for restimulation wells.

Another puts a rule around secondary recovery of oil by producers in line with changes to the state legal code.

There is also a correction in regard to an error in citing state law on a rule related to stripper well certifications. A stripper well is an oil well that is near the end of its economically valuable life, but still has some production.

The Industrial Commission recently voted to allow Mineral Resources to go ahead with the amendments.

The public hearing for the four newly proposed updates will be at 9 a.m. Friday at Mineral Resource’s Bismarck office, and written comments will be accepted until Nov. 27. The office is at 1000 E. Calgary Ave.

The target date for a final decision on the new rules is April 1, 2024. To see the rules in their entirety go to https://bit.ly/3MvJAxB.