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Garrison Dam/Lake Sakakawea Project Oil and Gas Management Plan

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Garrison Dam/Lake Sakakawea Project Oil and Gas Management Plan US Army Corps of Engineers Omaha District Garrison Dam/Lake Sakakawea Project Oil and Gas Management Plan North Dakota June 2020 Garrison Dam / Lake Sakakawea Project Oil & Gas Management Plan Table of Contents 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Project Authorization ................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Garrison Project Background and Overview ................................................................................................ 1 1.3 Authority to Manage Federal Property for Authorized Purposes ................................................................. 3 2 Oil and Gas Management Policy....................................................................................................................... 3 3 Mineral Ownership at the Garrison Project .................................................................................................... 4 3.1 Split Estate and the Dominant Estate Doctrine in North Dakota .................................................................. 4 3.2 Mineral Ownership....................................................................................................................................... 5 4 Oil and Gas Activities on the Garrison Project ............................................................................................... 5 5 Applicant Process for Oil and Gas Activities on the Garrison Project ........................................................ 11 5.1 Applicant Process ....................................................................................................................................... 11 6 Applicant Requirements for the Preparation of a Surface/Subsurface Use Plan of Operations (SUPO) 13 6.1 SUPO Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 13 7 Surface Inspection ............................................................................................................................................ 13 8 References ......................................................................................................................................................... 15 List of Figures Figure 1 Garrison Dam/Lake Sakakawea Project ......................................................................................... 2 Figure 2 Example of Horizontal Well Legs at Lake Sakakawea, ND ........................................................... 6 Figure 3 Crude Oil Pipelines in North Dakota .............................................................................................. 7 Figure 4 Natural Gas Pipelines in North Dakota .......................................................................................... 8 Figure 5 Other Product Pipelines in North Dakota ....................................................................................... 8 Figure 6 CO2 Pipeline in North Dakota ........................................................................................................ 9 Figure 7 Pipelines at the Garrison Project..................................................................................................... 9 Figure 8 Crude Oil Price per Barrel 1976-2016 .......................................................................................... 10 Figure 9. Decision Tree for Real Estate Actions ......................................................................................... 12 Management Plan Garrison Dam / Lake Sakakawea Project Oil & Gas Management Plan Appendices Appendix A - Applicant Instructions for the Preparation of a Surface/Subsurface Use Plan of Operations Appendix B - Oil and Gas Inspection Checklist Appendix C - Oil and Gas Reclamation Guidelines Management Plan Garrison Dam / Lake Sakakawea Project Oil & Gas Management Plan 1 Introduction 1.1 Project Authorization The Garrison Dam/Lake Sakakawea Project was authorized on December 22, 1944, by the Flood Control Act of 1944, Public Law (P.L.) 534, 78th Congress, 2nd session, along with four other Missouri River main stem projects -- Gavins Point, Fort Randall, Big Bend, and Oahe. These five main stem reservoirs are elements of the comprehensive development program in the Missouri River Basin, known as the Pick-Sloan Plan. Fort Peck Dam, located in northern Montana, was constructed before the Pick-Sloan Plan, but is operated as part of the Missouri River System. 1.2 Garrison Project Background and Overview Garrison Dam and Lake Sakakawea, the impoundment created by Garrison Dam, is the third largest man-made lake in the United States. The Army Corps of Engineer’s Garrison Dam/Lake Sakakawea Project (Garrison Project) is a multi-purpose project on the Missouri River in western North Dakota (see Figure 1). Authorized for flood control, navigation, irrigation, hydropower, municipal and industrial water supply, fish and wildlife, recreation, water quality, the Garrison Dam/Lake Sakakawea Project creates an approximately 178-mile long pool on the main stem of the Missouri River. Completed in 1956, the reservoir covers approximately 368,000 acres,1 creating more than 1,500 miles of shoreline, holding more than 23 million acre-feet of water at full pool, and has more than 85,000 acres of surrounding Garrison Project lands (USACE, 2007). As shown in Figure 1, about 55,000 surface acres of Lake Sakakawea and about 600 miles of its shoreline are included within the boundaries of the Fort Berthold Reservation (USACE, 2007); within the Fort Berthold Reservation are the Three Affiliated Tribes (the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation). When the USACE acquired the acreage for the Garrison Dam/Lake Sakakawea Project, land acquisition was restricted to the minimum that would serve the operation and maintenance requirements and meet the readily foreseeable public access demand (USACE, 2007). The guide contour line was set at 1,854 feet above mean sea level (msl) for the majority of the Garrison Project and slightly higher elevations in the headwaters area.2 Because the land acquisition was set at an elevation with a secondary objective of acquiring the minimum acreage necessary, the property owned by the USACE surrounding Lake Sakakawea is a narrow ring (i.e., bathtub ring) that is not visually discernable at a map scale that includes the entire Garrison Project. Parcels were also put under flowage easement. These flowage easement parcels are privately owned, and allow the USACE to flood the parcel as a component of the reservoir. All aspects of this Oil & Gas Management Plan apply to flowage easements. ________________________________________________ 1 At the top of the multi-purpose pool elevation of 1850.0 feet MSL. 2 The guide contour line (or guide acquisition line) was established by using expected water elevations based on either a maximum operating pool or the area affected by backwater, aggradation, bank caving, and erosion due to wind effects and wave actions (USACE, 2007). Management Plan 1 Garrison Dam / Lake Sakakawea Project Oil & Gas Management Plan Figure 1 Garrison Dam/Lake Sakakawea Project a, • Minnesota Mountr,u South Dakota l Legend • Garrison Dam •• Lake Sakakawea - Army Corps of Engineers Property -J'\...-- Missouri River - Highway -- Major Road OtJ rn -- Major Railroad Lines LJ Counties rt, Urban Areas Native American Reservation N OIIV"•' 0 10 20 Miles A The Garrison Dam/Lake Sakakawea Project additionally includes approximately 30,000 acres of Missouri River riverbed, owned by the State of North Dakota as Sovereign lands, which was not acquired by the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE, 1985). North Dakota’s Sovereign Lands are managed and administered through the North Dakota State Water Commission. Applicants crossing State sovereign lands are required to seek relevant permits through the State. In 1951, oil was first discovered in North Dakota near the town of Tioga approximately 10 miles north of the Missouri River in the eastern portion of Williams County within the vast oil-bearing structure called the Williston Basin. The basin extends from South Dakota to southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba and from central North Dakota to central Montana. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has estimated3 3.8 billion barrels of oil, 3.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 0.2 billion barrels of natural gas liquids within the entire Williston Basin (USGS, 2009). The crude oil found in the Williston Basin is a high quality "light" crude (USACE, 2007). 3 Mean undiscovered volume. Management Plan 2 Garrison Dam / Lake Sakakawea Project Oil & Gas Management Plan Within the Williston Basin, the Bakken Formation4 has been the focus of much of the increases in oil and gas exploration and extraction and is a continuous accumulation of oil and gas reserves that underlies much of western North Dakota, including all of the Garrison Dam/Lake Sakakawea Project. Beginning in late-2008, successful wells were drilled into the Bakken Formation using horizontal drilling technology and hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking). The application of these techniques allowed access to significant oil reserves that had been previously inaccessible. 1.3 Authority to Manage Federal Property for Authorized Purposes The federal government has authority to manage federal property under the U.S. Constitution. In
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