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Small independent oil producers tell committee bond, methane and injection rules threaten operations
Summary
Patrick Montalban, representing small independent oil producers, told the House Small Business Committee that recent changes in bonding and EPA rules — including methane reporting and underground injection control requirements — have raised costs and delayed permits, limiting transactions on federal lands and harming rural jobs.
Patrick Montalban, who identified himself as chairman and chief executive officer of Montauban Oil and Gas Operations Inc. and chairman of the National Stripper Well Association, told the House Committee on Small Business that small, independent oil producers ("mom-and-pop" wells) face layered federal and state regulation that has intensified under recent rulemaking.
Montalban said small producers supply a meaningful share of U.S. output and rural employment, and he described three regulatory changes he said were most harmful: methane rules that added reporting and monitoring obligations; a change in Bureau of Land Management bonding that…
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