DOE Joins in Sponsoring Petroleum Conference, Seeking Solutions to Environmental Issues

Oil, Gas Industry Will Have Opportunity to Discuss Environmental Problems with Government Agencies

Petroleum companies with environmentally-related legal, regulatory and technical issues will have an opportunity to discuss their concerns with senior officials from Federal and State regulatory agencies at the 3rd International Petroleum Environmental Conference on September 24-27 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The Department of Energy (DOE) said today that it will join the University of Tulsa College of Engineering & Applied Science in cosponsoring the conference as a key step in implementing a recent recommendation of the National Petroleum Council. In a recent report the Council, a 180-member advisory panel to DOE, urged the Department to work with industry and public agencies to find ways to lower the costs of regulatory compliance without sacrificing environmental protection. The Council called for DOE to help assure that regulatory agencies were using the most up-to-date information available in setting environmental standards and were not unnecessarily duplicating other State and federal environmental requirements.

DOE said that the Albuquerque conference offers an ideal forum for professionals from the oil and gas industries to discuss situations in which Federal or state regulations impose significant cost or administrative burdens which could be reduced through better coordination between regulatory agenices or with better technology or scientific data.

DOE will conduct two conference workshops specifically to promote interaction between producers and refiners and officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and State regulatory agencies. One will deal with "Overlapping Environmental Regulations;" the other will focus on "Alternatives to Litigation on Issues of Environmental Compliance."

The conference will also feature three days of technical sessions, featuring several presentations that will address technological options for reducing the environmental impacts of oil and gas operations. Topics will range from the treatment of produced water and naturally-occurring radioactive material to control of air emissions. In addition to the DOE-conducted workshops, which can be attended at no charge, a third workshop will be presented on "How to Better Present Environmental Information on Litigation." A fee of $95 will be charged for the third workshop. The Friday (Sept. 27) session will feature a special symposium on the intrinsic bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbons.

In addition to DOE and the University of Tulsa, the South-Central Environmental Resource Alliance is a co-sponsor of the conference. The alliance is a collaboration of two consortia: the Integrated Petroleum Environmental Research Consortium made up of The University of Tulsa, The University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, and The University of Arkansas; and the Waste-Management Education & Research Consortium, comprised of New Mexico State University, The University of New Mexico, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Navajo Community College, and the Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories.

PennWell Publishing Company, which produces books, directories, maps, databases, and professional publications such as the Oil and Gas Journal, is also an organizer of the conference.

The conference will be held at the Albuquerque Hilton. Additional information on conference topics can be obtained from:

Dr. Kerry Sublette
The University of Tulsa, Department of Chemical Engineering
600 South College Avenue
Tulsa, OK 74101
Phone: (918) 631-3085, Fax: (918) 631-3268
e-mail: CHE_KLS@CENTUM.UTULSA.EDU

Registration information can be obtained from:
Barbara Derby, Continuing Engineering Education
600 South College Ave.
Tulsa, OK 74104-3189
Phone: (918) 631-3088; Fax (918) 631-2154
e-mail: conted-cee@utulsa.edu

-End of TechLine-