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Show IBsisIn SttaneOanS December 10, 1986, Page 11 ANR takes over 132 wells in Altamont The Coeatal Corporation an- nounced that a subsidiary, ANR Limited Inc., ia the new operator for 132 producing wella and a related gaa processing plant in northeaat Utah formerly operated by Utex 00 Company of Salt Lain City. ANR Limiteda election aa operator by the ownera of working intereata in the 182 wella and the proeeaaing plant waa recently approved by the Federal Bankruptcy Court in Salt Lake City. Utex Oil Company, former operator of the properties, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on August 1, 1986. Coastal haa no involvement in another group of approximately 20 . wella still operated by Utex. The 182 wells, located in the Altamont field in Uintah and Duchesne counties, have a daily groas production of 6,600 barrels of oiL The Altamont gaa processing plant, located northwest of Roosevelt, has a processing capacity of 40 million cubic feet of gas per day and currently processes 10 million cubic feet per day. Coastal is the largest owner with an average 41 percent working interest in the wells and 43.75 percent of the Altamont plant ANR Limited acquired the company's interests in these proper- - ties, formerly owned by Shell Western Exploration and Production, Inc., in July, 1984. The Houston-baseCoastal has maintained a regional office hi Vernal since 1989 and currently owns interests in about 600 wells throughout the state. With the 182 wells formerly operated by Utex, Coastal subsidiaries are now the operators of approximately 820 wells in northeast Utah. Nationwide, Coastal subsidiaries operate about 200 wells and own interests in more than 7,800 wells. The Coastal Corporation is a d ' diversified energy company with assets of $7.5 billion and operations in natural gas pipelines, oil and g as exploration and production, fining and marketing,- coal re- and. w trucking. Sales tax is also jurisdiction issue Indians do not pay sales tax on reservations, generally. The Jurisdiction Case ia not expected to impact sales tax revenues for Roosevelt or Duchesne but the impact to the counties is unclear. Kenneth Cook, from the Utah Tax Commission, said a dispute over the decision of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals about what is trust land and what isnt has been brought up but isn't expected to be a drawn out discussion. The Tribal Attorney read into the decision what constitutes trust lands," he said, "But the Attorney Generals, office said that wasn't what ft said at all At issue is if the cities of and Duchesne Roosevelt are included. If they are part of the reservation and not just islands within the reservation, then Indians are sales tax exempt Cook said for things like groceries they will have to pay sales tax but for items delivered to trust lands they wouldn't -- - this has been the practice for several years now, unless the cities become officially a part of the reservation.' According to Code, "the tax commission is still holding to the idea that Indians leave the trust lands when they enter the city." Therefore, the state of Utah is still requiring businesses within Roosevelt to collect sales tax from all customers. GOING UP The walls of the new Roosevelt East Stake Center are going up, as the cinder block masons work shows. The foundation work is about finished and the walls are moving right along, with the past few weeks of good weather. Now the question is, how much The Roosevelt Volunteer Fire Department is changing. It is getting new equipment, is going through a bit of reorganization and is looking for a few more volunteers. The department has known for a little while they would need to replace one of their trucks. This need for additional equipment came munity should keep a positive frame of mind when discussing the possible problems with the jurisdiction case. for years," "We have West said, "and I dont think that should change." .He said he has not had any interested buyers turn away after the courts decision was handed down December 1. A short time ago when Utah Senators Jake Garn and Orrin Hatch were trying to get some legislative relief from the pending case, West said he heard some rally" going on during that while holding a commitment from one client to buy, said he has yet to hear anything bad. And although he tells clients up front he has no idea what will eventually happen with the jurisdiction issue, he personally doesn't believe much will change - in fact, it might get better. Because of the amount of money lost in their area do to mineral lease money going over the mountains to the Wasatch Front, West said it would be nice if the Indians did receive that money - at least it would be spent in the Basin," he said. "Now there is an idea that many people probably have not thought about, he said. West said a more pressing problem facing the area is not jurisdiction - but oil prices. He said the entire economy is hurt by low crude prices and believes more people should become concerned . to light, forceably, when Ron D. Kepler made an Insurance Service Office (ISO) Commercial Risk inspection. His report stated Roosevelt only had one fire engine in service. The fire department is already working on getting bids for a new fire truck and updating of the old fire truck. Roosevelt Fire Chief Tim Rockwood said the estimate for this package is in the area of $140,000. Rockwood is also part of the reorganization. Before this year the fire department' has two year rotating terms for the officers of the department Now the Roosevelt City Council has asked the fire department to select a fire chief that is willing to stay in that one term. . position longer than The problem with the former method was followup not getting done and some lack of consistency important purchasing land Attitudes seem to be the "time. But as of last Friday West, in with those low prices than what the Ute Indian Tribe is going to do. But one Roosevelt real estate agent believes the jurisdiction case is important for the community along with his business.' Dean Frandsen, Frandsen Realty, said he has already lost business from prospective clients, who believe the black cloud hanging over what the tribe plans on imposing with the jurisdiction is not worth forking money over for. Tribal authorities have said nothing will change because of the jurisdiction issue being resolved. They content they wanted jurisdiction only over their own people and feel that county residents are just paranoid over the case. "I think it is going to be very negative, Frandsen 'said. "Some time ago when the hearings were going on numerous people backed off from buying property. He said those people consisted mainly of Continued on page 6 1 policy. City councilmen re- searched how Vernal was set up and looked into other departments as well. They believe that a more permanent chief was needed. Rockwood was chosen and will have renewable two year terms as the fire chief. His assistant is Mike Jensen, who is in charge of the equipment maintenance. Jensen has been doing this assignment already, without the title, for a number of years. He is also the one that is working very closely with City Administrator, Brad Hancock, on the bid package. Jensen has been the man who has worked with the pumper engine the most and now has the responsibility for it too. The Captain, or training officer, of the department is Lynn Labrum. He is responsible for making sure there is some training to be performed for the twice monthly meetings. The department secretary is Kirk Benson. His job is make out the reports that go to the state fire marshall on all the fires the department responds to. The chief of the department is the one that is first responsible for sizing up the fires they are called out on and knowing the best way to attack the fire without causing unnecessary damage. He also makes out the reports to the insurance companies, investigates all fires to determine the cause and also makes the city's wood stove inspections. and the Roosevelt department is under was The new rules by-la- 1986. Part of the change in the department includes the benefits the volunteers get Before this year, the department had a benefit package that was quite attractive. They were on the Roosevelt City insurance plan and received a small amount for each fire or training meeting they attended. With the new rules and policies, new volunteers to the department will have workman's compensation a term life policy and receive the basic city utilities paid (overages would be the homeowner's responsibility to pay). They are beginning to phase out the longtimers and add the new volunteersunder the new package of benefits. Rockwood said there have been several volunteer firemen that didn't need to have such a good insurance package but joined and stayed with the department for the community service. "We have had very little turnover in the last 12 years, with the exception of people moving out," Rockwood said. When asked why they were so successful in keeping men in the fire department, Rockwood on credit-Continue- page 1 d 6 annual convention The governors of three oil and gas producing states and the Assis- tant Secretary of the Interior will join industry leaders and regulatory officials from throughout the country at the 1986 Annual Meeting of the Interstate Oil Compact Commission December in Salt Lake City. Approximately 850 persons attended the meeting which is taking place at the Marriott Hotel. The IOCC is an organization of 29 oil and gas producing states dedicated to the conservation and waste prevention of oil and gas. Utah Oil, Gas and Mining Board Chairman, Gregory P. Williams, Taxas Governor Mark White and North Dakota Governor George A. Sinner delivered remarks at the general session on Monday, December 8, along with Assistant Secretary of the Interior J. Steven 0 Congress to allow environmentally sound oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Re- fuge. The refuge is considered to have the highest oil and gas potential of any unexplored area on the North American continent. The State of Alaska believes that opening the refuge to environmentally responsible oil and gas development would be in the state and national interest. The State of Texas will propose the IOCC adopt a resolution in support of (1) a temporary variable tariff on imported crude oil and refined products, (2) repeal of the Fuel Use Act, (3) repeal of the The city is putting a section of Dry Gulch ditch into pipe, under sponsorship of the property owners, along the ditch. The pipe is being delivered and will be installed in the coming days. City crews passed in May of Oil group holds Griles. The IOCC will hold committee and business meetings and consider adopting several resolutions. One proposed resolution urges U.S. PIPE DELIVERED ' Roosevelt volunteers are seeking a few more men JURISDICTION OUTLOOK underlying concern when talking to real estate people in Roosevelt about the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to refuse to hear the Ute Jurisdiction case. Some attitudes are positive in nature while others have negative eonotationa attached to them. One positive attitude comes from Century 21 Country Realty Salesman Bob West West said the com- longer will the weather permit this type of work to go on? The masons will be putting up mortar and bricks as long as possible moving toward the building comple-tion late next year. have already prepared the ditch for the pipe and hope the weather holds so the pipe can be installed before the hard freeze comes. The ditch they are working on is from 500 North to 700 North and at about 300 East. Windfall Profit Tax, (4) provisions preventing early abandonment of marginal wells, (5) implementation of a variable percentage depletion allowance, (6) deregulation of natural gas at the wellhead, and (7) provisions favoring the evtension or reformation of energy loans. Another proposed resolution is related to the Department of Interior's attempt to adopt regulations which will assist the Minerals Management Service in establishing the valuation of crude oil and natural gas for royalty services. These regulations as adopted will impact the development of oil and gas resources in many of the member states of the Interstate Oil Compact Commission by stimulating or deterring exploration on federal and tribal lands, the proposed resolution says. The resolution, if adopted, will urge the Secretary of the Interior to consider carefully the regulations' impact on resource development In addition to reviewing resolutions, IOCC officials will hear from a number of speakers, including Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Martha O. Hesse, Washington, D.C. She will deliver an overview of FERC natural gas regulatory policies. In Monday's general session, a panel discussed the energy demand for natural gas, electrical power and transportation for the next 20 years in the Energy Resources Committee meeting. Speakers were Brad Mobasheri, Southern California Edison, Rosemead, CA; GJ. "Pete" Fielding, University of California, Irvine; and Tapan Munroe, Pacific Gas and Electric, San Francisco. Other speakers and their topics r, Monay. included: Michael S. Solv-E- x Corporation, New Mexico, Why Tar Sands Now?"; Dr. David Welch, Amoco Produc-Continue- d on page 1 6 La-Fleu- |
