Letter to DCP from the OEPA Gas Committee
The OEPA Gas Committee has been meeting regularly via Zoom to discuss industry issues. We mailed a letter to DCP requesting a roundtable discussion regarding their fees among numerous other items. Read the full letter below, or click HERE.
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Gentlemen,
The Oklahoma Energy Producers Alliance was established in 2016 to represent traditional small business oil and gas producers and currently has 525 members. We represent the rights of Oklahoma’s conventional vertical producers at the State Capitol and the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. Our objective is to preserve, promote, and protect the small business oil and gas producer in Oklahoma. While most of our membership concentrate their activities on vertical wells, we have no opposition to horizontal wells and many of our members own such properties.
The purpose of this letter is to inform you of some of our member’s concerns regarding DCP’s operational and commercial activities in Oklahoma. Hopefully you will circulate this letter to the appropriate DCP management to make them aware of such issues and cause either a timely adequate resolution or a reasonable explanation of the particulars.
Specifically, a number of members have identified the following issues to be of serious concern.
- Operators have been requested to shut-in wells due to pipeline issues in Dewey County and after 3 months of downtime, no word is forthcoming from DCP as to when the production can resume.
- Inconsistent pipeline pressures are experienced on a regular basis at many locations. Although we can understand periodic pressure fluctuations, the frequency is causing safety concerns. Unexpected pressure fluctuations causing erratic rates of gas delivery and receipt over a protracted period are simply unsafe.
- Measurement meters, from time to time, are removed by DCP without notice to the well’s operator. One member recently acquired a well at an auction and planned to workover the well within the next sixty days. Without notice to such operator, DCP removed the meter.
- The reconnection fees for such meter are not inexpensive and justification for such fee appears non-existent.
- DCP’s commercial representation appears to be understaffed at best, and producers are forced to utilize a web portal that is not responsive or capable of resolving complex issues.
The OEPA hopes you can understand our desire to resolve or at least mitigate the above items. Perhaps a round table meeting of our members with your management should take place. In our opinion, you really need to understand the frustrations of our affected members. We believe that a good working relationship is a necessity for safety’s sake.
Please let me know DCP’s thoughts concerning the above. Thank you.
David Little
President, OEPA
CC Corporation Commissioners Dana Murphy, Todd Hiett, Bob Anthony
CC DCP Midstream Legal Department