The primary objective of the study is to assess the possible implications to GHG emissions associated with this proposed ban and to do so, estimate the drilling and production losses from policies to restrict oil and gas development on federal lands. From that estimate, the emissions impacts are assessed by examining the difference in emissions associated with possible makeup production, compared to the production loss resulting from the ban, or from higher natural gas drilling levels that may be required to make up for lost supplies.

This study estimates the investment and production losses from policies to restrict oil and gas development on federal lands. The first policy is a moratorium on all new federal leases. The second involves an outright drilling ban on all onshore federal lands. The scope of this inquiry includes a study region that includes eight states: Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, California, and Alaska. These lost opportunities are estimated by first projecting how drilling and production activity is likely to evolve from 2021 through 2040 and then identifying what portion would be affected by the two policies.

The purpose of this study was to report on the effectiveness of the Hyperscratcher tool in improving production or injection by cleaning out boreholes that have reported problems with scale, paraffin, or asphaltene build-up.

The Hyperscratcher tool was initially designed and used in California in the 1980s for workovers; as yet it has not been widely used in Wyoming.

Test results show use of the Hyperscratcher Tool significantly improved production in 7 of the 8 wells tested with production improvement varying from 20% to 120%.