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News From the Oil Patch, July 30

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By JOHN P. TRETBAR

Monday’s cash price for light sweet crude on the Nymex was $56.85/barrel. By midday Tuesday the near-month futures contract was up 28 cents to $57.15. London Brent was up 36 cents a barrel to $64.07. Monday’s price for Kansas Common crude at CHS in McPherson was $47 a barrel.

Independent Oil & Gas Service reports 17 newly-completed wells for the week, 823 so far this year. Operators filed 32 permits for drilling at new locations. That’s 550 so far this year. There is one new permit in Barton County, two in Ellis County and one in Stafford County.

Independent Oil & Gas Service reported ten active drilling rigs in eastern Kansas, up two from last week, and 26 in Western Kansas, up one. Operators are drilling on one lease in Ellis County and preparing to spud a well on another. Drilling also was underway at one site in Barton County. Baker Hughes reported 946 active rigs nationwide, down three oil rigs and down five seeking natural gas. North Dakota’s count was down eight rigs from the week before. Louisiana was down four and Oklahoman was down two.

The government reported a decline in U.S. crude oil inventories. In its weekly report, the Energy Information Administration said current stockpiles total 445 million barrels, down 10.8 million barrels from the week before. U.S. crude oil production slowed down last week. The government reported total crude production of 11.259 million barrels per day for the week ending July 19. That’s down nearly 700-thousand barrels from the week before. Imports averaged seven million barrels per day, an increase of nearly 200,000 barrels per day.

As much as $9 billion will be needed over the next decade just to throw away dirty water in the world’s busiest shale field. That’s according to analysis by research firm Raymond James & Associates as reported by Bloomberg. As the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico shifts further into what analyst Marshall Adkins calls “manufacturing mode,” water produ tion growth will create the need for nearly 1,000 additional salt water disposal wells by the year 2030.

Health officials in Colorado are proposing new regulations on the oil and gas industry to reduce air pollution. In an effort to comply with federal ozone limits, regulators on Monday proposed mandatory inspections twice a year to find and repair leaks, eliminating some permit exemptions, and requiring comprehensive annual self-reporting on pollution levels.

The U.S. continues to ship more oil by rail than in years past, but the increases are slowing. According to the Association of American Railroads, 12,121 tanker cars shipped petroleum and petroleum products during the week ending July 20, an increase of more than nine percent over the same week a year ago. The cumulative total so far this year is 22% higher than the same figure a year ago. Canada’s oil-by-rail traffic last week increased more than 35% compared to a year earlier.

Reuters and other international news agencies have been following a controversy involving contaminated Russian oil. The Russian plunged into crisis in April when buyers discovered some of Russia’s crude shipments were contaminated with organic chloride, a chemical used in oil recovery but which can damage refining equipment. Since then, several tankers loaded with the tainted crude have struggled to sell their cargoes. In the latest turn, French oil company Total reportedly sold a cargo of contaminated Russian oil to a firm in Poland for its refinery in Lithuania. The Polish firm is diluting the contaminated product with clean oil so it can be processed.

ExxonMobil and its partners expect production to reach 750,000 barrels per day over the next 5 years in the most prolific offshore discovery in recent years. The first oil is expected soon from the Stabroek block off the coast of Guyana. Forbes magazine reports funding is pouring into the country, making Guyana the fastest-growing economy in the Caribbean. Energy analyst group Rystad Energy found that Guyana leads the world in offshore crude oil discoveries since 2015.

Lloyd’s of London reports some huge spikes in war-risk insurance premiums for ships sailing through the Persian Gulf. Market sources tell Lloyd’s List those premiums jumped an additional $500,000 in one case.

Saudi Aramco expects to complete the expansion of an oil pipeline across that country by September, as the kingdom tries to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. The long-planned expansion will give Saudi Arabia the option to ship more oil from the Red Sea rather than the Persian Gulf. The Web site “World Oil” reports the state-owned oil company will finish the project by September, increasing the line’s capacity from five to seven million barrels per day.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy announced five projects selected to receive a total of nearly $40 million in matching federal funding for research and development of advanced technologies for Enhanced Oil Recovery, or EOR. The projects are hosted in North Dakota, Texas, Wyoming and Michigan. The government hopes to reduce technical risks and expand methods for onshore enhancements in both conventional and unconventional reservoirs.

Boil water advisory issued for Norton

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KDHE

TOPEKA – The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has issued a boil water advisory for the city of Norton located in Norton County.

Customers should observe the following precautions until further notice:

  • If your tap water appears dirty, flush the water lines by letting the water run until it clears.
  • Boil water for one minute prior to drinking or food preparation or use bottled water.
  • Dispose of ice cubes and do not use ice from a household automatic icemaker.
  • Disinfect dishes and other food contact surfaces by immersion for at least one minute in clean tap water that contains one teaspoon of unscented household bleach per gallon of water.
  • Water used for bathing does not generally need to be boiled. Supervision of children is necessary while bathing so that water is not ingested. Persons with cuts or severe rashes may wish to consult their physicians.

The advisory took effect on July 30 and will remain in effect until the conditions that placed the system at risk of bacterial contamination are resolved. KDHE officials issued the advisory because of a line break resulting in a loss of pressure in the system.  Failure to maintain adequate pressure may result in a loss of chlorine residuals and bacterial contamination.

Regardless of whether the public water supplier or KDHE announced a boil water advisory, only KDHE can issue the rescind order following testing at a certified laboratory.

For consumer questions, please contact the water system or KDHE at 785-296-5514. For consumer information please visit KDHE’s PWS Consumer Information webpage: https://www.kdheks.gov/pws/emergencyresponse/water_disruption.htm

Restaurants and other food establishments that have questions about the impact of the boil water advisory on their business can contact the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s food safety & lodging program at  [email protected] or call 785-564-6767.

FHSU Athletic Department warns of potential scam

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Fort Hays State University’s Athletic Department is warning of a potential scam.

Assistant Athletic Director Matt Cook reported that FHSU supporters have been contacted and asked for donations.

“Please note the only person who would ask for donations from the FHSU Athletic Department is Matt,” the Hays Area Chamber of Commerce noted in a warning sent to members Tuesday morning. “If you are not not sure a caller is legitimate, please contact the FHSU Athletic office directly to verify.”

Cook can be contacted at [email protected] or (785) 628-4429.

First Call for Help launches housing fundraising campaign

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Space in the First Call For Help building will be renovated for use by a transitional housing program.

Originally published June 26, 2019

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

First Call for Help kicked off a fundraising drive Friday to raise $250,000 to remodel a portion of its building into a transitional housing unit.

First Call is calling the project First Step. It will include creation of a four-bedroom housing unit with a small kitchen/common area, as well as a laundry area. Each room will be able to house up to three people. One of the rooms will be handicap accessible.

The program is designed for women, families and couples living in Hays who are temporarily without permanent housing for a variety of reasons.

First Call hopes to begin construction in August with completion in early 2020. The goal is to raise an initial $250,000 by the end of the year.

“First Step Housing is about providing people a place to live temporarily while they try to get back on their feet, and we want to offer them all the support that we can,” said Linda Mills, First Call for Help executive director.

“If they are having trouble finding a job … if they have trouble budgeting their money, whatever the obstacles have been for them, we want to try to help them work through those. So once they have been there for six months, or earlier if that happens, they will be able to transition into their own place. They would be able to stand on their own two feet by then.”

First Call for Help is trying to raise $250,000 to create a transitional housing unit in its 13th Street building.

Although First Call for Help will continue to aid the transient population that comes through Hays, those individuals will not be eligible for the First Step program, Mills said.

Laura Allen, client service specialist, said she talks to several families a week who are from Hays who don’t have a place to stay.

“There just isn’t anything. If they don’t have a friend to stay with, then they look for a shelter in a different city,” she said. “Some of them don’t want to do that because they have kids here or they have family here or they may have a job here.

“When a lot of people live paycheck to paycheck, they don’t have the money to come up with first month’s rent plus a deposit. Giving them the opportunity to have a place to stay while they work on that really gets them to the longer-term goal of not being homeless again.”

Mills said much of the homelessness in Hays is “found in the seemingly ordinary.”

“You may think they are in their car because they are waiting for someone to come out, but they may be living there,” she said.

Plans for the First Step transitional housing unit calls for four bedrooms that could house up to 12 people. It will also include a kitchen and laundry area.

People who spend time at the library or who sit at a convenience store, may also be homeless, Allen said. Mills added families might also be staying on people’s couches or doubling up with another family.

“I have talked to four people in the last two weeks,” Allen said, “one who needed to get out of his home situation because there was drug use and some physical violence there. He had nowhere to go, and I believe he is still there.

“One who is working on some mental health issues and lost her home, so now she is trying to figure out what she is going to do tomorrow as she goes through that process. Both of them had nowhere else to stay because they were at the mercy of somebody else where they were living.”

The First Step transitional housing program will be located in the First Call for Help building at 607 E. 13th St.

In advance of the capital campaign, First Call for Help has developed an application process as well as policies and procedures for First Step, Mills said.

First Call for Help already works closely with the Job Service Center and will continue to do that with this program. Program officials hope to work with extension to offer participants instruction on grocery shopping and meal planning on a budget, as well. First Step will also help participants apply for assistance programs, such as food stamps and Medicaid if they qualify.

Once the First Step program is established, First Call would like to offer some of these skill-building services to the First Call for Help’s other daily clients.

First Step has been in the works since 2015 and was the result of a strategic planning process, Mills said. Although the community has transitional housing for domestic violence survivors and Oxford House for those experiencing addiction, it does not have transitional housing for those who do not fall into either of those categories.

Mills told the story of a young mom who was temporarily without a permanent home. The family was living in a hotel, and the husband was watching the children while she worked. Her husband left the family. She was in the office talking to Mills about her situation, when school counselor called and said her daughter had been in the counselor’s office very upset and crying because she didn’t know where they were going to spend the night.

“That was kind of hard to hear, because there was not a lot we could do for her,” Mills said.

Mills said First Call can refer families to the Housing Authority, but that agency has a waiting list of up to two years.

The nearest traditional homeless shelter is in Salina. Allen noted members of the transient population will still likely be referred to Salina.

“I think one of the difficulties in rural areas is helping communities to recognize there is an issue with homeless or at high risk of homelessness,” Mills said. “I think that is true not just of Hays, but other rural communities as well. We can see it in the big cities pretty easily. We can drive downtown and you see it, but here not so much.”

Mills said this project will benefit the community as a whole.

“Those people who we are being helped through the short-term housing will be able to contribute to the community,” she said. “They will have a place to live. Their children will have some more stability in their lives. Living with housing instability — kids worry about where they are going to spend the night.”

First Call hopes to raise an additional $250,000 for future expansion.

“We don’t see this necessarily as the end nor the only thing we are going to do,” Mills said, “because we know there is still going to be more need out there. We are only going to be able to serve a small part of the population who needs (help).”

Listeners will be hearing regular messages about First Step Campaign on Eagle Radio of Hays stations through at least Thursday.

You can donate by calling First Call for Help at 785-623-2800, online on First Call for Help’s website or in person at the First Call for Help office, 607 E. 13th. The office is open from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4:30 p.m. weekdays. This week, First Call for Help will also have people available to take donations via phone during the evening.

You can learn more about First Step or First Call for Help by attending informal discussions called Mugs in the Morning form 9 to 11 a.m. Thursdays at the First Call for Help office.

HPD to conduct active shooter training this week at HMS

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Hays Police Department

The Hays Police Department will be conducting training on July 30 and 31, 2019 between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. at the Hays Middle School, 201 West 29th St.

Police officers will be training to rapidly enter a school in the event of a crisis. This training is being done with great care and safety.

As a home or business owner, you may see law enforcement officers move through your area. There is no need to be alarmed. The officers are merely conducting a realistic training exercise and there is no danger to the community.

If you have any questions or concerns, you may contact the on-site supervisor (Lt. Tim Greenwood), or Chief Scheibler at 785-625-1030.

NCK Tech pharmacy tech program receives continuing accreditation

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NCK TECH

NCK Tech Pharmacy Technician Program on the Hays campus has received continuing accreditation for the remainder of its current six-year cycle (2022) or until the Pharmacy Technician Accreditation Commission recommends further action.

“The Commission arrived at its decision based on a thorough review of the progress report submitted by NCK Tech,” according to the notification document from the SCHP and CPE Board of Directors. “Continued accreditation is granted subject to the provisions set forth in the ASHP/ACPE Regulations on Accreditation of Pharmacy Technician Training Programs.”

The Pharmacy Technician Program is located on the Hays Campus of NCK Tech and graduates approximately ten students each year. The American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists has nationally accredited the program since 2009. Brian Dechant is the instructor for the program and has been with the college for over ten years. Applications are currently being accepted for the Pharmacy Technician program for fall 2019.

For more information on the Pharmacy Technician program, visit NCK Tech’s website at www.ncktc.edu.

🎥 Water$mart Landscape winners recognized for conserving Hays water

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By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

A Hays couple and the employees of a state office building have been honored with the 2019 Water$mart Landscape Award by the city of Hays.

Since 2016, one residential and one commercial property have been chosen for the recognition.

The goal of the award program is to increase awareness of the importance of water conservation in the landscape and to recognize those in the community who have made great strides towards that effort.

Holly Dickman, water conservation specialist, introduced the winners and showed pictures of their landscaping during Thursday’s Hays city commission meeting.

The Trapp front yard

Winners of the residential award are Theresa and Patrick Trapp.

Their yard on Holmes Road “exemplifies what it means to be water smart,” said Dickman.

The entire yard is landscape plantings of drought-tolerant perennials, including lavender and hens and chicks. They use mulch and and compost from the free sites maintained by the city.

“There’s no turf grass, just a little bit of buffalo grass here and there.”

The front yard is designed to keep as much rainfall as possible on the property without runoff. The couple also uses three rain barrels to capture rain for watering the plants.

The Trapp backyard is a Certified Wildlife Habitat.

The Trapp back yard is also a Certified Wildlife Habitat – a designation by the National Wildlife Federation – which provides water and shelter for animals raising their young.

The commercial award winner is the Kansas Department of Children and Families on East 22nd Street, represented by their director Armando Orozco.

Organic mulch surrounds the plantings, which include ornamental grasses and shrubs along with drought-tolerant perennials, including catmint and Rose of Sharon.

“Even the islands in the parking lot have organic wood-type mulch with plantings,” Dickman pointed out.

The parking lot is also part of the water-conserving design.

“It completely drains into a buffalo grass low spot. The rain is all going into that nice deep-rooted buffalo grass which is what we like to see. It’s not escaping the property.”

The Trapp backyard view from the alley.

“A watersmart landscape is more than just watering those plants correctly,” she explained.

“It’s a combination of several different gardening practices that together create a beautiful, water conserving landscape.”

Those practices include planning and design, soil preparation, right plants in the right places, practical turf areas, efficient irrigation, proper mulch and proper maintenance.

The DCF building in Hays is landscaped with organic mulch and drought-tolerating plants.
Rain runs off the DCF parking lot into a lot spot planted with buffalo grass.
Holly Dickman, Hays water conservation specialist, takes a picture of residential Water$mart Landscape winners Theresa and Patrick Trapp with Mayor Shaun Musil.
Hays DCF director Armando Orozco poses with the commercial Water$mart Landscape Award and Mayor Shaun Musil.

(Editor’s note: Theresa Trapp is an employee of Eagle Communications, the parent company of Hays Post.)

HAWVER: Kelly has the upper hand in Supreme Court battles

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Martin Hawver

President Donald Trump congratulates himself on his appointment/U.S. Senate confirmation of more than 100 federal judges, including two U.S. Supreme Court justices.

Now, it appears that Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly might be able to tout, maybe more discreetly, her success in packing the Kansas Supreme Court.

With the retirement in September of Justice Lee Johnson, and the just-announced retirement of Chief Justice Lawton Nuss in December, Kelly will get final say on two appointees to the court that often battles the Legislature with decisions that kill laws the Legislature passed. Look at abortion, look at school finance.

Now, if there’s something that the Legislature hates, it is any institution that has veto power over its action. That’s just the three-division state government at work — the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches. Legislators have always thought that they are the big dogs in the management of the state, and lawmakers growl at any other branch that won’t bow to their authority.

Lawmakers weren’t happy with the abortion decision, which essentially guarantees the right to abortion in Kansas. At least a majority of them, and the Republican leadership.

Oh, and lawmakers also want the court out of the business of deciding what is “adequate” in the way of state financing of public education. The court has loudly and frequently said it will determine just what is adequate to provide every Kansas schoolchild access to a good education from border to border.

So, having a Democrat governor with the power to appoint Supreme Court justices is a big deal. And now Kelly gets to appoint two justices to the seven-member court, and likely have a chance to make those appointees see state law the way she sees it.

The Legislature, or at least its overwhelming Republican majorities in each chamber, is not happy that a Democrat governor gets to interview and find a candidate for the court that is likely to be less conservative than the majority of legislators.

Already, the Senate has a proposed constitutional amendment warming up that would give the Senate the final say—to confirm or reject—a gubernatorial appointment to the high court. Sounds a little like conservative Republican state senators want to have the same power as federal senators, doesn’t it?

It takes a constitutional amendment, which means that if lawmakers OK the proposal, it will be November 2020 before it can be put before voters in the state to empower the Kansas Senate to have the final say on who gets to wear those nice black robes.

By that time, Kelly’s appointees to the Supreme Court will have already redecorated their offices and gotten comfortable on the bench. Oh, Kelly’s appointments will have to stand for retention to their posts to earn their full six-year terms on the court, but that’s not a major issue…justices face conservative opposition, but haven’t been tossed off the court by voters in recent memory.

So, Kelly, and her moderate Republican and Democrat predecessors, will retain the majority on the court. Former Gov. Sam Brownback got just one Supreme Court appointment, his former chief counsel Caleb Stegall, arguably the most conservative justice in recent memory.

The nominations for Kelly to choose from for each job? We won’t know who they are until the five-lawyer, four-nonlawyer Supreme Court Nominating Commission winnows the jobseekers to just three for each chair to present to the governor for her selection.

It looks like the court will retain its socially moderate position and not be afraid to take a swipe at the conservative GOP legislature for the next few years.

Wonder how that’s going to work out…

Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com

Former Regent Joe Bain named new general counsel of Fort Hays State

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Bain
FHSU University Relations

Former member of the Kansas Board of Regents, trial lawyer and litigator with wide experience in civil law, criminal law, estate matters, dispute resolution and more – Joe Bain will now bring all this experience to his new post as general counsel of Fort Hays State University.

His appointment was announced this week by FHSU President Tisa Mason.

“I say often, and honestly, that FHSU had a transformative effect on me,” said Bain.

“This university has a history of providing access to a quality higher education for many first-generation, lower income and diverse-background students,” he said. “It is an honor and a privilege to serve this university and to be on the team responsible for taking FHSU into the future.”

“As a member of the Kansas Board of Regents, Joe was able to experience at first hand the challenges, expectations and successes of higher education,” said FHSU President Tisa Mason. “His service with the Regents and his wide legal experience, and his status as an FHSU alumnus, make him an ideal choice as the general counsel for Fort Hays State.”

Bain grew up in Ness City and graduated from Ness City High School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from FHSU in 2002, graduating summa cum laude. His Juris Doctor, 2005, is from the University of Kansas School of Law.

His career includes a judicial clerkship in the Seventh Judicial District of Kansas and working as a summer associate for a Kansas City law firm before his graduation from the KU School of Law.

After graduation, he was an associate at Warden, Triplett, Grier, PA, in Overland Park. From 2009 to 2011 he was a senior attorney for the Black & Veatch Corp., an international engineering and construction firm in Overland Park.

Since 2011, he has been a member, vice-president, attorney and co-manager for Cure & Bain, P.C., in Goodland. He is licensed in Kansas, Missouri and Colorado. He was a member of the Kansas Board of Regents from 2014 to 2018, and since 2017 he has served as Ness City Municipal Court Judge.

He will begin his duties in mid to late August.

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