Focused Research in Federal Lands Access and Produced Water Management in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production

The summary for the Focused Research in Federal Lands Access and Produced Water Management in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Headquarters, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Focused Research in Federal Lands Access and Produced Water Management in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production: The mission of the Department of Energy's Fossil Energy Oil Program is derived from the National need for increased oil production for national security, requirements for Federal Lands stewardship, and increased protection of the environment. The Oil and Gas Environmental Program supports those goals and the National Energy Policy goal of increasing domestic oil and gas production, by providing technologies and approaches that reduce the cost of effective environmental compliance and by providing technologies and approaches that improve environmental protection. Through on-going program planning activities, NETL identified Federal lands access and produced water management as two areas that posed significant barriers for both oil and gas producers across the country. In preparing for this funding opportunity, NETL conducted literature research, interviewed stakeholders and conducted workshops to determine what specific topics within these two areas of interest posed the biggest problems and offered the most potential benefits. The results of these efforts were used to shape this funding opportunity. Two recurring themes emerged from the stakeholder interactions. One is that the problems in both of these areas need to be approached from a holistic standpoint. Numerous examples were cited to demonstrate that trying to solve one particular issue without looking at the overall problem can create even larger problems. The other recurring theme is that there are few, if any, "silver bullets" that will solve everyone's problem. While operators from different parts of the country may experience very similar problems, local conditions and requirements dictate that the solutions be region-specific. The size of the region for a given problem can vary significantly and boundaries for that region may be set geologically, geographically, or politically. The two areas of interest for this funding opportunity are 1) Access to Oil and Gas Resources on Federal Lands and, 2) Produced Water Management. Projects will be accepted that address problems affecting either oil or natural gas issues or both. The specific topics to be addressed will be identified in the funding opportunity document. The goal of this Funding Opportunity is to provide solutions to issues that are limiting domestic on-shore or off-shore production while providing the same or higher levels of environmental protection. These access issues and produced water management issues are limiting domestic production by restricting additional development or by adding costs that cause operators to abandon existing wells while substantial recoverable reserves remain in the ground. The issues listed above are multi-faceted problems. In many cases, the overall solution may vary by region or may require several separate steps to resolve completely. Selected projects are expected to describe the overall problem and the region or regions affected as well as describing how the proposed project fits into the overall solution. Selected projects are also expected to describe as completely as possible the impact that the project will have on increasing or maintaining domestic production. The description of the production impact should discuss in detail the resource affected and the amount of domestic production that can be added or maintained as a result of the successful completion of the project. DOE anticipates issuing financial assistance (Cooperative Agreement) awards. DOE reserves the right to support or not support, with or without discussions, any or all applications received in whole or in part, and to determine how many awards will be made. Multiple awards are anticipated. Approximately $9 million of DOE funding is planned over a 3 year period for this Funding Opportunity. The program seeks to sponsor projects for a single budget/project period of 36 months or less. All applicants are required to cost share at a minimum of 20% of the project total for projects submitted under the two areas of interest. Details of the cost sharing requirements, and the specific funding levels will be identified in Funding Opportunity. Examples of projects that will NOT be considered include the following: Water shut-off at the reservoir level. Remediation of soil, surface water or ground water contamination caused by produced water or other oil and gas activities. Projects addressing non-regulated emissions, such as reducing emission of greenhouse gasses for the purpose of affecting global climate change. Projects addressing best management practices for coal-bed methane water. Projects whose primary focus is to provide access to lands that cannot be developed because of specific statutory restrictions.