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 Oil Company Donates To Locals, Issues Challenge |
Reprinted from Wotanin Wowapi
Native American Energy Group has been in northeastern Montana for six years according to Tony Johnson, Director of Oil & Gas Exploration from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
In that time they have partnered with the Fort Peck Tribes to scrutinize abandoned oil wells on the reservation in a process they call, “Enhanced Recovery” which means they clean up the wells to see if they can make them productive again or in some cases, more productive.
So far they have worked mainly in the Lustre Field area and have discovered some abandoned wells, cleaned them up and made them more productive.
They are currently working on Tribal Well #7A and will be doing the Winona well next.
At the same time, they hire local oil field workers and trained them to evaluate non-producing wells and how to handle producing wells. They bring in their more experienced oil field workers and partner them with local apprentices.
Another part of the service they provide to the Tribes is to evaluate the oil wells and report to the Tribal Executive Board which wells they believe the Tribes need to “Lock Down” or the ones they consider to be “dangerous wells,” said Johnson.
He said Cory Reum is currently working on Tribal #7A.
Recently they hired Levi Olson of Poplar, MT to be their “liaison/public relation’s person.” Olson came up with the idea of asking NAEG to “give-back” to the local people while they are doing oil exploration on the reservation.
Johnson thought it was a great idea and the two of them set about planning what they would give back and came up with the idea of donating a certain amount of money to reservation churches and organizations.
On Tuesday, they held their first press conference at their office in Wolf Point where they announced they were giving $250.00 to ten organizations.
The recipients of the cash donations and those accepting the donations are: The Lord’s Table of Wolf Point – Dale Stensland; Ft. Kipp Gospel of Ft. Kipp – Vernon and Donna Chopper; Basket of Hope of Wolf Point – Bernie Jackson and Ruth Jackson; Poplar Head Start; Wolf Point Head Start – both checks accepted by Randie Shields; Wolf Point Boys & Girls Club, Poplar Boys & Girls Club – both checks accepted by Jody Ackerman; House of Prayer of Poplar – Verle and Mary Follette; Gospel Light Baptist Church of Poplar – Raymond White Tail Feather; and Lindsay Memorial Church of Poplar – the check will be mailed to Rev. Enright Bighorn as he was not available to accept the check in person.
Representatives from each of these organizations were on hand to accept the check in behalf of their organization and to thank NAEG for their generosity.
In six months NAEG plans to do it again – select 10 reservation organizations to be the recipients of chase donations from NAEG.
Olson said they plan to do this for a total of forty organizations.
But that’s not all. Olson, in behalf of NAEG, has now issued a challenge to other oil companies to do the same.
He said there are 32 oil companies on the reservation and he challenges each of them to match the amount NAEG is giving.
Olson said that over the years oil companies have come and gone to and from the reservation sometimes leaving a mess behind when they leave and he feels they should give something back to help the local organizations.