*UPDATE II* The Latest RUMA
UPDATE II (4/19/12, 1:00 pm ET)
Yesterday, officials from the Ohio Department of Transportation, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, as well as township and local trustees, and oil and gas industry representatives met in Jefferson County to discuss the model Road Usage Management Agreement. Producers must have a RUMA to earn a permit to work in a given location. The agreement will ensure proper maintenence of roads used in the development of Ohio’s natural resources in the Utica Shale.
Through ODNR’s website, Ohioans have total access to the information with those permits. Located in the oil and gas section of the website, people can use a map locator or a spreadsheet to find any well in the state. These resources will allow people to contact energy companies in their area directly to address any questions they may have.
UPDATE I (4/17/12, 8:00 pm ET)
According to this afternoon’s report, directors from the Ohio Department of Transportation, Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Governor’s office of Appalachia will hold an announcement tomorrow providing the details of a model Road Usage Maintenance Agreement that can be used by localities throughout the state.
The announcement is set for 11:15 a.m. tomorrow, Wednesday April 18, at the Pugliese Training Center in Steubenville. Be sure to stay tuned to , or follow us on Facebook or Twitter for the latest update.
—Original post from March 15, 2012—
Have you heard the new RUMA? It’s something most Ohioans will be familiar with in the near future. RUMA, or the Road Usage Maintenance Agreement, is an agreement between a governing body, in Ohio typically a county or a township, and an oil and gas exploration company.
An example of this agreement can be found on the Ohio County Engineer’s Association website. It is an opportunity for oil and gas developers and municipalities to reach an agreement that, either on the front end or back end of a project, the oil and gas company will repair and or maintain a section of road. This agreement needs to be in place before a permit request is submitted to ODNR. So before an oil and gas company begins to set up operations they must have a RUMA in place.
What Does a RUMA Cover?
Mr. Lloyd Macadam, Ohio Department of Transportation, District 11, Deputy Director
Many individuals and groups were involved in creating the working RUMA model for Ohio. ODOT District 11 , lead by Deputy Director Lloyd MacAdam, organized a group consisting of several entities; county commissioners and their association, township trustees and their member association, county engineers and their joint association, the Ohio Railroad Association, the Ohio Department of Public Safety, the Governor’s office, and the operators of several large production companies.
Their objective was to lay out the issues and find workable solutions to create a uniform RUMA that could be applied throughout Ohio.
Today, at the Winter Meeting of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association (OOGA), several speakers addressed the subject, providing information and answering questions from the audience. The panel of speakers included Mr. Bruce Levengood with Sound Energy Company INC, Mr. Ryan Dean with Chesapeake Energy Corporation, Mr. Tom Tugend with ODNR, Mr. Lloyd Macadam with ODOT and Staff Lt. Robert Warner of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
How did Ohio handle creating RUMA agreements with public safety?
Staff LT. Robert Warner, Ohio State Highway Patrol, Office of Field Operations, Commander, Licensing & Commercial Standards
What is ODNR’s role with RUMAs?
Mr. Tom Tugend, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Mineral Resource Management, Deputy Chief
RUMAs are just another example of how the natural gas industry is a good neighbor and is providing support (along with jobs & revenue) to our local governments.
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