Energy advocate applauds oil and gas commingling updates

By Tate Miller
The Center Square

Oil and gas commingling rules have been updated in accordance with the Big Beautiful Bill in order to strengthen energy production and safety, with energy advocates’ supporting the move.

Larry Behrens from Power the Future told The Center Square: “These reforms are a win for workers and families because commingling allows domestic operators to produce more oil and natural gas at lower cost.”

Power the Future is a nonprofit dedicated to Americans working in reliable energy sources, according to its website.

“After the last four years of red tape and taxpayer-funded failures, America needs more energy,” Behrens said. “This move from the Department of Interior certainly helps deliver.”

Commingling is “the practice of combining oil or gas production from two or more sources into a single stream for measurement and processing,” according to a Department of the Interior news release.

The American Council on Renewable Energy, a group dedicated to energy forms like wind and solar, has not yet responded to The Center Square’s request for comment.

Behrens told The Center Square that “commingling lets producers use shared infrastructure, which will lower the cost of doing business and lower costs for consumers.”

“It can help maximize oil recovery while still maintaining safety and accountability through modern monitoring,” Behrens said.

When asked what else needs to be done for strengthened energy production, Behrens said that “some great next steps could be expanding existing capacity at coal plants to help get more power on the grid and continue their work to bring more reliable and affordable power online.”

“Thankfully, the Trump Administration has the gas pedal to the floor on the road to energy dominance,” Behrens said.

According to the Interior Department news release, the updates made to commingling rules “provide clear standards that support safe operations, improve efficiency and maximize recovery of America’s energy resources.”

The updates are intended to “strengthen energy production and safety.”

The updates are led by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

“BSEE has finalized a rule to clarify expectations for offshore commingling, ensuring production methods protect well integrity, safety and ultimate recovery,” the release said.

Meanwhile, the BLM “is issuing interim guidance to broaden commingling authority on public and tribal lands until updated regulations are complete.”

In addition to aligning with the Big Beautiful Bill’s provisions, the updates to commingling are in accordance with Trump’s executive order “Unleashing American Energy” and support “the Trump administration’s energy and regulatory priorities” by advancing the order’s goals, the release said.

The updates likewise “align with [Department of the Interior] Secretary [Doug] Burgum’s orders emphasizing safe, efficient and predictable oversight of oil and gas operations, reinforcing policies that remove unnecessary regulatory barriers while ensuring maximum resource recovery and environmental protection.”

When reached, the Department of the Interior referred The Center Square to its press release on the updates to commingling, as well as those that concern other recent efforts to “reinforce energy dominance, economic growth, and resource resilience,” as the department told The Center Square. For instance, the Interior Department recently streamlined oil and gas leasing “to advance energy independence and economic growth”; raised the annual Gulf of America revenue-sharing cap to “support coastal protection, restoration and infrastructure projects”; and set an energy leasing schedule “to expand American energy production and strengthen U.S. energy independence.”

In the release, Burgum said that “these updates make it easier to produce American energy without unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles, while at the same time protecting taxpayers, tribes and our shared energy future by ensuring production is safe, efficient and maximizes the long-term value of our resources.”