[Regulatory Update] EPA Publishes Proposed Additional Reconsideration of Oil and Natural Gas Emission Standards (OOOOb/c)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on October 27, 2026 a proposed additional reconsideration of its March 2024 final rule for the oil and natural gas sector—the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) in Subpart OOOOb and the Emission Guidelines (EG) in Subpart OOOOc—and published it in the Federal Register (91 FR 68234) as a proposed rule on October 29. The docket number is EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0163, and comments are due December 16, 2026. According to EPA, it will hold a virtual public hearing on November 16. This is a proposal, not a final rule. Until any amendments are finalized, the baseline for operators' obligations remains the March 2024 final rule, as subsequently amended and extended. The proposal has four main elements. First, it would repeal the Super Emitter Program, under which third parties certified by EPA notify EPA of large emission events, from NSPS OOOO, OOOOa and OOOOb and from EG OOOOc. Second, it would create well-site subcategories. Two alternative approaches are proposed—by production level (marginal and non-marginal wells) or by resource type (conventional and unconventional wells)—and neither has been selected. A marginal well is one that produced 15 barrels of oil equivalent per day or less over the prior 12 months, and the proposal would relax the inspection, process controller and other requirements for marginal wells (or, under the alternative approach, for conventional wells). Third, for associated gas from wells producing primarily oil, EPA proposes to replace routing to a sales line as the best system of emission reduction (BSER) with routing to a control device or flare that achieves a reduction of 95 percent or more. Fourth, it would split the "no identifiable emissions" requirement for covers and closed vent systems into design and operational requirements. Repairs would generally be due within 24 hours of detection; where that is not possible, an initial repair attempt within 5 days and final repair within 30 days (unless the delay-of-repair conditions are met) would be required. A repair that takes longer than 24 hours would be treated as a deviation from the design requirement, which EPA states is not automatically a violation. The proposal also adds recordkeeping and reporting for repairs and resurveys, and an investigative analysis when emissions are detected from the same system for the third time in a year. EPA's regulatory impact analysis (RIA) estimates the increase in economic surplus from the proposal over 2027–2050 at about USD 45 billion in present value at a 3 percent discount rate (about USD 32 billion at 7 percent; 2024 dollars, discounted to 2025). Economic surplus aggregates compliance cost reductions and other effects, so this figure is an estimate and not a simple reduction in compliance costs. The same RIA projects that methane emissions over the same period would be about 60 million short tons higher than under a baseline that includes the 2024 final rule and related actions (VOC about 17 million and hazardous air pollutants about 2.3 million short tons). These are modeled estimates, not measured values, and EPA states that parts of its analysis may overestimate the forgone emission reductions.