SOCORRO, N.M. – A leading researcher and petroleum engineer at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology recently began a yearlong appointment as a member of the state of New Mexico Oil Conservation Commission. William Ampomah, Ph.D., an assistant professor of petroleum and natural gas engineering, will share his knowledge and expertise as a New Mexico Tech faculty member and key researcher at NMT’s Petroleum Recovery Research Center (PRRC).

Sarah Cottrell Propst, New Mexico’s cabinet secretary for Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources, recently appointed Ampomah as her designee to the state’s Oil Conservation Commission (OCC) for a term that began Jan. 1, 2022, and ends Dec. 31, 2022. In a letter to Ampomah conferring the appointment, Cottrell Propst expressed confidence in his ability to serve New Mexicans well as an OCC commissioner, citing his “impressive academic career and experience.”

“Your expertise in the regulation of petroleum production by virtue of your education, training, and research” will be valuable on the commission, Cottrell Propst wrote to Ampomah in her appointment letter. “I am confident that you have a high level of understanding of the issues that will come before the OCC,” she added.

The New Mexico Oil and Gas Act of 1935 established the three-member Oil Conservation Commission, with membership consisting of the director of the state Oil Conservation Division, a designee of the commissioner of Public Lands, and a designee of the secretary of the Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department, the seat Ampomah holds. The commission’s activities focus on the consideration and adoption of rules concerning all aspects of the oil and gas industry and review of Oil Conservation Division orders as well as enforcement.

Ampomah said he has already started attending OCC meetings remotely and is eager to make contributions to the commission’s mission of protecting public health and safety while enforcing state rules and statutes relating to the conservation of oil and gas. The commission is charged, he said, with the prevention of waste, the protection of treaty rights, and the protection of  the environment.

“It’s a great honor to be given the opportunity to sit on this commission” Ampomah said. “The knowledge I’ve gained of the oil and gas industry” at NMT will be useful in his new role as OCC commissioner. “It’s a big privilege,” he added.

Ampomah, an NMT faculty member since 2021, previously worked as a research associate and research engineer at the university. He came to NMT from Ghana in 2011 as a master’s student and earned his doctorate in petroleum engineering in 2016. Ampomah earned a bachelor’s degree, also in petroleum engineering, from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana.

- 30 -