Drilling advances

	Vol. 230 No. 12
JIM REDDEN, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Is green drilling on the horizon?

Upon my return from a visit to Elk Hills Field outside Bakersfield, California, a few years ago, I stopped for lunch in LA, seating myself at the bar alongside a well-dressed middle-aged couple.  My accent, revealed as I ordered lunch, quickly advised that I was not from Southern California. When I told the couple where I lived and the source of my livelihood, they unleashed a barrage about how “oil drilling rigs” were the bane of the earth and served no useful purpose other than to spew noxious chemicals and destroy the countryside and coastlines.

After making a few half-hearted counterarguments that clearly fell on deaf ears, I remained silent in a cowardly fashion and wished I had ordered my burger rare rather than medium. I had to respond when the lady declared, “Besides, we all know natural gas is the cleanest fuel, so we should use it instead of oil.” I asked if she had any idea how we actually acquired natural gas; she replied without hesitation, “Well, from a pipeline.”

It would be easy to dismiss that preposterous response as a geographic anomaly, but in many ways it spoke volumes about one of the industry’s biggest weaknesses. While there have been attempts to educate the public on ongoing industry efforts to be dutiful corporate and environmental citizens, no one denies that it has been a matter of too little, too late. Only last month, during a question-and-answer session at the RMI Oilfield Breakfast Forum in Houston, panelist Frank Patterson, vice president of international exploration for Anadarko Petroleum, acknowledged as much, saying one of the biggest challenges facing the global energy industry today is educating the public not only on its societal importance, but also on its enduring efforts to minimize environmental impact.

An eclectic alliance based in Texas has been working to do just that. While the overriding objective of the public-private cooperative is to “identify and develop Environmentally Friendly Drilling (EFD)” technologies, the project also includes a full-blown educational program. The difference between this and similar ventures is that the EFD project is being funded partially by the US government. The Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) provided a portion of the initial funds, with the remainder coming from a diverse group of participants that included operators, service companies, academia, government laboratories, state and federal agencies, and, ironically, some of the industry’s most outspoken critics, including Conservation International. The lead managers of the multi-faceted undertaking are Houston Advanced Research Center, Texas A&M University, TerraPlatforms LLC and Sam Houston State University.

Initially, EFD investigators identified more than 120 specific technologies they say could reduce environmental impact more than 90% if combined into a complete system. Afterward, a prototype Systems Engineering Methodology Model was developed to select low-impact technologies for a specific well plan. A so-called “EFD scorecard” was then conceived to evaluate the environmental impact of the different practices and compare the various options.

One of the principal efforts focuses on what is known as the “disappearing roads” project. Program sponsors said that they identified early on the installation of surface-disturbing and often permanent access roads as one of the PR obstacles to drilling in deserts, the Arctic and other sensitive global environments. At a test site at the edge of the Chihuahua Desert in Pecos, Texas, project investigators have installed 250 ft of rig road using treated drill cuttings, and soon they will install another 250 ft, this time using a prototypical composite mat that can be rolled down when the job begins and rolled up when it is over. Students at the University of Wyoming developed that concept as part of a scholastic disappearing-roads contest sponsored by the EFD program.

Another prime component of the EFD program is examination of a host of emerging technologies aimed at facilitating modular, low-impact rig equipment that will include the use of alternative power sources, integrated waste minimization processes and reduced emissions. The eventual aim of these studies is to devise wellsite pads that will be up to six times smaller than conventional pads and capable of drilling multiple wells from one location. That work, investigators envision, will extend to water-intensive hydraulic fracturing.

Texas A&M petroleum engineering professor Dave Burnett, one of the EFD managers and director of technology for the university’s Global Petroleum Research Institute, said he is optimistic that one of the offshoots of the wide-ranging R&D program will be to calm the public’s fears over the environmental impact of the gas shales and other unconventional resource plays.

“The use of scarce water resources for these developments has been troublesome for the energy companies developing these resources and for the public who may be experiencing oilpatch activity for the first time,” he said.

 “For instance, a Barnett wellsite with a drilling rig operating for three months has the same impact as a city of 4,000 people when you consider water use, solid waste generation, air emissions and traffic. The oil and gas industry has been slow to realize that it has too big an impact on the environment. However, if we can reduce our environmental footprint, we can realize better returns on our investments and cause less fuss in the community. This is a win-win for everyone.”

Burnett said one of the problems is that the industry has been negligent in touting its environmental efforts to the general public. He said one of the goals of the EFD program is to ensure that the work is not kept a secret. “This project has grown into more of an association of people and companies who share the same vision to reduce the impact on the environment. Companies in our industry do this routinely, but no one ever tells the public what they are doing. We have a real opportunity here to show all the stakeholders that we can sustain our economy and not impact the environment.”

Now, if the industry can just do something about those pipelines.