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Oil Industry Using Technology to Improve Environmental Impact

Description:

The environmental impact of the oil industry is being reduced in multiple areas: reductions in the size of drilling pads, fewer dry holes, improved water quality and water usage, less surface area used for drilling and by use of smaller drilling holes and other techniques.

Content:

Advanced technology makes it possible for the oil and gas industry to produce resources from beneath sensitive environments. The size of a drilling pad has been reduced by up to 80 percent. If Alaska’s Pruhhoe Bay oil field was opened today with current technology its footprint would be almost a third of its current size. Much less of the topography needs to be disturbed today compared to 30 years ago.

Fewer dry holes are being developed due to new seismic and remote sensing technologies resulting in less disturbance of the environment.

U.S. Petroleum production generates on average 7 to 8 barrels of water per barrel of oil. This water is called produced water and is the water that comes out of the well with the oil and gas. It can include water from the reservoir being drilled, water that has been injected into the formation and any chemicals added. Handling, treatment and disposal of this produced water have been tough challenges for oil producers for decades.

New techniques to clean the contaminants in produced water are being used and drilling fluids have become more environmentally friendly. Water quality has been improved significantly. Advanced reservoir management techniques are also being used to enhance well placement and reduce water production.

Surface ecosystems are disturbed less now because a single well can be drilled from the surface and used horizontally to find oil or gas production zones sometimes miles away. One surface area is disturbed instead of many preserving more of the ecosystem of the surface. The ability to drill horizontally for miles is very important for offshore drilling because one rig can do the work of three that had to be used previously, also creating less risk of environmental damage. The volume of drilling waste has also been reduced by 65 percent

Oil companies like, Western Pipeline Corporation, are also drilling smaller diameter holes and using new drilling techniques to cut waste, fuel consumption, noise and emissions. One technique is called Slimhole Drilling. The holes are six inches or less. Another is mico-hole coiled tubing drilling. Microelectronics is used for guidance control and evaluation of the formations. Exploratory drilling to areas 5,000 to 7,000 feet is possible with 2 inch diameter boreholes.

It takes 22,000 fewer wells per year today to develop the same amount of oil and gas reserves as it did in 1985. The vistas in areas of oil and gas production have improved tremendously as well as the whole ecosystem of the surface.

Author: Bob Jent

About Author:

Bob Jent is the CEO of Western Pipeline Corporation. Western Pipeline Corp specializes in identifying, acquiring and developing existing, producing reserves on behalf of its individual clients.

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