Smaller Footprint
Less is more
America’s oil and gas producers continue to produce more energy from fewer wells, shrinking our environmental footprint and preserving open spaces.
As the frontiers of science and the reach of new technology have advanced over the years, America’s independent oil and gas producers continue to apply that innovation to generate more energy from fewer wells – leaving a much smaller footprint and reducing our impact on the environment.
Here at home, today’s successfully drilled wells yield two times the energy that a successful well could produce a decade ago. How can that be? Indeed, it’s not because oil got any easier to produce in that time. Instead, advancements in seismic technology offer us the ability to take a good look at what is (and what is not) beneath the surface – long before a bit ever makes contact with the dirt. And advancements in extraction technology ensure that once we find those resources, we can produce them in a way that’s safe, efficient and complete.
New and evolving technology is also helping producers pull new resources from old, mature fields. Today, an initial discovery could grow by 10 times in volume through the use of new technology. As a consequence, the U.S. has been able to fully replace the natural gas reserves it has produced for 10 of the last 11 years, along with replacing the oil reserves it produced in 6 of the last 8 years. Remarkably, these additions have kept pace even though less than half as many wells are drilled today compared to the 1980s.
These technological advances have enabled America’s oil and gas producers to:
- Leave smaller footprints and move less land. The average well site footprint today is 30 percent of the size it was in 1970, and through the use of extended reach drilling, an average well can now access more than 60 times more subsurface area than what was possible previously.
- Drill fewer wells to add the same reserves. Today, the U.S. industry adds two times as much oil and gas to the Nation’s reserve base per well than in the 1980s.
- Generate less waste. Today, the same level of reserve additions is achieved with 35 percent of the generated waste of a decade ago.
- Reduce air pollution. Greater efficiency and improved technologies means less energy consumption per barrel of oil and unit of natural gas produced, and thus less air pollution per unit produced as well.
Smaller Footprints: The Market Demands It
The public not only expects America’s energy producers to do their part to protect and preserve the environment, they demand it. As such, public expectations impact our environmental performance as much as state, local and federal laws and regulations do. In the past, efforts related to environmental protection were organized and housed in each company’s regulatory and compliance offices. No longer. Throughout the industry, environmental performance is now viewed as an important contributor to the bottom line-in some cases, the most important.
Today, more and more companies are reporting progress on environmental performance with the same level of rigor and sophistication as in their financial reports. Efforts such as the Global Reporting Initiative, the Oil & Gas Industry Guidance on Voluntary Sustainability Reporting, and the Carbon Disclosure Project are just a few of the ways that America’s oil and gas operators continue to keep the public up-to-date on advancements in environmental protection.
On the Horizon: Slim Hole Technology
Even with the availability of advanced new technology, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 407 billion barrels of “discovered” onshore oil nonetheless remains “non-recoverable” using current energy production technologies. This is a staggering figure that America’s oil and gas operators are working with the Department of Energy and others to address.
One new technology that has researchers and geologists excited is a production method known as “slim hole” development. Using this technology, America’ oil and gas producers can drill smaller holes that are capable of accessing areas that were previously considered impossible. The process would deliver the additional benefit of limiting the amount of waste products generated in the process, while sharply reducing the number of acres needed to produce new energy.
The Department of Energy is currently in the process of developing slim hole technologies that will enable America’s energy producers to drill wells less than three inches in diameter. This technology, along with the micro-instrumentation that will go with it, holds the promise to deliver the related benefits of increasing productivity, lessening our dependence on foreign energy and safeguarding the future of our environment.
