海角大神

Touring a 鈥淔racking鈥� Site in Pennsylvania

It鈥檚 easy to talk about the shale gas revolution in the abstract and forget that it is the cumulative result of thousands of operations in locations across the country. It聽combines the technological marvel of precisely planned and executed聽drilling more than a聽mile below ground with the efforts of teams of skilled workers聽on the surface,聽and affects the surrounding community in many ways.聽Last month I had my first opportunity to visit one of these sites,聽near Williamsport in north-central Pennsylvania.聽I also saw several nearby sites in different stages of development.聽Although I was consistently impressed, I also tried to observe with the concerns of shale gas critics in mind.

罢丑别听聽well 鈥減ad鈥澛營 toured is located in Cogan House Township in rural Lycoming County, atop the Marcellus shale formation.聽This site visit for bloggers and other media was arranged by聽, which also paid for accommodations in Williamsport. Anadarko provided experts from its local engineering and public affairs staffs and hosted a dinner with members of the community the evening before the site tour.

A Tightly Run Ship

I鈥檓 no stranger to industrial sites or oil fields, and I鈥檝e invested countless hours researching and discussing shale drilling and hydraulic fracturing. When it comes to complex technical subjects like this,聽however, no amount of reading or Youtube videos can substitute for seeing the real thing and being able to talk to the people actually doing the job about how it all works.聽

One example of that is safety. Safety plans, targets and slogans are important, but it carries more weight when the site engineer looks you in the eye and says emphatically in his own words, 鈥淭he most important thing is that everyone goes home at night,鈥� and then proceeds to explain the stop-work rules, the 鈥渞ed zones鈥� that have to be clear of workers when the fracking pumps are running, and other aspects of onsite safety.聽We were聽constantly reminded to watch where we stepped and to make sure we had multiple points of contact with the ground whenever we looked at something or photographed it.

Environmental Impact

Concern for environmental impacts was similarly thorough. I consider surface spills聽a much bigger potential risk to groundwater than聽fracturing聽a layer of shale thousands of feet below any aquifer.聽The first thing I noticed at the site, all five wells of which聽had already been drilled聽and prepared for fracturing, was the floor. The entire site, or pad, was covered with a three-layer mat聽of black felt, HDPE plastic and fabric, to isolate any spills from the ground. The pad was also surrounded by a berm to contain any spills,聽which would promptly be vacuumed up by a waiting truck.聽They even vacuum up rainwater. Yet the real key to spill control is prevention, which in Anadarko鈥檚 case is reinforced by its 鈥淓yes On鈥� program. This requires an extra observer any time a liquid other than fresh water is being handled or transferred. Soil conservation efforts looked similarly scrupulous.

Another issue I asked about was noise.聽I couldn鈥檛 gauge it for myself, because aside from trucks delivering supplies the site was shut down during our visit. It鈥檚 not prudent to have untrained people wandering around when 30,000 hp of truck-mounted聽pumps are running, injecting fluids down a well at nearly 10,000聽psi.聽When I inquired, I was told that the pumps themselves were loud, requiring ear protection nearby but not near the perimeter of the site.聽How far the sound carries beyond the site is a function of terrain, foliage聽and weather conditions.

Then there were the fluids themselves. An Anadarko engineer聽described the company鈥檚聽approach to the five聽wells at this site as minimal and 鈥済reen鈥�.聽The fracking fluid was a simple 鈥渟lickwater frac鈥�. The main ingredients聽consisted of around 4 million gallons of water per well鈥搈uch of it filtered and recycled from nearby gas wells鈥揳nd 4-6 million pounds of sand, to prop open the fractures created by high-pressure聽water. The formula also includes a little hydrochloric acid for downhole cleanup, and two other ingredients: a聽low dose of 鈥渂iocide鈥澛爐o prevent corrosion聽from bacterial growth in the well, and a friction reducer, without which significantly higher聽fracking pressure would be required. The details of the聽chemicals used at the pad will be available聽on the public disclosure site聽聽once the wells are complete.

Leaks Cost Money

I also inquired about methane emissions during well completion. Some critics claim 鈥搃ncorrectly, per聽鈥� that such emissions, along with other leakage,聽negate the climate benefits of shale gas.聽Although聽I was told Anadarko wasn鈥檛 specifically employing 鈥溾�� techniques at this site, it was taking steps to minimize emissions, starting with having聽the gas gathering pipeline ready聽to go. As each well is completed, it鈥檚 hooked up to production so no methane escapes.聽That maximizes revenue. The site also had a聽temporary flare聽to burn off any excess gas from operations before the聽well could be connected to the pipeline.聽That sounds wasteful but is environmentally preferable to venting gas.

Of course for all the precautions and evident best practices there鈥檚 no disguising that while it is being prepared, drilled, fractured and completed, each drilling site is a compact industrial operation and hub of activity. Numerous trucks carry water, sand, chemicals and equipment back and forth. Anadarko has improved聽聽of country roads to handle this traffic, while minimizing freshwater haulage by the use of water pipelines connecting its sites.

Each Well 鈥淧ad鈥� An Entire聽Wind Farm

The consolation for the neighbors is that the entire process runs its course like any construction project. A few weeks or months of intense activity are followed by years of unobtrusive operation, during which gas flows into pipelines and royalties into the community.聽The employment and other local economic benefits this creates are worthy subjects for another post.

Several of the participants at the dinner the evening before drew comparisons to wind turbines, which are much taller than the drilling rigs used for gas wells, and remain on-site for decades. That got me thinking about relative聽energy contributions.聽罢丑别听聽of estimated lifetime gas production per well could generate more than聽1.2 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity聽in a gas-fired power plant. By comparison, a聽聽would normally generate less than 80 million kWh over 20 years. So when brought online the five wells on the one pad I visited will together produce energy equivalent to a wind farm of 75 turbines.

Conclusion: The Local Face of the Revolution

I came away from the tour with a strong impression of a well-trained聽and experienced team, focused on doing the job right 鈥� safely and with minimal impacts, because this is where they聽and their families live; the landowners from whom they lease their sites are their neighbors.聽And for all the聽truly impressive technology deployed, what really counts is the people using it.

I can understand skepticism about聽the balance of risks and benefits from shale gas development 鈥搕his is a skeptical age鈥� but nothing I observed in Williamsport would validate such concerns.聽Instead, I saw a well-tuned operation that is a microcosm of the biggest energy revolution of the last 40 years.

厂辞耻谤肠别:听