By Liz Hampton

BROOMFIELD Colorado (Reuters] – An oil drilling rig drills near a wealthy enclave surrounded with snow-capped mountain ranges in a Denver suburb. It is less noisy, more visible and cleaner than comparable oil and natural gas operations. The United States might be the next frontier in drilling.

Civitas Resources, an oil firm designed the operation for it to be run mostly on the city’s electricity grid. Daily runs of more than twelve diesel fuel trucks were eliminated. It doesn’t emit diesel fumes or soot, and the noise is soft enough for rig operators to talk without having to shout.

Investors and legislators push for the oil industry’s carbon emission reductions. This drill site, along with others managed by Civitas, offers one example of a driller looking to move to operations that emit low or zero carbon emissions.

Civitas must also be conscious of neighboring drilling sites located in more wealthy suburban areas. It has better access to the grid and is therefore, an incentive. The technology will not be available to drillers who live in remote regions.

Civitas, Colorado’s largest oil-and gas producer, claims that it is now the state’s first “carbon neutral” producer. The company has modified its drilling equipment, hydraulic fracturing equipment, and manufacturing sites to make them more efficient in order to reach this goal. To offset its remaining emissions, it also purchases carbon credits.

“NO DUST, NOT TRAFFIC”

Another Civitas pad, with 18 wells, is located a few miles from the community. It’s hidden behind an earthen barrier, making it virtually invisible to all nearby residents. The device has numerous sensors for monitoring greenhouse gases emissions. The pneumatic controls were modified to prevent methane leaked. This facility is the first to eliminate oil storage tanks and water waste.

All of our products are delivered directly to your location. There is no dust, no truck traffic necessary to produce the hydrocarbons,” said Matt Owens, Civitas’ chief operating officer.

Colorado is one of the most prolific oil states in the United States. However, it also has the strictest state emission regulations. According to the government, energy companies must reduce their methane emissions in drilling by half by 2030, compared with 2005. Drilling companies will also be under stricter regulations as the administration of President Joe Biden enacts harsher federal methane laws.

Deborah Gordon is a Rocky Mountain Institute senior principal and a member of the climate intelligence group. She stated, “Electrifying drilling,” upgrading pneumatics, going tankless, are all steps in the right direction.

Colorado has a tougher regulatory climate partly because of the proximity to businesses and homes. Civitas understands that suburbia means reliable local power supplies.

Brian Cain (Civitas’ chief sustainability officer) said that all the existing power lines have been laid out to allow for city expansion. He was on a site tour. His estimates are that switching from diesel power to line power will reduce emissions by 20 to 25 percent. He said, “The landscape in Texas is very different from west Texas” where there are not many options for adequate electricity.

Some environmentalists have said lowering greenhouse gas emissions from oil drilling is not enough, and instead advocate for moving society away from fossil fuel usage https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/radical-change-needed-reach-net-zero-emissions-iea-2021-05-18 altogether. The International Energy Agency has stated that investors must stop funding new oil, gas, and coal supply projects this year if we are to reach net zero emissions by the middle of the century.

WORRIES FROM THE POWER GRID

While electrification can be a great way to lower emissions in production, there are still some hurdles. Cain stated that Civitas has shifted work to reduce grid overtaxation during cooling or peak heat times.

However, Texas’ top oilfields are not urban areas with plenty of electricity. Don Whaley is president and CEO at OhmConnect Energy, a Texas retail power supplier.

Texas is the second largest Texas producer. Pioneer Natural Resources According to its chief executive, (NYSE:), the company aims to electrify hydraulic fracturing, drilling and compression at pump stations in eight to ten years. Scott Sheffield, chief executive of the company said that it has begun to switch out compressors at pumping stations for oil and gas moving on electric power.

Pioneer will be working closely with Oncor, a Texas transmission operator to improve capacity around the oilfield. Sheffield explained that it and other oil companies from the shale sector will likely pay some of these costs to upgrade power lines and substations, which would allow for a faster reduction in diesel fuel use.

The process of hydraulic fracturing (pumping water, chemicals, and sand into well bores in order to extract trapped oil or gas) is currently undergoing its own transformation. The so-called “electric fracks”, which are powered by fossil fuels and come from close wells, is just starting to appear.

Halliburton (NYSE 🙂 Co, a top U.S. fracking company, reported this year it had deployed a grid powered fracturing operation that significantly decreased its carbon footprint.

Cain said, “When you switch to electric fracks that’s the whale for us,” and that he believes it could decrease emissions from completions by between 20%-30%. This is huge for total greenhouse gas emissions.