Natural Gas and Oil Program National Energy Technology Laboratory Office of Fossil Energy Oil and Gas Environmental Effective Environmental Protection Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commision Date

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Oil and Gas Environmental Solutions Focus Areas:  Injection Wells  Area of Review Variances  Waste Disposal  Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM)  Synthetic Muds  Salt Caverns  Air Quality  Remediation  Environmentally Acceptable End-Points

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Waste Disposal Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) Issue  National attention to NORM caused environmental and public safety concerns  EPA proposed new rules to control  Disposal costs were high Accomplishments  Conducted exposure studies that demonstrated that risks were low  Developed model regulations for States  Developed treatment and disposal technologies Benefits Provided guidelines to protect workers and the environment. Reduced disposal costs by 50% Avoided a national “one-size-fits-all” regulation

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Soil Remediation Environmentally Acceptable End-points Issues  How Clean is “Clean”?  Regulations based on detection limits  Conventional remediation very costly Accomplishments  Determined bio-availability of common oil field contaminants  Developed risk-based clean-up standards  Developed standards for intrinsic bio-remediation  Developed low-cost organic remediation technologies Benefits ‘Early Exit’ criteria adopted by EPA/States Reduced clean-up costs by 60%

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Air Quality Issues  Air quality models over-estimate effects of oil and gas  New “Visibility” standards based on incomplete science  Air quality Issues limiting production Accomplishments  Used air-sampling blimp to determine oil and gas impacts  Provided air chemistry studies to better predict regional haze  Provided air-chemistry study to demonstrate permit limits in SE Wyoming not needed Benefits Allowed 150% increase in wells in SE Wyoming New modeling approaches adopted by EPA and western States

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Oil and Gas Environmental Solutions Focus Areas  Federal Lands Access  Technology Development  Science-based Stipulations  Air Quality  Reduce Permitting Times  Produced Water  Treatment Technologies  Beneficial Use

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Federal Lands Access Issues  Complicated regulations and standards increase E&P costs and often delay permitting  Seasonal and spatial restrictions limit field development  Conflicts between land uses reduce acreage available for oil and gas production  About 40% of oil and gas resources on Federal lands is effectively off-limits 68% of all oil and gas reserves are on Federal Lands

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Federal Lands Access NETL Approach  Provide technologies to lower the cost of compliance and improve protection  Provide sound science for decision-makers  Provide data-management and decision-making tools to speed permitting decisions

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Joint DOE/BLM Projects in Rocky Mountains Studies on Environmental Impacts CBNG studies on water, vegetation, soils and erosion issues (Ongoing) Studies of wildlife breeding habits and land use Effects of oil and gas on nesting raptors (Ongoing) Sage grouse study used to determine impacts of natural gas drilling activities in Wyoming (Completed 2005) Benefits Science based protection standards will ensure the wildlife, water and soils are better protected without unnecessary costs

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Environmentally Friendly Drilling Systems Texas Engineering and Experiment Station Goal  Incorporate current and emerging clean drilling technologies into a viable system for E&P and demonstrate the system to obtain no or low impact Accomplishments  Identified critical drilling rig parameters to be the basis of platform design, access design and waste management operations Benefits  Will develop a suit of low impact technologies and approaches that will allow drilling in sensitive environments without harming the environment Pecos Research Testing Area Anadarko Platform on the North Slope in 2005

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Objectives  Speed permitting of oil and gas development on Federal lands by:  Providing on-line access to both resource data and environmental data  Developing on-line permitting for Federal lands Accomplishments  Established data-sharing MOU between States and BLM  Developed beta-test on-line permitting site for Colorado at gas.state.co.us  Developed pilot program for electronic permitting for applications to drill Benefits  More and better data available for regulators and industry  Reduced workload for regulators  Faster, cheaper permits for industry Improved Access to Federal Lands Through Interagency Data Sharing Ground Water Protection Research Foundation

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Distributed Generation Power Units at Marginal Oil Well Sites IOGCC Goal Demonstrate distributed generation using waste gas from oil fields as a viable and environmentally clean solution to disposal, re-injection or abandonment of gas associated with oil production Accomplishments High-BTU and Medium-BTU projects both cost effectively returned marginal fields to production using microturbines The harsh-gas demo is bringing an oilfield back into production by allowing compliance with air emission standards Ultra low-BTU demo is using new technology to burn previously incombustible gas Benefits Additional oil is being produced from marginal fields that would otherwise be abandoned due to cost of compliance and operations. By turning a waste into a resource, both harmful air emissions and costs are reduced

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Produced Water Issues  > 15 billion barrels of water is produced with oil and gas each year  Quality varies from low (hydrocarbons, salt, dissolved solids, etc) to very high  Costs are high to treat or dispose  Surface discharge affects soils, vegetation, and streams  Coal Bed Natural Gas Production (CBNG) is being limited because of produced water concerns

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Produced Water NETL Approach Development of new water treatment technologies Determine impacts of CBNG produced water impacts. Provide sound science for regulatory decisions Benefits include:  Improved environmental protection  Lower operational cost of oil and gas production  Provides water resource in semi-arid regions  Provides wildlife and recreational benefits to the public

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Advanced Membrane Filtration Technology for Cost Effective Recovery of Fresh Water from Oil & Gas Produced Brine Texas Engineering Experiment Station Goal Develop portable reverse osmosis membrane filtration technology for produced water Accomplishments The desalination technology has been commercialized through GeoPure Water Technologies. System installed at a location in Benbrook, Texas, is processing over 200 gallons per minute of feed water Benefits Reduces disposal costs by 75% Provides fresh water for land owner (possible source of revenue)

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Airborne Electromagnetic (AEM) Reconnaissance to Improve Produced Water Management in the Powder River Basin NETL Goal  Determine movement and environmental impact of impoundment water Accomplishments  First time measurement of water migration from impoundments  Developed and demonstrated computer analysis tool to optimize impoundment locations Benefits  Reduced costs  Reduced ground water impacts

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Treating Produced Water for Beneficial Use with Synthesized Zeolite Membranes New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology Goal Create new, non-fouling zeolite membranes to efficiently treat high-TDS producedwater for beneficial use Accomplishments Synthesized high aluminum ZSM-5 membranes with enhanced water flux and ion rejection for concentrated solutions An in-line oxidative regeneration process was developed for organic fouling removal; found that 90 percent of water flux can be recovered Benefits  High efficiency membranes with low maintenance costs will allow economic treatment of up to 2 million bbls of water/yr and make it available for use in the semi- arid west Film of inter- grown crystals Pore dia. ~ 0.55 nm Cross-section

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Summary Where We Were:  Waste disposal technologies and regulations were costly and not well developed  Many remediation regulations were based on incomplete data and were not risk-based  Produced water treatment costs were high and very little produced water was put to beneficial use  Access to resources on Federal lands was slow and uncertain - restrictions were not science- based

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Summary Where We Are: 2007  Waste disposal technologies protect the environment and cost less  Most remediation regulations are risk-based and are based on sound data  Produced water treatment makes beneficial uses economic in some areas  Access to resources on Federal lands has increased and many stipulations are being reviewed based on research results

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Summary Where We Are: 2007 (Continued)  More unconventional resources are being targeted with a corresponding increase in environmental concerns  New challenges are arising each year  More land use conflicts are occurring due to the increased drilling activity especially in western states.  Environmental protection will be one of the biggest factors in oil shale development

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Summary Where We Can Go:  Complete new-generation membranes to reduce costs and increase available water  Continue to provide environmental science for environmentally sound development of Federal lands  Develop lower impact technologies to reduce or eliminate lasting environmental impacts  Provide technology and science to minimize the environmental impact of oil shale development

GAO - Technology Area: Oil and Gas Environmental, 08/28/2007 Questions?