Small Operators, Big Problems

Recently, Colorado State University’s (CSU) Energy Institute received an award of $326 million aimed at helping small oil and gas operators reduce methane emissions and improve oil and gas delivery. This funding was part of a larger federal investment addressing methane emissions in the oil and gas sector and will fund three separate projects at CSU.

Managing Marginal Wells

The first project, which will be run out of the CSU Energy Institute’s Methane Emissions Technology Evaluation Center (METEC), is intended to give operators of lower-yielding oil and gas wells a variety of options to mitigate emissions. These wells are often owned and operated by smaller companies that lack the resources larger oil and gas companies have. Mitigating emissions is vital for both the environment and the oil and gas industry.

Estimates show that as many as 10,000 wells in the region fall into this category, belonging to approximately 250 different operators. The aim of the project is to come up with multiple ways to mitigate emissions from marginal wells, with a goal of giving operators an ecosystem of 70 to 80 options they can choose from based on various criteria.

Measuring Emissions and Improving Delivery

The other two projects funded by this award aim to measure methane emissions from oil and gas wells and reduce emissions from pipelines and other production infrastructure.

The first of these projects, which will also be run through METEC, will focus on building a system for measuring oil and gas well methane emissions in the North-Central United States. The North-Central Methane Center will build on existing research at CSU and work with operators to deploy equipment to detect, measure and quantify emissions. This will help operators, regulators and other stakeholders better understand where emissions are coming from and their potential causes. Having a clearer picture of methane emissions throughout the region would help inform mitigation efforts.

The second project involves researchers from CSU’s Walter Scott Jr. College of Engineering and the CSU Energy Institute. This project’s aim is to develop new equipment that can be used to retrofit existing natural gas infrastructure to dramatically reduce losses of methane. The aim is to reduce emissions to less than half a percent of the methane supplied to the equipment and eliminate normal compressor vent emissions.

More for Less

For smaller oil and gas operators each well matters, making efficient operations critical. Efforts to reduce emissions from wells can be a tricky and expensive task, with overages all too common due to unsuccessful attempts and extended time on site. BioSqueeze’s proven biomineralization technology delivers the most cost-effective solution for eliminating annular leaks and gas migration due to its unprecedented success rate of over 85%. With the recent unveiling of three new products for restoring zonal isolation, over 200 deployments to date, and operations across the country BioSqueeze is uniquely positioned to assist operators in reducing methane emissions from marginal conventional wells.

More information on the project is available here and operators interested in participating are encouraged to complete this participation interest form to stay in the loop.