Shell reshapes fracking at Wyoming site

Houston Chronicle:

Natural gas development in the U.S. will depend not only on what happens in Washington and in statehouses across the country. It could be shaped in part by what happens in a big antelope-dotted field south of this remote valley town.

Here, Shell Oil Co. and others are taking steps - some required and others voluntary - that soon may be the norm for reducing the environmental impact of gas drilling and the extraction process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Shell, for instance, now recycles more than half the water it uses in fracturing local wells, reducing the need for locally sourced fresh water.

It also has installed equipment that is sharply cutting emissions from drilling rigs and has shrunk its surface footprint by drilling more wells at a single site, rather than spacing them out checkerboard style, as is done in some other fields.

Shell Oil, the U.S. arm of the European oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, says its operations at the Pinedale Anticline Project Area reflect broader operating principles that should be adopted industrywide. It says that would help raise standards for the 7,000 producers drilling for gas in the U.S. and allay fears about development in shales and other tight rock formations, where huge quantities of gas have been discovered in recent years.

"This is a strong statement that says, as one of the premier companies in this business, this is how it should be done," Marvin Odum, president of Shell Oil, said in an interview.

Yet, even a field held up as a model for sound operations has its problems.

Amid a ramp-up in industry activity in recent years, air quality in the Pinedale area has deteriorated, and more of the pristine mountain wilderness has become industrialized.

Shell also documented contamination in three of its industrial water wells in the Pinedale Anticline Project. Spokeswoman Kelly op de Weegh said Shell has since improved its water pump and storage tank design to prevent a recurrence.

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 Last month, a panel of experts chosen by the Energy Department issued a report that pleased neither side entirely. It said that while shale gas has great potential to meet a growing segment of the country's energy needs, immediate steps are necessary to cut air pollution, protect groundwater supplies and share best practices.

 In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency is doing a study of hydraulic fracturing - pumping thousands of gallons of water, sand and chemicals into a well at high pressure to force open cracks in rocks and release gas. Among other things, the study, due for completion next year, will explore concerns that toxic chemicals in the fracking fluids can leach from deep wells into shallow groundwater supplies. Industry officials say after 60 years of hydraulic fracturing, there is still no evidence of that happening.

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There is much more.

Shell and other producers are doing many things to make the process cleaner.  They deserve credit for that, and their practices will probably become industry standards.  This demonstration of clean drilling practices should do away with arguments against drilling in ANWR and other sites in the West.  I say should, because the anti energy left will never be satisfied with any form of drilling.  I still think much of the criticism of fracking is rooted not in the process so much as opposition to having cleaner natural gas at cheap rates competing with less efficient alternative energy.