Here you will find the full versions of our Drilling Deeper articles… articles that appeared in truncated form in our November print edition of the magazine, in our “Drilling Deeper” department.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Largest of its Kind
- Markland Named COO at INTERA
- SEC Steps it Up
- Methane Emissions: Now Better Understood
Largest of Its Kind
It was “Demonstration Day” for Kirby-Smith Machinery, Inc., in Odessa on Oct. 8 as they gave over a day to exhibiting “The Largest Variable Reach Forklift in the World” and “The World’s First Automated Grade Control Dozer.” Kirby-Smith introduced the Permian Basin construction and energy market to the Manitou MHT10225, a 49,000 lb. capacity variable reach forklift, and also to the Komatsu “Intelligent Control Dozer,” also known as the the D61i-23. The event was an all day affair, with lunch included. The branch location is right off of I-20 and Loop 338 in Odessa, Texas.
As Fabien Ledebt, Manitou’s Americas market and sales support manager, remarked prior to the event, “Manitou is the world leader in variable reach forklifts and has targeted the Permian Basin area at its strategic market for North America to introduce this one-of-a-kind 49,000 lb. telescopic forklift.” Lebebt had said that his organization chose to demonstrate the MHT10225’s lift capacities at this event, as well as its unique advantages over other types of lift designs in Odessa/Midland.
Kevin Demel, territory manager for Kirby-Smith Machinery, agreed, adding that “at this event, Komatsu and Kirby-Smith Machinery will also be introducing the World’s First Automated Grade Control Dozer to the Permian Basin market. Finding operators for the energy sector is tough but finding operators that have the needed experience for grade control is virtually impossible. The new Intelligent Control System offered in the D61i-23 gives contractors, with the click of a button, that strategic advantage in mastering grade control efficiency.”
Kirby-Smith Machinery has been servicing the oil field construction and crane industry for more than 30 years and promotes itself as one of the premier heavy construction equipment and crane dealers in the country. The company boasts more than 2,000 pieces of equipment in its rental fleet alone.
Kirby-Smith has service locations in Abilene, Amarillo, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Lubbock, Kansas City, Odessa, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, and Tulsa. Komatsu, Wirtgen Group, National Crane, Manitou, Gehl, DoppstadtUS, Atlas Copco, and Gradall are just a few of the products they service. For more information go to www.kirby-smith.com.
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Markland Named COO at INTERA
Austin-based NTERA, a leading engineering consulting firm, recently announced the promotion of Eric Markland from chief financial officer to chief operating officer. According to INTERA officials, this new role and operating structure will increase the capacity of the executive team to focus on growth and expand marketing efforts while maintaining its commitment to clients. Markland will be overseeing INTERA’s day-to-day business operations, including corporate finance and accounting, risk management and contracting, human resources, and IT.
Marsh Lavenue, president and CEO, INTERA, said that Markland’s expanding role “is a dividend of the outstanding job he has done developing his staff, improving our business systems, and streamlining our business operations.
“His in-depth knowledge regarding the wide spectrum of accounting, finance, HR and IT is a major asset to the company,” Lavenue said. “He has played a key partnership role with me over the last four years and taken a significant load off of the other executives’ shoulders which enables us to focus on executing our business plan.”
Markland has more than 25 years of experience, most of which have been in executive leadership roles as chief operating officer or chief financial officer for environmental, engineering, or real estate firms. While at INTERA and INTERA affiliates, he has led the execution of numerous acquisition and divestiture transactions and contributed to significant corporate geographic growth, while overseeing all financial matters. Currently he serves on the board of directors for the Association for Corporate Growth, Central Texas Chapter, on the advisory board for Solid Rock Brewing Company, and in the chairman capacity for the Endowment Committee at Regents School of Austin.
INTERA is a Texas corporation based in Austin with additional offices in Tampa, Fla.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Denver; Las Vegas; Richland, Wash.; Switzerland; and France. The company currently has 135 employees and specializes in environmental, water resource, and waste isolation solutions.
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SEC Steps It Up
Houston-based SEC Energy Products and Services (SEC) announced recently that it will double its natural gas compression manufacturing capabilities and its workforce by 2014. SEC, a leading packager of natural gas compression equipment, markets itself as the only company in the industry to offer gas, electric, and dual drive compressors. To accommodate the growth of its business, SEC is significantly expanding its physical operations at its Houston facility and adding approximately 100 employees in the next 18 months, bringing the total number of employees nationwide to more than 400. SEC also will broaden the range of products and services it provides to the oil and gas industry and expand its geographic footprint to include a network of warehouse operations located in the most active natural gas producing basins throughout the United States, including the Permian Basin.
Tommy Stone, president of SEC Energy Products and Services, said that the expansion is a direct result of SEC customers asking the company to provide these services. “When our construction is completed in October, we will be more than a traditional compression design and manufacturing service provider,” Stone said. “We will be a full-service company that also provides production and processing equipment, turnkey engineering services, truck-based service technicians, manufacturer parts, and power generation equipment.”
Following the expansion of its facility at 9523 Fairbanks North Houston, which will triple the company’s square footage, SEC will be able to provide up to 500,000 horsepower of compression per year from its new 46-acre complex, up from the 300,000 horsepower it currently provides. SEC is constructing five new buildings, which will bring its total square footage of building space to 350,000, equivalent to more than six football fields, of which 212,000 square feet will be new construction. The new buildings will house assembly services, skid and vessel fabrication, re-vamp/engine overhaul capabilities, warehouse facilities, and corporate offices.
A 63,000-square-foot assembly building will feature 12 assembly bays, double the number SEC currently maintains. The new, bigger assembly bays are to be better suited for building larger compression equipment. A 40,000-square-foot re-vamp shop will feature a DL6K Dynamometer, making SEC one of only a few service providers in the country with the ability to test engines onsite before they are transported into the field for installation.
“Having a dyno onsite will be a significant benefit for our compression customers,” said Stone. “Being able to test engine power and emission levels at our facility rather than in the field means our customers will be able to get their operations up and running more quickly.”
SEC is also building a 53,000-square-foot skid and vessel fabrication shop that will provide the space for the company to build the full range of vessels from the small to the very large rather than outsourcing the work. Automated equipment will be installed that will allow SEC to increase its throughput, shorten production timelines, and reduce costs. Rounding out the expansion at its Houston complex will be a new warehouse and corporate office building.
SEC also has broadened its engineering and technical services units. SEC’s engineering team has been expanded to better accommodate requests for turnkey projects such as stabilizer facilities, amine treating plants, and cryogenic plants. SEC now provides site design, construction, procurement, and project management.
The technical services group, which includes on-site compressor technicians, also has been expanded to include a network of satellite warehouse operations providing parts and materials that may not be available in many of the remote oil and gas producing basins around the country. Warehouses are currently operating in California, Colorado, and Texas, with future facilities planned in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Efforts are also under way to add new lines of business. To complement its compressor fabrication and assembly, engineering and technical services groups, SEC will now offer gas production and processing equipment, and portable generators. These include:
- Production Equipment – separators, condensate stabilizers, heaters, dehydrators and other such items to make natural gas and associated liquids safe for storage and transportation.
- Processing Equipment – fuel skids, amine gas treaters and cryogenic plants to support E&P companies that are drilling in rich gas areas in order to capture more of the value stream.
- Portable Generator Rentals – temporary power supplies like natural gas or diesel-powered generators to provide reliable backup power wherever it is needed as drilling expands into areas lacking infrastructure.
“The incredible growth of the midstream industry due to the increasing production of natural gas liquids has opened up the opportunity for us to expand our scope and provide these new services,” said Stone. “Midstream companies are scrambling to get the equipment they need to handle the volume of liquids being produced. We are happy to be in the position where we can help them.”
SEC Energy Products and Services, founded in 2003, provides natural gas compression equipment, parts, and services to all segments of the oil and gas industry. SEC promotes its capabilities of designing and fabricating compression equipment to meet each customer’s specific operating requirements from 50 to 8,000 horsepower gas, electric, or dual driven compression. SEC also provides engineering services, from package design to full turn-key solutions, over-haul revamp facilities, truck-based service technicians, manufacturer’s parts, and power generation equipment.
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Methane Emissions: Now Better Understood
A new study from The University of Texas at Austin reports on extensive measurements of methane emissions—including the first measurements for methane emissions taken directly at the well pad—during completion operations for hydraulically fractured wells. A team of researchers from UT Austin’s Cockrell School of Engineering and environmental testing firms URS and Aerodyne Research completed measurements at 190 natural gas production sites across the United States. The study was published in October in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study, a unique partnership between the Environmental Defense Fund, participating companies, an independent Scientific Advisory Panel, and the study team, is based on measurements made directly at 190 production sites throughout the United States, with access provided by nine participating energy companies.
Among its findings:
- The study found that the majority of hydraulically fractured well completions, which were sampled during the study, had equipment in place that reduces methane emissions by 99 percent. Because of this equipment, methane emissions from well completions are 97 percent lower than calendar year 2011 national emission estimates, released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in April 2013.
- The study found that emissions from certain types of pneumatic devices are 30 percent to several times higher than current EPA estimates for this equipment; combined, emissions from pneumatics and equipment leaks account for about 40 percent of estimated national emissions of methane from natural gas production.
- The study found that the total methane emissions from natural gas production, from all sources measured in the study, were comparable to the most recent EPA estimates.
“The way in which wells are drilled and brought into production has been evolving,” said David Allen, professor of chemical engineering at UT’s Cockrell School of Engineering and principal investigator for the study. “The overall goal was to measure methane emissions during production at a large number of recently developed sites, and to assess the national implications for methane emissions. The team performed the first-ever direct measurements of methane emissions from some of these sources.”
The UT-led field study was a cooperative effort involving experts from the Environmental Defense Fund, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, BG Group plc, Chevron, Encana Oil and Gas (USA) Inc., Pioneer Natural Resources Company, SWEPI LP (Shell), Southwestern Energy, Talisman Energy USA, and XTO Energy, an ExxonMobil subsidiary. The collaboration of the energy companies and unprecedented access to their natural gas production facilities and equipment allowed researchers to acquire direct measurements of methane emissions from natural gas production operations where hydraulic fracturing is used.
The study’s measurements will help inform policymakers, researchers, and industry, providing information about some of the sources of methane emissions from the production of natural gas and better inform and advance national and international scientific and policy discussions with respect to natural gas development and use.
“This study tackles one of the most hotly debated issues in environmental science and policy today,” said Mark Brownstein, associate vice president and chief counsel of the U.S. Climate and Energy Program, Environmental Defense Fund. “It shows that when producers use practices to capture or control emissions, such as green completions, methane can be dramatically reduced. The study also demonstrated, however, that certain methane emissions are larger than previously thought, indicating that there are many further opportunities to reduce emissions.”
During the yearlong study, the UT-led study team selected times and general locations for sampling activities, and companies provided access to completions that occurred during those periods. Production sites near the completions were selected by the study team for sampling based on lists of available sites in the region provided by the participating companies. The sampling was designed to be representative of company operations in the Gulf Coast, Mid-Continent, Rocky Mountain, and Appalachian regions. Measurements of active equipment at 150 production sites with 489 wells, 27 well completion flowbacks, nine well unloadings and four well workovers were included in the study. The types of sources measured account for two-thirds of methane emissions that occur during natural gas production, as estimated in the most recent national greenhouse gas inventory.
Measured emissions from completion flowbacks were much lower than previously estimated. During hydraulic fracturing, liquids that typically consist of water, sand, and additives are injected at high pressure into low-permeability formations. After a well is fractured, it is cleared of sand and liquids that were injected into the well in a process called completion flowback. Two-thirds of the well completion flowbacks measured in the study either captured or combusted emissions, resulting in emissions measurements that were 99 percent lower than would have occurred in the absence of capture and combustion. The remaining one-third of completion flowbacks vented methane, but these were low-emitting wells, so in total, the emissions from completion flowbacks were 97 percent lower than current EPA estimates.
“The net emissions for completion flowbacks is significantly lower than previous estimates, indicating that the types of emission control activities observed during these events are very effective,” Allen said.
The study’s measurements of methane emissions from equipment leaks on well sites were comparable to current EPA estimates for this type of equipment; when scaled to national emission estimates, however, the study’s estimated emissions are higher than EPA estimates that include assumed voluntary reductions. The study also showed higher emissions for certain types of pneumatic devices used for controlling mechanical processes. Pneumatic devices, which are designed to release small amounts of methane in normal operation, were found to have emissions that were on average 70 percent higher than estimates in the EPA national inventory.
The study team made the first reported measurements of unloading emissions, collecting data for nine wells. In a liquids unloading, wells are cleared of water and other liquids that are inhibiting production. Wells may be unloaded daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or not at all, depending on the geology of the formation. Because unloadings are intermittent, complex, and vary in frequency and characteristics between production regions, the researchers believe that a larger sample size is required to accurately characterize an average emissions rate.
“Understanding the level of methane emissions during unloadings will be important in establishing both national and regional inventories,” said Allen, who will lead a study team that plans to collect additional data on both unloadings and pneumatic controllers, beginning later this month and concluding in early 2014. The additional measurements, which represent a second phase to the study, are being funded by Environmental Defense Fund, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation; BG Group plc; Chevron; Encana Oil and Gas (USA) Inc.; Pioneer Natural Resources Company; SWEPI LP (Shell); Southwestern Energy; XTO Energy (an ExxonMobil subsidiary); ConocoPhillips, and Statoil.
A Scientific Advisory Panel made up of six independent academic experts reviewed the study. The panel reviewed project plans before data collection and preliminary findings during data collection. Its members reviewed the draft final report and co-authored the published manuscript. Prior to publication, the study also went through the peer review process of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
This study, focused on natural gas production, is part of a larger research effort spearheaded by the Environmental Defense Fund to measure methane emissions throughout the natural gas supply chain. Results for the studies addressing other parts of the supply chain will be reported during the next 12-18 months.
For more information, contact Gary Susswein, Office of the President, at 512.471.4945, or Sandra Zaragoza, Cockrell School of Engineering, at 512.471.2129.