Ben Shepperd,
PBPA President
On Sunday, February 14, as families left church and began looking ahead to what the expected cold snap would bring them, arctic winds were barreling down from the north and bringing with them sustained cold, freezing rain, and concentrations of more than a half foot of snow in many places. In short, what this storm wrought has been a tragedy on a scale we have never seen before.
From Brownwood to Brownsville, El Paso to Euless, Odessa to Orange, Amarillo to the Alamo, Texans across the state found themselves facing the worst winter weather in at least a generation, and at one point, nearly 3 million Texans were without power. This in turn led to utility line disruption and personal property damage that we continue to untangle.
While finger pointing can be a great exercise in futility, our members were focused on solutions. They worked as fast as humanly possible to create solutions wherever they could be found.
PBPA members began seeing, on that Valentine’s Day, power disruptions to facilities that produce oil and gas and process these fuels that eventually electrify the grid in the State of Texas. For whatever reason this happened, the impact of this loss of power cannot be understated. This began a chain reaction of challenges our members worked to overcome.
With power losses at compression stations and processing facilities, line pressure for wells that did remain online dropped and the freezing of these lines forced these gas producers to be shut in. This means gas was available, but had nowhere to go.
After power loss that sustained for more than a day in some cases, on-site facilities lacked the ability to move heated fluid from wells and surface equipment also began to freeze. That sustained loss of production and power froze other gas plants that were previously accepting supplies. Once these facilities freeze, it can take more than 24 hours to get them back into production.
Additionally, our industry relies on telecommunication services and the necessary power to supply those services. For example, many sensors and safety mechanisms rely on power and either internet or cellular technology that allows operators to communicate with wells. With power outages occurring sporadically throughout the Permian Basin, many operators were unable to communicate with their facilities and, for safety reasons, production in these circumstances is halted. Perhaps more importantly, communication with actual people in the field was impacted because of the loss of power at cell towers.
We know of several operators who took steps to keep employees near wells in remote areas prior to the storm, but without power or communications technology, this step was made moot.
As weather conditions continued to deteriorate through Monday, another challenge developed. Because of snow and ice accumulation, operators and providers of services to operators found dangerous travel conditions existed throughout the Permian Basin. Our region has historically suffered with difficulty in providing this TxDOT region and local governments the tools needed for safer roadways and this situation was frankly not different.
To be clear, our members did get on these roads. They did leave their homes, their families, and they went to work. They traveled vast distances as a sense of duty and—to state this again—they left their homes so that millions of Texans they will never even meet could again be comfortable in theirs.
In the face of dangerous conditions these women and men went above and beyond and we could not begin to fully understand or appreciate the work they do to keep us comfortable, and in these cases alive. They joined the ranks of first responders, linemen, utility workers, and so many other everyday heroes who stepped up and we join you in expressing our thanks and gratitude.
By Tuesday, through our conversations with the Texas Electric Reliability Council, the PUC and service providers began to power wells, and by Tuesday night and through Wednesday, many operators began pushing gas throughout their lines. This began the process of providing greater gas to generation facilities and powering more homes across Texas.
We continued to work throughout that week and we continue to work in the Texas House and Senate where the legislature is currently working out how to address these important mistakes.
It is no consolation that our industry stepped up to provide the majority of energy for the Texas electric grid, because we know that you and all of our friends, families, and neighbors are still left picking up the pieces and people, in the midst of a pandemic, lost their lives.
We are, however, proud to represent so many people who went above and beyond to improve the conditions for Texans across the state and for the PBPA members who worked tirelessly to solve problems they didn’t create and do their part to keep Texas warm.
We will continue to monitor the work the Texas Legislature in addressing these issues and as of this writing we continue to work diligently in the Land of Enchantment.
While New Mexico is not reeling from terrible winter storms, the storm of anti-energy proposals have been non-stop. The constant bombardment against domestic energy production has kept us working in every Committee in the Roundhouse virtually, and we are working to oppose bills that would ban fracturing and ban the use of fresh water in production, as well as legislation hat would create new causes of action to file lawsuits and change their constitution to oppose oil and gas operations.
As of this writing, we have been successful with our legislative allies to hold the line, but more work will be done in the coming days to ensure the safe and responsible development of natural resources on both the Texas and New Mexico side of the Permian Basin.