Despite industry claims, alternatives to flaring available
The sight of a colossal flame roaring from the end of a pipe attached to an oil well stirs a primal fear: We know instinctively that nothing good comes from that much fire, smoke and stench.
Certainly, no one wants a flare within sight of their home. Royalty owners also despise the loss of income as the natural gas burns off. Even oil companies recognize that flares are imperfect solutions for the shortage of natural gas pipelines.
Yet flaring is a serious problem across West Texas, where oil wells produce more natural gas than there are pipes to carry it away. The traditional way of coping is to burn the gas using a flare stack, even if it looks and sounds like a giant flamethrower.
Oil and gas executives consistently lament flares in public but excuse them as necessary to keep oil flowing. If an oil well operator really wanted to stop flaring tomorrow, as they claim, I know a company that could make it happen.
And, no, I’m not being meta-
phorical or hyperbolic. Quite literally, if you call Questor Technologies today, CEO Audrey Mascarenhas promised me, the company could deliver and install a gas incinerator tomorrow anywhere in the Permian Basin. The device can burn all the waste gases, including VOCs, with 99.99 percent efficiency in an enclosed, quiet and smokeless device.
Questor’s device is also not much more expensive than a flare and in some cases cheaper. Renting a Questor incinerator costs $1,000 a day for wells that typically generate $500,000 a day in revenue, Mascarenhas said.
“The beauty of what we’re doing is that because we are in an enclosed chamber, during the day you cannot see anything at all, and there is very little visible light at night,” she added. “We’ve helped our clients in Colorado reduce their costs by 20 percent at a pad site and also have eliminated vapor recovery units and a whole bunch of other problematic equipment they were trying to use to meet regulations.”
Why don’t companies use Questor’s technology or one of the other devices that dispose of waste gas more efficiently? The generous explanation is that engineers aren’t aware of these alternatives to flare stacks. The more cynical answer is that they won’t use anything else until someone requires it.
Colorado has banned flaring, and the EPA has declared much of the state a nonattainment zone when it comes to air quality. ConocoPhillips started renting four of Questor’s ClearPower systems to comply with emissions regulations and to meet neighbors’ expectations.
“Landowners are very uncomfortable with having this continuous flare that is black and smoky with odor and continuous light,” Mascarenhas said. “We’ve become a key way for companies to reach compliance, especially in nonattainment zones.”
Renting to drillers in West Texas’ Permian Basin has been more challenging. The Texas Railroad Commission has never rejected an application for a flare. Our state’s oil and gas regulator only requires drillers to demonstrate that they have no alternative to disposing of gases that come with drilling for oil. And there is a lot more oil drilling lately.
Higher oil prices and greater efficiencies with hydraulic fracturing have triggered a drilling boom in the Permian Basin. Natural gas pipelines are 98 percent full, forcing drillers to choose between shutting in their oil wells or burning off the gas they produce.
The result is a record amount of flaring, more than 400 percent more than in 2010, according to DrillingInfo, an industry data analysis firm. Until new pipelines are built, the amount of gas flared will only go higher, unless someone demands a better solution.
Oil company executives routinely give flowery speeches about their commitment to the environment and their need to reach a social contract in the communities where they work. But those who listen to such talk grow tired of hearing one thing from the stage and something completely different from landowners in the oil patch.
Questor is just one of several alternatives to the open flare stacks that create blight in the oil patch. Despite their pledges, executives are not putting their money where their mouth is.
If you are a leaseholder, landowner or, say, a Texas railroad commissioner who reviews flare permits for a living, take note. You might want to point out the readiness of companies like Questor the next time an operator claims they need a flare.
Too many of drillers just won’t do the right thing unless someone gives them a nudge. Or even a shove.