Oil and Gas at Your Door? (2005 Edition) - Earthworks

STAGES OF OIL & GAS DEVELOPMENT
FIGURE I-43. SOUND CONTROL
Left to right: Pump jack with sound abatement walls and muffler at lower right. The “barn” houses a compressor
station. By treating each noise source, the company achieved its design goal of 40 dB at 300 feet from the station.
The barn-like building was designed to fit into the rural countryside; source: ATCO Noise Management. 352
FIGURE I-44. SOUND CONTROL
Left to right: Sound is directed up; sound is directed away from a house, but is not absorbed; sound is effectively
reduced with absorbing panels to 1 decibel above ambient.
4. Minimizing Air Pollution
• If the control valves on a pump’s separator unit, which separates the methane and water,
are replaced with better valves, methane emissions to the atmosphere can be reduced.
This will have positive environmental benefits, as methane is a powerful greenhouse gas
that contributes to global warming. By replacing 3,300 controllers on 2,760 wells in
Colorado and New Mexico, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission expects
that methane emissions will be reduced by 12,000 tons per year in the San Juan Basin. 353
According to an engineer with the company BP, replacing valves not only has a positive
benefit with greenhouse gases, it also has a positive economic benefit for that company. 354
• Emissions can be reduced by monitoring and pinpointing fugitive emissions, and then
sealing the leaks; using lower heater treater temperatures; connecting storage tanks
to flare systems; converting gas-driven chemical pumps to electric-, air- or nitrogendriven
pumps; compressing casing gas and shutting down line pigging. Also, air
emission may be decreased by installing: no-bleed or low-bleed pneumatic devices;
vapor recovery units; high efficiency flares; closed-loop skimmers on water tanks; and
separator pumps and evacuators on pipeline bleeders. 355
• Wellhead compressors that are powered by natural gas emit NO x and VOCs (which
contribute to ground-level ozone) and carbon monoxide. According to the federal
Bureau of Land Management, there are add-on technologies, such as catalytic converters,
that can reduce these emissions by as much as 95%. 356
• Cavitation baffle systems (large storm sewer concrete pipe) can be used to reduce
flare height and contain the majority of coal dust during coalbed methane cavitation
operations. 357 I-71