THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE ECONOMY: HYDRAULIC FRACTURING AS THE INTERSECTION OF SUSTAINABILITY North...

THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE ECONOMY: HYDRAULIC FRACTURING AS THE INTERSECTION OF SUSTAINABILITYNorth Dakota Oil: The Bakken and Three Forks Formations

© 2011 Joshua P. Fershee

THE NORTH DAKOTA DIFFERENCE

© 2011 Joshua P. FersheeSource: North Dakota Dep’t of Mineral Resources

THE NORTH DAKOTA DIFFERENCE

The Bakken Shale is different than the Marcellus and many other regions

Current extraction is about 90% oil and 10% gas, with almost two-thirds of the oil being extracted via hydraulic fracturing.

North Dakota is on pace to pass California this year, to become the #3 oil producer in the United States

Unlike the Marcellus and other gas shale plays, price doesn’t seem to be a concern.


THE BAKKEN PLAY


NORTH DAKOTA: BAKKEN & THREE FORKS AREA

Source: North Dakota Dep’t of Mineral Resources


NORTH DAKOTA FRACKING OPERATION



NORTH DAKOTA WELL SITES



NORTH DAKOTA DRILLING– OCT 2009



THAT’S TACO JOHNS!

Source: Blake Ellis/CNNMoney© 2011 Joshua P. Fershee

THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY

CNNMoney: AMERICA'S BIGGEST BOOMTOWN Earn $2,000 a night as a boomtown stripper (in

Williston, ND) Housing Costs Skyrocket/Camps Traffic & Safety Concerns High Poverty and Prosperity Rates


JOBS & INCOME POVERTY & HOMELESS

Jobs: 170-225 new rigs = 20,000 jobs in drilling Anticipated 28,000 new wells & 28,000 long-term jobs over

15-25 years

Income McKenzie County: In the top five ave. annual wages at

$51,493 in 2010

Poverty McKenzie County's poverty rate is 12.8%, when state

average =11.7%

Homelessness 6-figure salaries, no where to live: “My address is Wal-Mart” “Lucky” to live in a man camp


SEEING A TREND?

Source: http://www.mongabay.com/images/commodities/charts/crude_oil.html


NORTH DAKOTA SPEAKS: ND HOUSE BILL NO. 1216

SECTION 1.

Hydraulic fracturing - Designated as acceptable recovery process.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the legislative assembly designates hydraulic fracturing, a mechanical method of increasing the permeability of rock to increase the amount of oil and gas produced from the rock, an acceptable recovery process in this state.

SECTION 2. EMERGENCY.

This Act is declared to be an emergency measure.


NORTH DAKOTA SPEAKS: ND HOUSE BILL NO. 1216

Loosely translated:

“We really, really like fracking. Please leave us alone!”


WHEN, NOT IF, LOCALS FIGHT BACK

Crime Williston Police Department: the number of accidents it

investigated jumped 30% last year to 974, and traffic misdemeanors increased 30% from 324 in 2009 to 421 in 2010.

Housing: One-bedroom apartments can run around $1,500 a month,

while two- to three-bedroom apartments are often around $3,000.

Zoning, Zoning, Zoning Infrastructure problems Traffic Problems


NEED FOR OVERSIGHT

"It's a fire drill every day.”: Lynn Helms, Director, North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources

In February 2011: Agency's staffing designed to handle 100 rigs and about 5,000 wells

But, 169 rigs were running and 5,300+ wells were pumping oil.

2,000 more new wells are expected by the end of 2011.


SHORT-TERM FOCUS COULD BE LONG-TERM PROBLEM Dep’t of Mineral Resources monitored a record 1,213 new wells last year

Visited each site at least six times during the three-week construction phase The inspectors ensure, among other things, that the steel pipe driven into the ground

and cemented into place is done correctly to prevent groundwater contamination.

The oversight of well construction is adequate but other monitoring is lacking.

Nearly 900 disposal wells that hold saltwater, a byproduct of oil production, and about 5,200 sites that hold other oil waste are being monitored only twice annually at best, agency records show.

Disposal wells should be visited at least six to 12 times a year


PROPOSED SAFETY REGULATIONS

43-02-03-28. SAFETY REGULATION, ADDS: The director may require remote operated or automatic shut-down equipment to be installed on, or shut in for no more than forty days, any well that is likely to cause a serious threat of pollution or injury to the public health or safety.

ADDS: No well shall be drilled nor production or injection equipment installed less than five hundred feet [152.40 meters] from an occupied dwelling unless agreed to in writing by the surface owner or authorized by order of the commission.

Not Exactly Norway, but it’s a start


COMPARE: § 33: EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN SYSTEM

Petroleum Safety Authority (Norway): Guidelines Regarding the Facilities Regulations Facilities shall have an emergency shutdown system that can prevent

the development of hazard and accident situations and limit the consequences of accidents . . . .

It shall be possible to manually activate functions from the central control room that bring the facility to a safe condition in the event of a fault in the parts of the system that can be programmed.

Coincidence? Norway’s Statoil just bought Bingham, a Texas company, with 375,000 net acres in the Williston Basin

23© 2011 Joshua P. Fershee

AVOIDING THE BIG RISK, SEEKING THE BIG REWARD

Economic Sustainability requires Environmental Sustainability

Fracking problems will be dealt with differently than traditional oil pipeline spills

Long-Term price support in oil makes it different from gas fracking plays

Collateral Damage: Human, Environmental, Political


MULTI-FACETED ISSUES NEED MULTI-FACETED APPROACHES

Economic

Environmental

Social


THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE ECONOMY: HYDRAULIC FRACTURING AS THE INTERSECTION OF SUSTAINABILITY North...

Documents

Transcript of THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE ECONOMY: HYDRAULIC FRACTURING AS THE INTERSECTION OF SUSTAINABILITY North...