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Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies

University of Arkansas

Environmentally Friendly Drilling Program - Haynesville Shale Information System

Haynesville Shale Information System

The Fayetteville Shale Information Website contains information specific to the natural and regulatory environment in Arkansas and was developed with critical support and contributions from all stakeholders in the play. The RPSEA EFD effort generalizes the existing site and provide a framework into which play-specific information (natural resources, regulations, drilling activities, etc.) could be placed. This would enable local stakeholders in other shales to more quickly and efficiently "stand-up" up an equivalent informational site. The University of Arkansas is working with at stakeholders active in the Haynesville Play to deploy an information site using this framework and will document the process so that it could more easily be deployed elsewhere.

The objective of the Environmentally Friendly Drilling (EFD) Program is to provide industry leadership in advancing the cause of low-impact technology and systems for unconventional natural gas resources in environmentally sensitive areas. Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) is the prime contractor with Dr. Richard C. Haut acting as the project director/principle investigator. In addition to HARC, the EFD team includes Texas A&M Look College of Engineering Petroleum Engineering Department - Global Petroleum Research Institute (GPRI), Sam Houston State University, University of Arkansas, University of Colorado, Utah State University, University of Wyoming, and TerraPlatforms, L.L.C. A Joint Industry Partnership (JIP) consisting of BP, MI Swaco, Halliburton, ConocoPhillips, Huisman, Devon Energy also provide support. In addition, The Nature Conservancy and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) provide in-kind contributions.

The RPSEA EFD effort incorporates new methods in logistics (site access), rig/site area, alternative power options, waste management and hydraulic fracturing and provides detailed engineering and develop designs for environmentally friendly systems suitable for producing unconventional natural gas resources in environmentally sensitive ecosystems. University partners work to incorporate such systems in U.S. active drilling in the Rockies, in the Southwest desert, and in the Appalachian East coast of the U.S. Case studies of technology applications will be developed based on the detailed engineering studies. The program includes the development and implementation of an environmental scorecard to measure the tradeoffs.

Technology Transfer incorporates the human dimension of technology incorporation in new societal areas and will expand the concept of the EFD Scorecard in measuring E&P performance. The industry has made great strides reducing the environmental impact of operations. With new technology, more progress can be achieved in a cost effective manner. Knowing that U.S. stakeholders are united in the desire to improve the energy independence of the country, the EFD program engages all stakeholders, including industry, academia and environmental organizations, in identifying the technologies and systems that can be used to recover unconventional natural gas reserves with the lowest possible environmental footprint.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) previously funded the team to develop various conceptual designs and to study general applications. The RPSEA EFD effort will build upon this work and will focus on specific applications in environmentally sensitive ecosystems. The successful outcome of the program will result in the reduction of the environmental footprint associated with operations for unconventional natural gas. A key aspect of the overall EFD Program is industry involvement. Industry sponsors and in-kind contributions have been critical in setting the direction of the program.

The University of Arkansas, sponsored by the US Department of Energy through the Low Impact Natural Gas and Oil (LINGO) Program, developed the Fayetteville Shale Information Website and the Fayetteville Shale Infrastructure Placement Decision Support System. The information site enables readers to learn about the natural gas resources available in the Fayetteville Shale formation in Arkansas and explains the steps followed by natural gas development companies, from gaining access to the land through sending the gas to the marketplace. For each step in the process, the site provides information about the state and federal regulatory requirements that developers must follow. The site also describes some of the technologies that can be used to minimize the environmental impacts of natural gas development and provides current interactive maps showing the locations of active drill sites and permitted sites. 

The decision support system is also an online map-based resource but is targeted at producers, regulators and other primary stake holders. The system provides several decision support tools  to help reduce the possibility of negative environmental impact from infrastructure (drill pads, gather lines, reserve pits and access roads) placement and, promote more effective communication between regulators and producers to expedite the permitting process. Designed with input from Chesapeake Energy, Southwestern Energy Company, Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission, Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and many others collected through several joint and individual meetings, the system implements a geographic information system (populated with the best and most current geographic data) shared by producers and regulators. In this system a producer can interactively place infrastructure features and let advanced sediment transport models predict the effect on nearby regulated waterways.  In addition, a wildlife habitat layer is available which can be used to better predict the possibility of interaction with threatened or endangered species. Neither of these capabilities is available to producers or regulators in the Fayetteville Shale except through this system. In addition to these novel tools, the system also supports more common queries such as proximity to existing critical infrastructure, potential water crossings, and soil suitability. The web-enabled decision support tool and the supporting queries are constructed in ArcGIS Server 9.

Contact:

Greg Thoma
Department of Chemical Engineering
479.575.7374, Turn on JavaScript!