PBIOS - October 2021 - 115

cost-effective professional waste management
infrastructure, drilling supervisors
now can elevate their focus on continuing
to shrink adverse environmental impacts.
Historically, off-site disposal facilities
for cuttings and other spent drilling material
were limited, but that is not the
case anymore. Oil and gas waste management
companies have invested hundreds
of millions of dollars in infrastructure
to handle material, including injection
wells for slurry disposal and multilined
landfills that can accommodate all other
waste material and ensure the safety of
the environment and the public.
In the Permian Basin the average
drilling rig now is located within about
30 minutes of a permitted, professional
facility. This proximity effectively renders
reserve pits and land farming there unnecessary,
easily avoidable and obsolete.
Modern Disposal Processes
Waste management facilities operate
using different processes, depending on
the waste stream. One key process, slurry
injection, involves injecting waste into
deep formations. In slurry injection, water-
or oil-based mud, tank bottoms and
other oily, dirty water and materials are
processed, and subsequently blended
with produced or flowback water at the
disposal facility. Particle size, solids
loading, fluid density and viscosity are
monitored and managed.
The slurry then is injected into deep
geological formations that, because of
their placement beneath multiple, impermeable
layers, are isolated from shallow
groundwater reserves. Those formations
typically range from 4,000-12,000 feet
deep. Slurry injection facilities take the
entire carbon-rich waste streams, blend
them and inject them, effectively sequestering
the carbon.
One waste management company is
estimated to have sequestered 279,000
metric tons of CO2e in 2020. In 2021,
with the oil and gas industry recovering,
that number will be close to 400,000
metric tons of CO2e.
Permitted energy waste landfills accept
certain waste streams that cannot be injected
economically. Landfills are a better
way to dispose of contaminated soil, including
drill cuttings and other materials,
and are very different from reserve pits
or land applications. Simply put, the landfills
are heavily engineered, more rigorously
regulated and incomparably superior
to reserve pits when it comes to ensuring
protection of groundwater and soil.
Unlike reserve pits with single, thin
natural or synthetic liners, regulated landfills
incorporate a system of multiple
liners, including extremely thick layers
of synthetic liners containing high-density
polyethylene. These systems include leak
detection and leachate collection layers.
Any waste recovered in the leachate systems
is either returned to slurry facilities
through a sealed pipeline, where it is
permanently sequestered by injection, or
solidified with other forms of solid waste
and sequestered in the landfill. Beneath
the entire system is a natural or synthetic
clay liner.
Altogether, the systems are designed
to hold up for the long term and isolate
waste streams from the surrounding environment.
The landfills also have an extensive
network of groundwater monitoring
wells to ensure they are not impacting
groundwater in any way.
Advances in oil and gas drilling and
production waste management provide a
real opportunity for operators to flip the
narrative around and show others that
the industry is making substantial progress
in minimizing its carbon footprint. Closedloop
waste handling and disposal can
turn a liability and potential black eye
for the industry into an opportunity to
Drilling for American
Energy Independence!
With a fleet of 41 rigs, including the newest NOV designed AC Ideal Rigs,
Latshaw Drilling is positioned to meet our customers' requirements now
and for the foreseeable future. These capabilities derive their strength from
our seasoned work force who are the backbone of our company. We take
pride in our men and women who work hard every day to bring America
closer to energy independence!
Give us a call today!
Bill Cobb | EVP, Marketing/Sales | 405-933-2275
Joseph Hudson | VP, Business Development | 281-841-5241
Leroy Peterson | VP, Contracts | 432-889-8884
One of America's Leading Drilling Contractors!
www.latshawdrilling.com
© 2019 Latshaw Drilling
OCTOBER PBIOS 2021 115
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PBIOS - October 2021

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