Environmental Benefits of Advanced Oil & Gas exploration

Course Summary:

Oil and natural gas account for virtually all transportation fuel in the United States and a majority of our total energy use, and provide the raw materials for countless products used in our daily lives. Americans have come to take these resources and products largely for granted and expect them to be available and affordable.

Learning Objective:

While increasing productivity, technology innovation has also yielded environmental benefits. Today’s exploration technology, for example, is boosting industry success rates in pinpointing new resources. The results: fewer dry holes, reduced waste volumes, and less environmental disruption. Across the E&P spectrum, new technology is delivering:

• More efficient recovery of oil and gas resources. Continuing improvements inrecovery efficiency per well translate intofewer wells (and less impact from drillingoperations) to achieve the same levelof reserves.
• Smaller footprints. Smaller, lighter rigs and advances in directional and extended-reach drilling shrink the footprint of oil and gas operations and reduce surface disturbance.
• Cleaner, safer operations. Advanced, more energy-efficient drilling and production methods cut emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases, practically eliminate spills from offshore platforms, and translate into enhanced worker safety, lower risk of blowouts, and better protection of groundwater resources.

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Course Content

Course Author: Department of Energy