ANATOMY OF AN OIL FIELD 

Anatomy of an Oil Field

Oil development is an intensive and multifaceted process that is carried out by some of the most powerful corporations in the world. While a few new techniques and technologies have improved development relating to ecological concerns, the long standing logistical and anatomical elements of oil development dominate. Tracing the life cycle of an oil well illustrates the contemporary truths of oil development.

This incipient phase involves seismic exploration and "wildcat" drilling. Seismic exploration and mapping is performed using seismic waves produced by either detonating explosives or using equipment that strikes the ground called a "thumper". While advances in seismic technology allow companies to better pin-point oil deposits, new seismic technology is much more intensive and destructive to the environment. Two decades after seismic surveys were conducted on the Arctic Refuge, the scars from the survey’s transects are still visible crossing the Coastal Plain. Geochemical surveys involving heavy machinery are another method employed to determine likely oil deposits. Once the initial exploration is completed, "wildcat" drilling is conducted to find the actual deposits. Until this invasive test drilling is conducted, the potential for full field development is considered speculative.

This phase consists of drilling and constructing a web of wells, well pads, roads to the wells, collector pipelines, water disposal pipelines, wellhead compressors, separators, dehydrators and storage tanks. These land-scarring and fragmenting webs connect to central facilities that are used for compression and treatment and ultimately connect to another web of interstate transportation pipelines.

The construction phase involves heavy equipment and radical impacts to the landscape. Intensive vehicle traffic carrying heavy equipment, crews, hazardous chemicals, and production waste characterize this phase. The initial construction activities are often irreversible in there impacts and are compounded by long-term construction and maintenance activities.

Once the well pad is completed by eliminating vegetation and leveling the site, the drill derrick is erected. Engines power the hoist that lowers and raises the drill stem and bit. A large crew of workers use numerous pieces of heavy equipment and pumps to send a solution of drilling fluid, or "mud," down the wellbore to lubricate the bit, remove the cuttings, and dispose of the wastes. The drilling fluids and cuttings are supposed to be captured in a lined pit for disposal or reuse, but are often spilled and splashed around the well pad due to the high pressures, dangerous working conditions, and lack of government inspection and oversight.

The last stage of completion is to construct permanent valves and tubing, the installation of necessary pumps and attaching the well to the pipeline systems. Large amounts of fluids and gas are "blown off" the well into the atmosphere (sometimes burned or "flared") to clean out contaminants left in the well and lines after drilling. Venting and flaring often continues after production begins. Prudhoe Bay's air emissions are greater than Washington, D.C.’s.

This phase can last for decades with a general expectation of 20-50 years of production. The production phase involves daily monitoring of the well and intermittent major reworkings and maintenance of the wells and associated production equipment. The engines and treatment facilities emit tons of chemicals by design. Small spills are an extremely common occurrence (Prudhoe Bay averages 400 per year). Although spills occur regularly and have myriad environmental ramifications, production wastes and numerous oil and gas production emissions are exempt from federal pollution laws.

Once wells become uneconomical they are abandoned. Instead of properly plugging abandoned wells, many companies walk away from unprofitable wells by selling them to undercapitalized corporations. These "orphan wells" often become a large financial burden on federal agencies (taxpayers). Federal bonding requirements are grossly inadequate to cover the costs.

There is no place for this industrialization on the nation’s premiere wildlife and wilderness area, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

New technology does not make drilling compatible with wildlife conservation on the Arctic Refuge: