Best Practices for Minimizing Environmental Impact
The Termo Company strives to reduce its environmental impact while expanding its operations to meet the growing energy demand in California and beyond. Our efforts include decreasing operational use of natural resources, advanced drilling techniques and investing in new technologies.
We’ve highlighted the technologies and practices implemented to minimize the environmental impact at Termo:
- Small Drilling Pads: Developments in drilling methods and technology are leading to efficiency gains for oil and natural gas producers. Modern pad drilling techniques allow rig operators to drill groups of wells more efficiently and improved rig mobility reduces the time it takes to move from one well location to the next, and this reduces the environmental footprint.
- Multi-Well Drilling Pads: New methods of drilling allow smaller surface pads to reach greater exploratory acreage beneath the surface. Multi-well pad drilling allows us to reach our target area without disturbing as much surface. Using this technique, we have drilled up to four wells from a single acre drill pad, significantly reducing the surface disruption from our operations.
- Well and Casing Integrity: We ensure that the wellbore is structurally sound and that no leaks exist: wellbore fluids are isolated from the surrounding earth by casing and cement, and the casing is pressure-tested prior to any hydrocarbon production. Casing integrity is ensured throughout the process by continuous monitoring of annular pressure. The casing and cement ensure zonal isolation of oil and gas during the producing life of the well.
- Reducing air emissions: The Termo Company is continuously evaluating emission-reduction technologies as its operations become more efficient. We recognize the global concern about the potential impact of greenhouse gas (GHG) and other air emissions on the environment. Our efforts include vapor recovery on production systems, dust control on roads and facilities, erosion control for disturbed areas, and quarterly equipment leak detection and repair audits. In addition, we use processing equipment to remove methane from produced water preventing possible escape to the atmosphere. Consistent with our environmental commitment, we continue to implement measures to reduce atmospheric GHG emissions and integrate air quality programs into our business practices.
- Health and operational safety: We live by these key health and safety principles:
protecting the environment in which we work is a core value for The Termo Company. Workers communicate with us daily about operations and identify potential hazards. If an unforeseen event occurs, we will report the incident. Then we follow the procedure to clean it up properly, work diligently to determine why it happened and identify what we will do to prevent re-occurrence.
- Hiring and maintaining highly respected contractors: We use outside contractors to perform drilling operations on our behalf. We rigorously review the qualifications of each contractor, including environmental, health and safety records as part of our internal commitment to The Termo Company’s contractor selection process. We also retain independent third party inspectors to monitor operations on our drill sites.
In summary, we will always try to do the right thing and implement the appropriate management systems. This includes developing customized procedures, procuring equipment as necessary and using the best practices available. If a job can’t be done in a safe and environmentally conscious manner, we won’t proceed until we can do so in a responsible way.