Air Quality, Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction and Energy Efficiency

Air Quality, Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction and Energy Efficiency

We are committed to reducing emissions in all facets of our operations and utilizing innovative fuel product solutions whenever possible and we believe that our capabilities to operate with alternative power sources help differentiate our Company. For many years, we have invested in the deployment of lower-emissions engines and technology in the oilfield, and demand for these emission-reducing engines and technology has increased in recent years.

As a service provider, we are dependent on the needs and demands of our customers when determining the composition of our fleet. To help our customers satisfy their own fuel reduction and emissions reduction goals, as well as reduce fuel usage and emissions from our own operations, we plan to continue investing capital to support these efforts. We currently have more than 70 rigs capable of operating with alternative power sources such as high-line power from the electric grid, dual-fuel or natural gas-powered engines, or our proprietary EcoCell™ lithium battery hybrid energy management system.

In the short-term, we work to meet customer demands by offering our existing lower-emissions and alternative fuel equipment, such as dual-fuel equipment and rich-burn natural gas engines (in place of traditional diesel-only equipment). In the long-term, we will endeavor to meet these demands by continuing our development of innovative, lower-emissions technology (such as battery power hybrid energy management systems and technology enabling the use of utility electrical power in our operations) and redesigning our equipment to maximize efficiency (such as through the development of emission-reducing automation, remote operations and control systems and energy management software).

Our operations include the use of natural gas engines, dual-fuel equipment, and various emission reduction systems. We utilize equipment that runs on a variety of fuels to improve efficiency and reduce environmental impact. An increasing portion of our contract drilling fleet uses natural gas-only engines and dual-fuel engines, and an increasing portion of our pressure pumping fleet uses dual-fuel engines.

Emissions Reduction Programs And Innovations

Dual-Fuel Engines

With dual-fuel engines, we can offer pressure pumping and contract drilling services with a fuel mixture of up to 70 percent natural gas. Substitution of cleaner-burning natural gas in place of diesel fuel is significantly better from an environmental perspective, as natural gas generates less carbon monoxide than diesel fuel, as well as less nitrogen oxide (NOx), enabling our engines to burn cleaner and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which improves air quality.

Within our pressure pumping business, a number of our spreads are currently dual-fuel capable. Our contract drilling business maintains approximately 69 dual-fuel rig power systems.

Energy Consumption: Estimated Diesel Fuel Reduction From Use Of Dual-Fuel Engines By Pressure Pumping Business

Between 2013 and 2022, our pressure pumping business completed more than 34,000 stages with dual-fuel engines, resulting in total savings of approximately 32.6 million gallons of diesel fuel.

Natural Gas Engines

We were the first contract driller to use Waukesha natural gas engines on a drilling rig. Our rich-burn natural gas engines, which do not require the use of diesel fuel, allow our drilling rigs to run 100 percent on natural gas. The substitution of natural gas in place of diesel fuel results in a variety of environmental benefits, including emissions reduction.

These natural gas systems have the ability to utilize the local natural gas infrastructure that is often available in our working areas, reducing the need for diesel fuel transportation and consumption. These dedicated natural gas engines are also equipped with a three-way catalyst to significantly reduce NOx emissions.

Third-party field tests on dedicated natural gas drilling rigs have shown emissions of NOx as low as 0.01 g/hp-hr. Our contract drilling business has 11 dedicated natural gas rig power systems, 9 of which were in operation at the end of 2022.

Genassist™ Load-Dependent Starting and Stopping

Our contract drilling business has developed rig automation systems with Load-Dependent Starting and Stopping, which we refer to as GenAssist™. GenAssist™ allows for automatic shut-down of engines when they have been running at low load levels for extended periods of time, and automatic start-up of additional engines when the power capacity levels of engines that are currently operating are exceeded. This feature reduces the amount of time that our engines run at inefficient power levels, thus reducing unnecessary emissions.

As of the end of 2022, GenAssist™ was deployed on 31 of our drilling rigs, a roughly 400% increase from 2021, and we expect to increase deployment based on customer feedback.

eco-cell in the middle of a land rig

EcoCell™ Energy Storage System

Our contract drilling business continues to expand the use of lithium battery technology in our rig fleet through our proprietary EcoCell™ technology. EcoCell™ is an energy management system for drilling rigs that uses lithium batteries to store and dispense energy for use in drilling operations. This system stores energy in lithium batteries at times when demand from operations is lower than the rig’s generator capacity and provides supplemental power back to the rig when demand exceeds the rig’s generator capacity.

This functionality allows us to maintain a steady and optimized load on the rig’s generators, keeping these generators running in the most efficient range where they produce the lowest emissions levels and best fuel economy. EcoCell™ has demonstrated the ability to reduce rig fuel consumption by more than 20%, thereby reducing both fuel costs and emissions.

As of the end of 2022, EcoCell™ was deployed at 9 of our drilling rigs (a 50% increase from 2021), and we plan to continue adding EcoCell™ units to our fleet in the coming years.

Utility Electric or High-Line Power for Drilling Rigs

We plan to increase our utility power capabilities by as much as 20% in 2023.

Through our Current Power business, we provide in-house electrical engineering, control system automation and installation services to connect drilling rigs to utility electrical lines. This capability enables our customers to use utility power, instead of natural gas or diesel fuel, to power their drilling operations.

Using utility power is an optimal power solution on our drilling rigs as it minimizes emission impacts at the wellsite. We have used this technology to connect rigs to utility power in the Permian and Mid-Con basins and expect the use of utility power to continue to increase due to customer demand.

Real Time Fuel and Emissions Monitoring 

The Company offers a comprehensive dashboard providing real-time fuel consumption and emissions monitoring, which equips our drilling customers with operational insight to manage power needs and goals on location. This interactive tool assists with maintaining optimal fuel and engine loads and includes alarms and alerts that can be configured for the job. The fuel and emissions calculator also enables customers to better manage power needs and provides analytics for comparing and deciding upon alternative power solutions, such as GenAssist™ and EcoCell™.

Automation and Remote Operation Systems

Our businesses have developed, and continue to develop, advanced automation and remote operation systems and software. These systems and software allow for increasing automation and remote monitoring of wellsite operations. Many of the locations at which we provide operations are located a long distance from our and our customers’ facilities, resulting in a need for significant vehicular travel.

By improving automation and remote operation capabilities, we can reduce unnecessary vehicular travel to the wellsite by our personnel, thus reducing carbon emissions. The increased use of automation systems and remote monitoring can also reduce the number of personnel at the wellsite, which generally leads to fewer safety incidents.

One example of these efforts is our ongoing commercialization of our remote measurement-while-drilling (MWD) services. We increased our remote MWD services by over 175% in 2022 by executing services on approximately 310 well sites during the year. Our remote MWD services typically result in a 50% reduction of our MWD personnel at the well site, and in certain instances, have enabled us to perform services without any MWD personnel at the well site.

The reduction of personnel at the well site results in reduced overall emissions, including the removal of vehicles from the roadways and decrease of the overall miles traveled.

Geothermal

We have invested in a geothermal company whose mission is to create a more sustainable future by making geothermal energy commercially viable anywhere. This investment, and our pursuit of future geothermal and other alternative energy opportunities, will allow us to utilize our drilling and completion expertise and the talent of our people to advance geothermal and other low carbon technologies.

“We are excited to invest in Criterion, whose innovative business model leverages proven horizontal drilling and completion technologies. We share a common view that geothermal will play an important role in the energy transition, and we look forward to working with Criterion to improve the economics and reliability of geothermal power.” -Andy Hendricks, CEO. Read the full announcement here.

Low Carbon Ventures 

We continue to evaluate methods of expanding our existing businesses into offerings that include alternative energy sources and operate with reduced emissions, while continuing to focus on high quality performance for our customers. Our Vice President of Low Carbon Ventures oversees these opportunities and future investments, including technologies in carbon capture and sequestration.

 

Patterson team working in the office together

Other Emissions Reduction Efforts

Ecostart™ Engine Idle Management System

Our pressure pumping business has recently developed a proprietary engine idle management system for use with our fracturing fleet of equipment called EcoStart™. EcoStart™ differs from other idle management systems because it can be integrated into our pump control systems, which allows it to monitor our pumping operations and automatically shut off engines in between fracturing stages, and then automatically restart the engines immediately prior to operations re-commencing.

In total, EcoStart™ can eliminate approximately 70% of the engine idle time during conventional operations, resulting in reduced fuel consumption and emissions. Furthermore, EcoStart™ extends the lifespan of the lubricating oil, which translates into fewer oil changes per year.

Tier 4 Fracturing Spreads

We design our drilling and pressure pumping fleets to be 100 percent compliant with all current EPA air emissions requirements. Additionally, we are sensitive to and supportive of customer climate and emissions-related targets, scenarios and goals. Our Tier 4 compliant engines reduce harmful exhaust gases from diesel powered equipment, and the use of these engines results in significant reductions in emissions (PM and NOx) relative to previous-generation engines.

Our pressure pumping business helps to meet our customers’ GHG emission goals by utilizing our dual-fuel and Tier 4 compliant fracturing spreads.

22% of our active pressure pumping fleet is made up of Tier 4 engines. 7 of the 12 active spreads are dual-fuel capable.

Class L Cement

Our pressure pumping business utilized Class L cement in more than 40 jobs, resulting in a reduced carbon footprint. The Class L cement system helps to reduce emissions by approximately 25% during its manufacturing. 

As a means of reducing CO2 emissions, Class L cement was developed and is able to maintain equivalent performance qualities to Class A cement. Our pressure pumping business partnered with the cement manufacturer to refine and evaluate Class L cement for specific oilfield applications over a 2-year period.

Particulates (Dust) Control

Our pressure pumping business actively works with its service partners to develop, test and implement new technologies to reduce particulates and dust emissions on location. We currently operate with a combination of active (ventilation systems) and passive (tenting and limiting flow) technologies that significantly reduce dust concentrations. We routinely monitor technologies in use to measure the amount of reduction attained and continually work to reduce emissions and exposures.

Energy Efficiency

Vehicle and Engine Idle Time

In our pressure pumping business, we monitor the idling times of a variety of vehicles, such as tractor-trailers, to reduce emissions and fuel usage. We recently deployed electronic logging device/GPS hardware, along with software and data analytics, to manage DOT compliance, driver performance and incident investigations.

In addition, this tool has the capability to monitor the drive fleet of approximately 1,000 units for idling and fuel consumption. Through notification and escalation thresholds of extended idling of light vehicles, we can identify reduction opportunities to reduce idle overall idle time and make appropriate adjustments.

Efficient Use of Energy

We seek to employ energy efficient technologies and reduce energy usage throughout our facilities. Completed and ongoing initiatives include:

  • Installing LED lighting on all new and refurbished drilling rigs
  • Upgrading lighting in warehouses and shops, including LED lighting
  • Converting to LED on all light repair replacements
  • Installing motion detection systems that automatically turn off lighting when not in use
  • Ongoing review and consolidation of our facility footprint
ENERGY CONSUMPTION  
  2022 (in gigajoules, rounded)
Fuel Consumption (Off-Road)  
Diesel (1)  
Contract Drilling, estimated (2) 10,282,000
Pressure Pumping, estimated (3) 9,293,000
Fuel Consumption (On-Road) (4)  
Diesel 133,000
Gasoline 143,000
Electricity Consumption, estimated (5) 63,000

 

1. We present off-road fuel consumption for our contract drilling and pressure pumping businesses, as those are our two largest businesses (together constituting approximately 88% of our 2022 revenues), and we believe that the off-road consumption of fuel by these two businesses comprises substantially all of our consolidated offroad fuel consumption.
2. Off-road fuel consumed by our equipment during drilling activities is purchased and controlled by our customers, and they do not provide us the actual levels of fuel consumption (nor the type of fuel used). Accordingly, the fuel data above is based on estimates, which were derived by measuring engine loads and power output for a subset of our drilling operations, calculating related fuel consumption based on published engine parameters, and extrapolating that data to cover the entirety of our annual drilling operations. We have deployed technology that allows us to more frequently and precisely calculate fuel consumption.
3. Off-road fuel consumed by our equipment during pressure pumping is usually purchased and controlled by our customers, in which case they do not provide us the actual levels of fuel consumption (nor the type of fuel used). Accordingly, the fuel data above is based on estimates, which were derived by measuring engine loads for all active engines during the year and calculating fuel consumption based on published engine parameters. As mentioned above under the Vehicle and Engine Idle Time Monitoring section, we have deployed technology that allows us to more frequently and precisely calculate fuel consumption.
4. Total consumption for all Company-owned, on-road vehicles.
5. Electricity consumption data is an estimate of the total electricity usage at our Company-owned or leased facilities. We currently have the ability to track actual electricity usage at 95% of our facilities. Accordingly, our total usage presented above includes actual usage data for those tracked facilities, and estimated electricity usage for the remaining facilities. We are working to expand our electricity usage tracking to cover all of our facilities.