RPSEA and Environmentally Friendly Drilling

Joanna McFarland, Manager
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Post Office Box 2008
1 Bethel Valley Road
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6181
mcfarlanej@ornl.gov
Tel: 865.574.4941
Fax: 865.241.4829

CURRENT PROJECTS:

1. Technology Integration Project
   
   The Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) leads a RPSEA-funded proposal that will identify synergies, pull together technology transfer and outreach activities that included workshops, web site development, field testing of prototype technologies and systems, and, most importantly, demonstration of applied technologies for environmentally friendly drilling. ORNL is contributing specialized technology for selecting and developing sensor networks and for desalination of high total dissolved solids (tds) fluids to this project. Previously ORNL has worked with the Environmentally Friendly Drilling Systems Program (EFD). The Houston Advanced Research Center and Texas A&M University, along with industry sponsors and stakeholders (NGO's, government agencies, others) operate the Environmentally Friendly Drilling Systems Program integrating advanced technologies into systems that significantly reduce the impact of petroleum drilling and production in environmentally sensitive areas. The team focuses on technologies that reduce the environmental and societal tradeoffs associated with the development of energy sources. The EFD objective is to identify, develop and transfer critical, cost effective, new technologies that can provide policy makers and industry with the ability to develop US domestic reserves in a safe and environmentally friendly manner.
    
   ORNL is a member of the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America RPSEA RPSEA is a multi-purpose entity established to facilitate a cooperative effort to identify and develop new methods and integrated systems for exploring, producing, and transporting-to-market energy or other derivative products from ultra-deepwater and unconventional natural gas and other petroleum resources, and to ensure that small producers continue to have access to the technical and knowledge resources necessary to continue their important contribution to energy production in the U.S.
   

CAPABILITIES:

ORNL has extensive capabilities in environmental analysis (EA) related to fossil energy resource extraction and utilization. The ORNL EA group provides comprehensive, integrated analyses and assessments to Federal decision makers about the potential environmental, social, and economic effects of proposed Federal actions. The group assists Federal agencies in conducting environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), including the preparation of environmental assessments (EAs) and environmental impact statements (EISs). Read more here.