Unconventional Oil and Gas Spills: Risks, Mitigation Priorities, and State Reporting Requirements

Rapid
growth in unconventional oil and gas (UOG) has produced jobs,
revenue, and energy, but also concerns over spills and environmental
risks. We assessed spill data from 2005 to 2014 at 31 481 UOG
wells in Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania. We
found 2–16% of wells reported a spill each year. Median spill
volumes ranged from 0.5 m3 in Pennsylvania to 4.9 m3 in New Mexico; the largest spills exceeded 100 m3. Seventy-five to 94% of spills occurred within the first three years
of well life when wells were drilled, completed, and had their largest
production volumes. Across all four states, 50% of spills were related
to storage and moving fluids via flowlines. Reporting rates varied
by state, affecting spill rates and requiring extensive time and effort
getting data into a usable format. Enhanced and standardized regulatory
requirements for reporting spills could improve the accuracy and speed
of analyses to identify and prevent spill risks and mitigate potential
environmental damage. Transparency for data sharing and analysis will
be increasingly important as UOG development expands. We designed
an interactive spills data visualization tool (http://snappartnership.net/groups/hydraulic-fracturing/webapp/spills.html) to illustrate the value of having standardized, public data.