SEPTEMBER
2014
LNGINDUSTRY
35
W
hen most people think of E&P operators, they imagine a multi-billion
dollar industry driven by high-volume drilling equipment, powered
with ‘dirty, smoky’ diesel fuel. They fear, not without reason, that
pollution (smoke, particulates, noise, smog-forming gases) stemming from
such drilling activities is ‘contaminating’ the environment. They certainly do not
think of an independent E&P and midstream company powering its drilling rigs
predominantly with clean-burning natural gas. Natural gas is usually associated
with the fuel powering homes and infrastructure from a ubiquitous pipeline
infrastructure. It is not usually thought of as a safe, reliable and cleaner solution
to meet the E&P industry’s drilling fuel demand in remote locations throughout
North America.
For the past several years, Antero Resources has played a leading role in
converting its own drilling rigs to run on natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica
Shales for the ‘long haul’. The company is building its own natural gas demand
growth story as it helps bring clean natural gas to a region in northeastern US
Randy Hull, Prometheus
Energy, Jon McEvers,
Antero Resources, and
Alan Grosse, GE Power
& Water/Distributed
Power Group, USA, show
how a complementary
field gas and LNG fuel
strategy facilitates 100%
natural gas drilling.
DRILLING
PROFITABLE
GREEN
