Why So Much Traffic?
One of the biggest complaints that the public has regarding oil and gas development is the traffic that everyone must put up with. Small one-stoplight-towns can boom overnight with a sudden increase in truck traffic, and they’re not small trucks either! This, of course, is one of the biggest community impacts that the development of our unconventional shale play resources have on the local communities. An increase in traffic, however, can be both positive and negative. Increased traffic can easily mean local businesses will have more customers to sell to. On the other side, large trucks can easily damage poor roads. Fortunately, it is not uncommon for oil and gas companies to pay for the roads that they will use heavily to be improved. Many gravel roads in the Appalachian Basin have been paved or chip-and-sealed thanks to oilfield development. Some states even require “Road Use Management Agreements” to be created and signed by companies and the local government to ensure that roads are maintained.
So, why does there have to be so much traffic in order to drill and produce a shale well? Below are five key reasons why community members experience so much traffic:
- Well pad construction. As with anything, construction often brings a lot of traffic and equipment. Well pads are fairly large and require many truckloads of gravel and earthmoving equipment. In Appalachia, hillsides sometimes even have to be leveled or strengthened.
- Rig move and drilling operations. In order to drill these shale wells, large rigs are used. These rigs are transported from pad to pad through dozens of truckloads. Once drilling commences, traffic to and from the rig is common to make deliveries, during crew changes, etc.
- Hydraulic fracturing operations. Once the well has been drilled and the rig is moved off location, a large frac crew comprised of over a dozen pump trucks, mixing and storage equipment, etc. must be brought to location. Once the frac commences, there will also be many trucks bringing sand onto site.
- Plug drill out (if necessary). Often times, once the frac is completed, a small rig must be brought back to the well in order to drill out the plugs used to isolate frac stages.
- Production (and flowback if necessary). Once the well is ready to be produced, separation and production equipment must be brought onto location and installed (if not done already). At this point, truck traffic should largely be limited to just tanker trucks hauling produced liquids (water and oil/condensate, if applicable) off site.
This list is replicated for every well pad. Thus, if you’ve got multiple well pads in your area, this amount of traffic is essentially multiplied. So you can see how all this traffic really adds up. Thankfully, companies have already taken steps to reduce as much traffic as they can. For example, many companies pipe water to the frac site instead of hauling it.
Also note that this list and video does not include the traffic from other associated oil and gas activities such as pipeline installations and any processing plants.
So, as you can see, traffic is very prevalent in our industry and is probably the largest direct impact on the communities in which we operate. However, as I said before, many businesses also get more traffic which helps the local economy. Furthermore, many people in the immediate area of the well pad also get royalties from the ensuing well(s). Nevertheless, be sure to always drive safe and give yourself enough time to get where you’re going.
Tag:brine, community impact, drilling, fracing, fracking, horizontal drilling, oil and gas, oil and gas production, oil and gas trucking, oil hauling, oilfield, oilfield basics, oilfield traffic, pad construction, pad design, roadway, shale impact, shale plays, traffic, traffic jam, trucking, wastewater