At a glance, Sublette County in Wyoming is not unlike the Karoo – that is, if you ignore the mountain ranges that, even in early summer, are still heavily snow-clad, and the many horses around.
Also, the county’s town of Pinedale has a superficial feel to a large Karoo dorp except that the bakkies are much newer and bigger in this “American West”.
Pinedale’s modern vehicles are just one sign of significant change in Sublette County – change wrought by the rapid exploitation of some of America’s richest natural gas deposits that, in less than two decades, has brought huge economic benefits and substantial socio-economic and environmental problems
Should the South African government sanction exploration for and, possibly, exploitation of shale gas in the Karoo through fracking, similar benefits and problems would almost certainly arise here, too.
The Upper Green River Alliance, a “commonsense conservation” group named after the river that runs through Sublette’s heart, says that, 16 years ago, the Pinedale Anticline was “a vast, open expanse of sagebrush steppe”.
“Swept clean of snow by incessant winds, the mesa – as it’s known among Pinedale residents – has long provided crucial winter habitat for thousands of mule deer, pronghorn (deer) and sage-grouse,” says the alliance.
“But these aren’t the Anticline’s only values. Thousands of feet under its rugged surface lie huge reserves of natural gas: an estimated 25 trillion cubic feet worth billions of dollars, according to recent estimates.”
These include the tiny but extremely rich Jonah gas field, the US’s eighth-richest, and the larger Pinedale Anticline which ranks even higher, about fifth. Although some of this Anticline area is privately owned, the bulk – about 80 percent – is federal land.
Jonah, according to some sources, is valued at anywhere between $42 billion (R288bn) and $65bn and provides average profits of $4.5m a well. It demonstrates the extreme rapidity of the change.
In May 1994, when seven exploratory wells existed, approval was given for 40 wells in a project area of about 6 800ha. New approval given in April 1998, and modified in 2000, was for 450 additional wells (497 total) and included 290km of access road, a similar quantity of gathering pipeline, 35km of sales pipeline, and 10 water wells – all in an area of about 12 000ha, or 49 percent of the field. Also approved was a new condensate stabilisation facility, with the possibility of a second, and 6 000 additional horsepower of compression.
In 2006, additional approval on the Pinedale Anticline was for 4 399 wells from no more than 600 well pads, over and above the existing 1 480-odd wells on 385 pads.
Major concerns here relate to the impact of the gas exploitation on wildlife, air and water quality, and lifestyle.
Upper Green River Alliance director Linda Baker says that as a result of Pinedale Anticline/Jonah Field natural gas development, there has been a 37 percent decline in sage-grouse – “an iconic bird that symbolises the American West” – on the Anticline and 47 percent decline on the Jonah.
“Our native mule deer population has plummeted as much as 75 percent this last winter – 60 percent on the Anticline – due to deep snows, extreme cold and crucial winter range destruction by natural gas wells.
“This past winter we had the highest, monitored ground-level ozone in Wyoming’s history – 166 ppb (parts per billion) – and serious health consequences, including respiratory ailments and bloody noses.
“Our groundwater has been contaminated by hydrocarbons and no analysis has been conducted on nine years of groundwater monitoring data. We have not determined what’s causing water wells to have ‘Lower Explosive Limits’ of methane at the wellhead.
“So I can’t say that the Bureau of Land Management is fulfilling its mandate to protect human health, wildlife, air and water quality – that’s not responsible management of public resources.”
Shell has the smallest share of the exploitation rights on the Anticline, and none in Jonah where rival BP is a lessee.
Darci Sinclair, the company’s communications adviser for the US Rockies area, says the biggest challenge on the Pinedale Anticline is finding the right balance between the different natural resources – “from clean air and good visibility to world-class wildlife herds to nearby rivers that provide local water for agriculture and recreation”.
“We have to work in a way that doesn’t sacrifice one thing for the sake of another, while still developing the natural gas which is also an important resource for people both locally and across the country.”
Senior environmental engineer Jim Sewell points to a series of site-specific measures taken by the company to improve standards and reduce or eliminate impacts on people, wildlife and the landscape.
While safety is top priority, the company’s policy is also to comply with all regulations and legislation, and to protect the environment “which we take very seriously”, he says.
Key measures include: drilling multiple wells from a single pad to minimise the environmental footprint and reduce habitat destruction; reducing emissions to improve air quality by retrofitting older, more polluting, engines through installing selective catalytic reduction on drilling rig engines; centralising facilities to reduce truck traffic from 100 truck loads per day to fewer than five; tracking fugitive gas leaks with infrared cameras; inspecting tanks daily to check for fugitive emissions; eliminating holding ponds; and recycling water from condensate and “flow-back” water from fracking operations for re-use – now as much as 60 percent of overall water use.
Sinclair acknowledges that the right solutions for Pinedale may not necessarily be applicable elsewhere – like in the Karoo, for instance.
The alliance is not happy with the operation.
“Lands have been leased without adequate review; many best management practices have remained voluntary; the oil and gas industry has been exempted from bedrock laws protecting our air and water; and enforcement and monitoring have been severely lacking,” it says on its website. - Sunday Argus
l Yeld visited Wyoming as a guest of Shell.