MIDLAND, Texas — Even on a 60-degree morning with the sun shining over Midland, workers at many of the oil and gas wells dotting the open, West Texas land have winter on their mind.
They’re trying to make the coming winter better than the previous one when a February storm shut down much of the state and forced many Texans into darkness and cold for days on end as the power grid experienced.
“Texans are pretty good about preparing for winter storms, but this was 1 in 150 years we certainly don’t want to see again,” said Todd Staples as he walked alongside a well site Wednesday.
Staples, the president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, toured multiple West Texas wells with members of the press.
Officials said problems during the storm occurred due to a number of different issues across a number of sectors. The oil and gas industry suffered after wells across the state were forced to stop production for days as a result of the weather.
Staples and leaders at the wells showed off several of the winterization techniques that they started applying to their operations as soon as the weather started to cool down in the fall. Large insulators are now wrapped around essential pipes to keep them from freezing. Back-up generators are surrounded by temporary walls to block the wind, and special fluids and systems are in place to assist with countering cold temperatures. Staff members at one of the wells also carry temperature sensing cameras to assure the mechanisms are running as hot as they should be and are not at risk of freezing.
None of that is really new at most wells across Texas and the industry, Staples said.
“[They’re] best practices to keep the product flowing,” he said.
Staples said most of the winterization techniques were in place at the start of the February storm and were keeping the oil and gas flowing. The problem for the wells came when the lights started to go out and the power shut down.
Staples said the wells across the state, for the most part, were subject to the blackouts that many across the state experienced, and leaders at the wells Wednesday said once their backup generators went out, they were simply unable to continue production without power.
“Keeping the power on is the best winterization tool,” said Staples.
The places that could potentially provide some fuel to help the power situation also didn’t have power. Staples said weatherizing the state’s wells over the last several months has been one of the biggest areas of improvement. He said recently state leaders made changes to the rules so that many wells and areas of the gas and oil extraction process have been added to the critical load classification during those power outage scenarios. As a result, he said as many as 19,000 facilities could be able to keep the power on longer, and continue producing longer, in future incidents. It’s a big change Staples said from the 60 sites that had such privileges during the February storm.
Now, Staples said industry members across the state have started mapping their production to better communicate what is essential and what could help best in a similar winter storm.
“The biggest thing we know was the communication problems that prohibited sites like this from being designated critical load,” he said.
However, making sure those wells continue producing in emergency cases is a bit more complex than just solving that one problem. Industry leaders say there are a lot of pieces, mechanisms and different stops along the way to get oil and gas from the well to power producers. Staples said issues can come up anywhere along the way and they’re continuing to investigate what needs attention to prevent future problems.
“In any mechanical system there’s going to be some issues in a major weather event,” said Staples.
However, as he finished touring those West Texas wells Wednesday, Staples said he’s confident in the steps being taken throughout the industry, and confident that they will be ready to do everything they can for as long as they can should we find the state in that situation again.