For many people, the idea of environmentally friendly drilling is laughable because drilling itself is not environmentally friendly. However, big drilling companies are looking at and using a number of different methods to achieve environmental friendliness. Of course, it is impossible for drilling to be completely environmentally friendly, but these are big steps to limiting the damage that this industry does.

The Use Of Low Footprint Rigs

One of the ways that a lot of drilling companies are becoming more environmentally friendly is through the drilling rigs that they use. In the past, drilling rigs were all large, required a lot of energy and a large team to run. This is slowly changing with the increase in availability of low footprint rigs.

These drilling rigs will take up less space in the environment and are more automated. They are also easier to transport, use less energy and will need a smaller crew to run them. These are all aspects that make them better for the environment.

By being smaller, these rigs will not need the same energy or fuel to run. This lowers the amount of fossil fuels being burned to power them. Their easy transportation will also lower the environmental impact from trucks which are generally used to move these rigs. As they take up less space, they will not be impacting the habitats of different animals as much as the larger rigs.

On-Site Treatment Of Wastewater

Another way that drilling companies are becoming more environmentally friendly is through their treatment of wastewater. There are more and more companies who employ technology to treat wastewater caused by drilling on site. This will lower the use of trucks which need to move the wastewater to a treatment or storage facility.

Companies treating the wastewater at the drilling site will also have the option of reusing the water. This is a big step in becoming more environmentally friendly as the amount of water used in the drilling process is often greater than the amount of oil produced. The constant use of fresh water is also an environmental problem because this is limiting the amount of fresh water available to human and animal life.

Diesel Alternatives

There are many parts of the drilling process that require diesel fuel to be used. Drilling companies that want to be more environmentally friendly are looking at ways to lower the amount of diesel that is being used. This is important because this fuel will create fumes when burned which contribute to global warming and will introduce particulate matter into the air making it bad for human health.

There are some companies that have started to use solar panels for certain processes in their drilling. Solar powered silos for sand and other items is one of the options. There are other automated systems which can benefit from the use of solar panels.

The drilling industry is looking at different ways to become more environmentally friendly. There are many companies who already use low footprint rigs and reuse treated wastewater.