Getting your player ready...
Colorado oil and gas drillers are increasingly using “closed loop” systems with tanks to hold drilling fluids and then collect the fluids and water, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission says.
The closed systems were used in 79 percent of the 184 wells permitted to be drilled in Colorado in March, compared with 38 percent for March 2010, according to commission data.
The use of the closed systems reduces the risk of spills and of fluids leaking from pits, said David Neslin, the oil-and-gas commission director.
It also reduces the surface risks posed by hydrofracking — a process in which fluid is sent down a well under pressure to break the rock strata to release more oil and gas, Neslin said.
