Original subtitles

[narrator] On "Tomorrow's World Today," we explore the cutting edge

advances that are shaping four different worlds.

The world of inspiration, where the wonders of

the natural world amaze and inspire us.

The world of creation, where ideas come to life from

traditional arts.

The world of innovation, where ideas and inventions

move us all forward.

The world of production, where innovations are mass

produced to improve our lives.

From Inventionland World Headquarters, here's your host,

George Davison.

Throughout history, oil and gas extraction has disrupted

habitats, polluted air and water,

and generated high carbon emissions.

Today, however, this landscape has transformed.

Cutting edge technologies and a focus on sustainability have

revolutionized drilling practices.

The industry is now minimizing its environmental impact.

By using renewable energy sources and reclamation

efforts, they're meeting rising energy needs responsibly.

Now, to truly appreciate the progress that's been made,

let's take a step back in time. This is Drake's Well.

It's the site of the first oil well in America, and it's just

an hour up the road from Inventionland.

And look at this.

This is what the first oil field looked like back in those

oil boom days.

That's Titusville, Pennsylvania.

By contrasting these early day photographs with today's

cleaner and greener practices,

we can vividly see the monumental improvements.

So I'm going to send Greg to the world of production to

explore how one company's innovation efforts are paving

the way for an even greener tomorrow.

In the last two decades, technological leaps,

environmental concerns, and a shifting global demand

have reshaped the oil and gas industry.

From innovative drilling methods to an emphasis

on sustainability, the industry has learned to

adapt and transform itself.

And that's why we're here at H&P RIG 517

in Weld County, Colorado.

I'm gonna meet up with Kim McHugh.

She is the vice president of Chevron's Rockies business

unit, and we're going to explore how they're navigating

this ever-changing terrain, both today,

and in tomorrow's world, and you must be Kim.

I am, Greg. It's great to meet you.

Great to meet you, too.

Well, Kim, I'm super excited to get up on this rig, so why

don't we get going?

We need to get you in your safety equipment first,

so let's go get geared up, OK?

-Let's go. -All right.

So, Kim, in terms of onshore drilling, what would you say

would be the most important innovation

of the last 20 years?

I'd have to say it's the evolution of

our horizontal drilling.

So in the past, we would drill wells vertically

into the ground.

Today, we're drilling them vertically at over a mile deep.

Then we turn and go horizontal out as much as four miles.

So what this has done is actually increased production

up to 25 times what a vertical well would have done

in the past.

So it allows us to have less surface area, drill fewer wells

for more production.

Well, I can't wait to see it in action.

-So can we head up onto the rig? -You bet.

Let's just remember three points of contact

up the stairs.

-Absolutely. -All right.

[inspirational music playing]

All right, well, Greg, this is the rig floor.

So for me, this is my happy place.

Most of my career is spent around rigs.

I tell ya, I can tell you love it.

We were talking about innovation, talking about

horizontal drilling and what a big deal that was for

the industry, but what other kinds of innovation

and technology are happening on the rig itself that are maybe

driving the industry forward?

Well, so one of the things is behind us, this is called

an iron roughneck.

So this piece of equipment actually makes up the pipe,

screws it together.

In the past, we were throwing chains, using tongs.

This has made that operation so much safer.

And we also have data driven through here, so you notice

a few less people.

So our directional drillers are actually sitting in

our integrated operations center, and they are drilling

the horizontal section and guiding it from there.

So it allows us to get them off the rig floor into

an environment that's a little more controlled.

We also do a lot with data out here.

This rig now can do a bit of auto drilling,

putting the parameters in.

But I think one of the things you'll notice is

how quiet it is.

Yeah, absolutely. I've been on rigs before.

They are loud.

We wouldn't be having this conversation.

So this particular rig is an electric rig,

and it's running off of the high-line power

or grid power.

So this is a great innovation in reducing emissions,

allowing us in that sustainability piece to really

drive that forward.

So lower environmental impact, more efficiency,

more production, and way safer. -Way safer.

Absolutely.

Excellent. Well, this is great,

but I need to get down off the rig now

because I've got a whole lot more of the ranch to explore.

All right. Let's go.

All right.

[inspirational music playing]

Hey, Luke.

Hey, Greg. Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

Well Luke, let's talk a little bit about what oil

production used to look like versus what it looks like now.

Tell me about this.

After we would drill an oil and gas well, we would deliver

our product to production facilities with tanks on them.

We'd have trucks come out, pull the oil from those tanks,

and deliver them to markets in the state

and around the nation.

Today we don't do that any longer.

We've got tankless facilities today that use technology

and infrastructure like pipelines

to deliver our product safely.

[Greg] Wow, so there's no trucks in and out 24 hours a day.

That's right. We've eliminated that traffic.

Excellent, well I'd really like to see how this works.

Let's go.

So Luke, when did the transition to a tankless

production take place,

and how have things changed since then?

Yeah, so we've been on our tankless journey for

several years, and it varies drastically from how we used to

produce oil and gas here in Colorado.

We used to drill wells and build many smaller tank

batteries in an area in order to handle and process

those fluids.

Today, we aggregate production from up to 20 square miles

around us to this single location.

We're tankless by design here, which means no truck traffic.

We rely heavily on electrification to power

our operations here.

We've eliminated any temporary equipment.

We've eliminated any sort of flaring, combustors on-site

to handle vapors. We keep everything in the pipe.

It's more than a 95 percent reduction in land use

and more than a 90 percent reduction

in carbon emissions for our operations.

Well, from what I understand though, this isn't even

the latest technology you've got going.

-You have something new to show me. -Yeah that's right.

We're gonna go see Gen 6, and it's right up ahead.

-Let's go look. -Let's do it.

[Greg] Luke, hit me with the high points.

What are some of the goals that Gen 6 is helping you to achieve

that you've been kind of working through with

the previous iterations?

Yeah, Greg, so Gen 6 is all about more energy

and less impact.

Gen 6 requires less equipment here on location, so it

lowers our footprint, lowers our carbon emissions

associated with our operations, and it also allows us to reach

out further and aggregate more production

to a smaller footprint itself.

So one of the other big features of Gen 6

is its modularity.

I think of it like Lego building blocks.

So for the equipment that we set on this location

day one, it will look very different years from now.

We'll move pieces, parts and pieces over time,

which shrink our physical footprint and shrinks our carbon

emissions associated with our operations over time.

And so we're excited to reduce as we move forward.

Because it is a natural thing for oil and gas wells to

produce less as time goes on.

So you can actually bring that facility smaller and smaller as

that happens. That's absolutely right.

In fact, speaking of retirement, since 2020,

we have retired more than 2,000 wells here in Colorado,

and we've removed more than 700 surface locations.

Well, where does the energy to power Gen 6 come from?

It's not still a diesel-powered generator, is it?

Absolutely not.

So we're partnering extensively with utilities

here in the state.

Every well on this specific facility was drilled

using electric power.

And in fact, at the end of location, we've got a solar

farm that helps power our operations here on site.

And that's really important as we talk about, you know,

stress on the grid and energy demands as they increase.

We're looking at a potential for 10 billion people on

the planet by 2050, and they're all gonna require

a lot of energy, but we also need to give them

a safe place to live.

Absolutely, so here at Chevron, we believe

that the future is lower carbon.

We also believe that oil and gas will be a big part for

decades of the world's energy mix.

So we're doing what we can today to lower the carbon

intensities of our traditional oil and gas businesses.

We think that this project shows

how we're doing that today.

Now, what are some of the things that you've done

right here on the Guttersen Ranch?

Yeah, so on Guttersen Ranch, we have removed and reclaimed

many wells and many facilities.

In fact, for every new well that we drill today,

we remove between five and ten from service.

And for every new facility like this that we build,

we remove eight to ten from service.

That's excellent, and that reclamation process is

something that I really wanna learn more about.

So I'm gonna get together with Kate and Mike,

and they're gonna tell me all about it.

Fantastic.

[Mike] This one's turning out pretty good.

Yeah, it looks really good.

I'm excited to get it opened up

once we get it watered and get everything backfilled.

-It's gonna turn out really nice. -Good.

I think it's gonna be a beautiful tree

once it's opened up. Hi Mike.

Hi Kate.

So I got to go out to one of the tankless facilities

and I talked to Luke.

He showed me all of the amazing technology

that's working out there.

But most of the older wells that were on the property,

they've all been removed and then that land needs to

be reclaimed. That's where you two come in.

So tell me about that process.

So the first thing we do is we get with the landowner,

see what their goals are so we can exceed those.

And then we go on and remove foreign materials such as rock,

road base, and gravel.

And then we bring in healthy topsoil, contour the area,

and then we go into seeding operations.

And that's where you come in, Kate.

You use both native and non-native seeds for

this process. -Mm-hmm, we do.

So we use multiple different species within our mix so that

we can do a couple of things.

Make sure that it survives drought and also make sure that

we can have habitat for wildlife as well as our grazing

animals out here, which are cattle.

And I guess they're the final judge, right?

So if they're coming and eating the grass,

then you've done a good job.

And so far that's been pretty successful.

Yeah, we've seen a huge increase in both birds,

antelope, deer, and then the cattle have been

doing really, really well throughout the season.

[Greg] That's excellent.

Well, I'm gonna head out and actually see some of that

and see the fruits of your good labor.

I'm gonna hook up with Art and we're gonna take a ride

around the ranch. Thank you both very much.

-Good luck. -Yeah, thank you.

All right, get back to your tree.

-OK. -All right, thank you.

So we're gonna backfill around here?

Yeah, we'll backfill all of this and then he'll cut these

lower branches down.

[inspirational music playing]

[Greg] Well, Art, you have a beautiful ranch here.

Now, I guess it's been in your family for about 85 years,

and you don't see oil and gas production anywhere,

but it wasn't always like that.

We had 650 vertical wells out here until about

the past 18 months, when Chevron started plugging

and banding it and drilling their horizontal wells.

So it gave us our ranch back.

[Greg] So now you just have the three rows of oil and gas production.

-[Art] Yes. -[Greg] No tanks on the property,

everything gets shipped right off site. -Yes, sir.

No truck traffic.

They've put an infrastructure in, as you said, three rows.

Everything in between there is now a ranch, plus it's a better

ranch because of the reclamation that's taken

place with the participation and support from Chevron.

Wow, so now you've been able to get involved in reclamation

projects that have really taken the ranch back to what it was

when it first started.

Better than when it first started.

We have partnered with Chevron with their expertise.

They've come up with better ways of reclamation work.

So where the drilling wells were, actually are some of

the best grasses on the ranch today.

And the wildlife and cattle will actually go to those parts

of the ranch before they go to the native parts.

Wow, so they're able to feed in places that

they were never even feeding before.

Exactly, and the cattle are happy.

Now we've got some deer and a lot of antelope

coming in, which we never had before.

[Greg] That's excellent, and I guess these trees behind us are even

a part of this reclamation project.

Yes, sir. These trees are a good example.

Without the oil and gas development, water was tight.

They helped us drill some water wells.

So now we not only have a real reliable source for the cattle,

but we can do projects like the trees, water lines,

a lot of wildlife projects going on throughout the ranch.

Water was a weakness out here,

and now it's one of our strengths.

[Greg] Now, as a result, you've got most of the land that you had

originally with the ranch, and you're slowly turning it

back into the point where maybe 85 years from now, this will be

nothing but a cattle ranch again.

That's our goal.

It's not only gonna be a cattle ranch, but it'll be much better

than it was 100 years ago.

The new reclamation efforts and the projects we're doing,

it made it a great place to live and a great place

to ranch. -[Greg] And a great place to ride.

[Greg] Thank you very much.

Let's head on back to the stable.

[Art] Yes, sir.

-Hey, Kim. -Greg, good to see you.

Good to see you again, too. I had such an exciting day.

I got to see the tankless facilities with Luke,

Mike and Katie took me through the reclamation process,

and I even got to take a tour of the ranch on horseback

with Art. It was amazing.

Oh, that's fantastic.

Now, from what I understand, though, some of the most

important information that I'm going to get today

is yet to come when we head inside.

Before we do that, though, tell me a little bit about

Chevron and how they define responsible oil and gas.

Yeah, I would say for Chevron, it means not just meeting

the regulations but doing the right thing,

and sometimes that means going above and beyond.

You want to meet the community in which we operate in,

but our focus is reliable, affordable, ever cleaner energy

for the world.

I think that's what responsible

oil and gas production is all about.

Great, well I can't wait to get inside and see how all of this

is controlled from right inside this building,

so why don't we head inside?

Yeah, let's go and see our Integrated Operations Center.

So Greg, welcome to our Integrated

Operations Center.

You can see around here all of our screens,

and what we're doing is we're monitoring these screens.

So what's happening in here, we have millions of data points

coming in here.

They're monitoring thousands of wells and facilities.

So this data that comes through, they're actually

looking to see if we have any issues.

What we would call "an upset."

And they have capability here of actually shutting in,

stopping that production, sending out maintenance crews

to go out and work on it.

So constantly monitoring, and so it allows our people to really

focus on the biggest priorities for the day.

But while we're also monitoring that, we have a room back here

that has people monitoring our rigs.

What they're looking at again is data flowing in, looking for

some predictive analytics.

Are we having any problems down hole?

-And remember how we talked about the horizontal drilling? -Mm-hmm.

Well the guys who actually point that bit and steer

our wells sit in here. So that's different.

In the past, we would have had

a directional driller on every rig.

Today, we can have them in here monitoring that performance,

looking for those alarms, and it allows us to get

more standardization, better performance, but it also

removes people and makes it safer, because they're not out

there on a day-to-day, and of course,

we want things to be safer.

Right, now, are you able to also monitor things

a little further down the pipeline?

We don't monitor our third party that actually we sell

the product to, but we stay in constant communication.

If they're having a problem or a disruption

in their operations, they're letting us know,

we're letting them know if we have facilities that are

having issues and send that back and forth.

So it's constantly working together.

Do you think that this helps to contribute to a lower carbon

footprint for the company overall?

Oh, absolutely.

For one, when they're monitoring and looking for

disruptions, being able to shut the facilities in and get

the maintenance crew, the supervisors out there

quicker, reduces the emissions.

Also, from the drilling perspective, the more efficient

we are with our drilling, we're actually able to do it

faster, which reduces the emissions

as we're drilling those wells.

Right, from a safety standpoint too, it doesn't just come down

to the individual crews and workers,

it's also the community at large because a lot of

the wells are on other people's land.

Yes, and so we wanna be able to monitor them,

because they're quite isolated.

So by being able to monitor from here, it gives us

the ability to act a lot quicker than we could in

the old days when you would have to physically go out there

and check everything.

Right, well, let's kind of boil this down to the consumer.

-Yeah. -How is all of this benefiting me?

It's the right thing to do, protect the environment.

But the other way is being able to keep our product flowing

reduces costs for the customer, and that's really important.

Plus, they need that affordable, reliable,

ever cleaner energy. This is part of that.

Excellent.

Well, it's like Luke said, maximum energy, minimum impact.

Absolutely. Yeah.

All right. Well, this has been great, Kim.

Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for having me.

But now we're actually both headed back to Pittsburgh.

You're going to hook up with George.

So why don't you show me on out?

All right. Let's go.

Hey, Kim. Welcome to Inventionland.

Thanks, George. It's great to be here.

It's great to have you because I had this photo come in from

your team and I was hoping you'd explain what's going on. -Yeah.

Yeah, so this is our drilling rig, the H&P 517.

What's special about this one is it's actually running

off the grid. It makes it quieter.

We are able to have less emission.

So it's great technology that we're using now.

So not so much noise pollution on the rig.

-Absolutely. -Great, great for the workers.

-Absolutely. -How about this one?

I got this one and I was curious because it just looks

so intriguing. What's this all about?

Yeah, so this is our latest generation of

our tankless facilities.

So what's so special about this?

In the past, you would have a well

with a tank right next to it.

Today, we can have those wells without a tank

flowing into this facility.

So it really reduces our surface footprint by like

95 percent. -Wow.

And our emissions are reduced by like 90 percent.

And what's so special about this one is it's running off

a solar grid.

So all of these parts are electric, and we're providing

our energy from solar. -That's fabulous.

So we're tankless and we're using solar

to give it its power. -Absolutely.

That's some great technology.

All right everybody, that's another edition of

"Tomorrow's World Today." We'll see you next time.

So I got this model in the mail too and it came

in this big wooden crate... [continues indistinctly]

[George] And remember, tomorrow's world is where

inspiration and creation drive innovation and production.

See you next time.