Smart mud to smooth the way for drilling wells

A model that simulates how drilling fluids, or muds, behave and influence the stability of oil wells has been developed by KAUST researchers. Their findings could inform new safety protocols and the design of novel drilling ...

Expert: Wastewater well in Ohio triggered quakes

A northeast Ohio well used to dispose of wastewater from oil and gas drilling almost certainly caused a series of 11 minor quakes in the Youngstown area since last spring, a seismologist investigating the quakes said Monday.

Soft solids and the science of cake

Researchers hope that working out the behaviours of soft solids, which can act like either solids or liquids, may make for tastier cakes – and safer oil wells.

New contaminants found in oil and gas wastewater

Duke University scientists have discovered high levels of two potentially hazardous contaminants, ammonium and iodide, in wastewater being discharged or spilled into streams and rivers from oil and gas operations in Pennsylvania ...

Amid US gas boom, split over environment risks

The United States is seeing a natural gas boom thanks to discoveries of abundant shale gas, and at the same time a groundswell of opposition from critics who say the environmental risks from drilling are too great.

America is finally cleaning up its abandoned, leaking oil wells

Bill Suan bought his family's cattle farm in the mountains of West Virginia a decade-and-a-half ago with little thought for the two gas wells drilled on the property—but then they started leaking oil onto his fields and ...

page 1 from 8