Oilfield Roads: The Inputs and Production From a Long-Lateral Well Can Weigh More Than the Empire State Building

For those of you driving the oilfield roads each day, those public officials who must maintain the roads and deal with accidents' aftermath, and those tasked with finding policy solutions, here are a few informative factoids plus some potential policy solutions. Full Testimony available here.

1. In mass terms, the combined weight of the pipe goods, 90-plus railcars’ worth of sand, two million barrels of total water, and half a million barrels of crude from a single long-lateral horizontal well exceeds that of the Empire State Building.
2. In the core counties of the Permian Basin, the road death rate in 2016 was nearly 20 per 100,000 persons. This is approximately twice the average United States road fatality rate and actually worse than the estimated road traffic death rate in Russia during 2013, the latest year for which World Health Organization data are available for that country. And statistically speaking, Russia is among the world’s most dangerous industrialized countries to drive in.
3. Local representatives and residents will very likely view it as deeply unfair if the overall Texas economy reaps the gains fueled by hydrocarbons extracted in a handful of largely rural counties, but they are left with a legacy of potholed, damaged roads that they must either tolerate to their detriment or somehow find the funds to pay for. I suggest six policy options for the legislature to consider as it grapples with the reality of rapidly wearing, and increasingly dangerous oilfield roads here in our great state.