A MOMENT WITH...
Effective data handling— understanding, collecting, and managing it— can be as straightforward as applying the“ 5 Whys” technique, repeatedly asking“ why?” until the root cause is uncovered. Once identified, bring teams together from operations, maintenance, engineering, and environmental departments to effectively find the root cause( s), determine the appropriate response, and implement the solution.
Wood commented that it is common for companies to collect the wrong data or fail to trend their data correctly. It has, however, been her experience that the model is effective with positive results.
For instance, during her experience with Marathon Oil Company, Wood and her team achieved a 66 % reduction in total facility leak rates, reduced tank leaks to 88 % in Oklahoma and 66 % in the Permian Basin.
Further success included reducing unlit flares by 38 % in Oklahoma and an average of 11 per month in the Permian Basin. This resulted in the company having the second-lowest number of unlit flares in the basin, as reported by The Environmental Partnership.
While these are just a few examples of Woods progress, she stresses that companies in the oil and gas sector need to be focused on controlling emissions now more than ever.
“ Companies in oil and gas should move to prevention and eliminate problems with root cause analysis as it truly addresses the issues versus a temporary fix or putting“ band aid on it,” says Wood.“ Otherwise, they will just be using more resources and spending more money to repeat the same work. By addressing the root cause there is one leak and one repair, saving time for the maintenance teams, money on repairs, and most importantly reducing emissions.”
Wood’ s model,“ Moving from“ KC:‘ Find and Fix’ to‘ Prevent and Eliminate’” has had proven and positive results in the industry.
JUNE 2025 • FUGITIVE EMISSIONS JOURNAL 17