Cameron-Cole was asked by Dominion Energy (DE) Wexpro to perform third-party audits of an internally developed, responsibly sourced natural gas certification program on 700-plus assets in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The internal program evaluates the effectiveness of Wexpro’s environmental, safety, downhole, and operational management systems. Cameron-Cole has performed these audits for DE Wexpro for four years, each year randomly selecting a subset of wells to audit for the same criteria as the internal audit.

The criteria includes the regulatory measures that Wexpro takes above and beyond regulatory requirements to improve their operations and environmental stewardship. The wells range in age from 1 to 68 years and includes single- and multiple-well pads. The scope of the audits includes a desktop evaluation of plans and policies; reviews and comparison of various performance metrics; reviews of training, inspection, and testing records; a field reconnaissance of each well including a comparison to Site Facility Diagrams (SFDs); and interviews with environmental, safety, operational, and engineering management personnel.

The most recent 2022 audit findings for the Vermillion Basin assets revealed Wexpro to be 100% compliant with regulatory criteria in all four programmatic areas—environmental, safety, downhole, and operational criteria. Conformance with criteria beyond regulatory requirements showed environmental at 94.7%, safety at 88.8%, downhole at 94.6%, and operations at 100%. The lower safety percentage was due to a non-preventable accident during which the Wexpro driver was struck by another driver who failed to stop at a stop sign.

The findings of the audits are used by Wexpro to evaluate and make continual improvements to the programs and field operations. A comparison of the findings from the Vermillion Basin assets from three years earlier showed marked improvement in the areas of emission control and reduction, accuracy of SFDs, and well-production optimization. The report is also shared with the DE company headquarters to support reporting to the public and shareholders.