Archive for the ‘Hydro Fracturing’ Category

The advantages of fracking are not always very obvious to the American Consumer because of all the misinformation that is being presented by uninformed parties. The fact is that in the Marcellus shale rock basin, the need for hydrofracking is a requirement to extract the trapped natural gas and oil from beneath the ground.

The shale rock layer deposited in this region of the country is situated between 2000 and 9000 feet deep, in most instances. This type of rock has capillaries where the natural gas and oil are currently trapped. To break open these capillaries, the process of hydrofracking is performed by drilling a shaft down to this area below ground.

The reason this works is because of the soft nature of the shale rock and the ease at which it can be fractured. The fracturing process is done by applying water pressure to the rock. To keep the newly formed factures open, there is frac sand present in the water during the hydrofracking process. These particles keep the newly formed fractures open so the natural gas and oil can flow to the surface and be collected for the domestic energy market.

The pressure being applied at the surface area of the well bore is just enough to fracture the shale rock. Other rock layers that are more dense like granite, are not affected by the hydrofracking process. Because of this fact, only the shale rock layer is affected by the water pressure being applied.

Near the top of the well bore is compacted soil that may become affected by the hydrofracking process. To minimize the effects in this region of the ground, the well bore is now being lined so all the pressure is directed downwards.  This “lining” process involves two concrete jackets that are formed around the well bore way down past the water table.

With the introduction of horizontal drilling techniques a few years ago, the surface area of the shale rock being exposed to the hydrofracking process has dramatically increased. This allows for a greater amount of trapped oil and natural gas to be extracted from each well in the Marcellus shale rock basin.

With this new technology being combined with the hydrofracking process, more natural gas and oil can be recovered from fewer wells. This reduces the cost of energy exploration in the region which can then be passed down to the American consumer.

Of all the leading advantages of fracking, the two that matters most to the American public is the lower prices for energy and a reduction in the number of wells needed to provide this necessary energy reserve.

Related articles

• Horizontal Fracking Advantages (transloading.org)
• Natural Gas Fracking Methods (transloading.org)
• Marcellus Drilling News (marcellusdrilling.com)

Image via Wikipedia

The numbers of horizontal fracking advantages are many that are being applied to the Marcellus shale basin area. This has helped considerable in the amount of natural gas and oil that can be more easily extracted from this reservoir of trapped energy.

The number one leading advantage of fracking comes from the drilling of a horizontal shaft after the vertical shaft has attained the appropriate depth in the shale rock formation is the amount of surface area that is exposed. This increased surface area in the shale rock layer allows for more of the fracking slurry to be used in each well that is drilled.

With this increase in the area of the shale rock that is exposed allows for more of the shale rock to become more easily fractured when the pressure is applied to the well. This will permit more of the trapped natural gas and oil to easily flow out of the shale rock layer and allow it to be collected at the surface for use by the American consumer.

The second greatest advantage to horizontal fracking in the Marcellus shale rock region is the reduction in the number of wells that will have to be drilled in order to recover the natural gas and oil from this energy rich rack layer. The hydrofracking process can only fracture so much of the area at a time. By using the horizontal drilling process to expose a greater amount of the shale rock layer to the pressure being applied by the fracking slurry, a greater amount of the area can be exposed. This will then require fewer wells to be drilled to recover the same amount of natural gas and oil that would vertical drilling has permitted in the past.

This reduction in the number of wells needing to be drilled disturbs less surface area in the Marcellus shale rock basin. Because of this less land needs to be purchased, fewer raw materials are needed to recover the trapped energy and a reduction in the amount of waste water from the hydrofracturing process is created.

All of these advantages of using horizontal drilling for the recovery of the trapped natural gas and oil in the Marcellus region allows for the energy to be delivered to the domestic market place at a lower cost than before this technology was developed.

This video animation of the horizontal drilling process is the best one that we have ever seen. The description of the process is very easy to understand and shows how the well bore casings are totally enclosed with concrete.

Discover EQT’s horizontal drilling process through an animation of a sample well in the Marcellus Shale region.We recommend that you watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv3cQngRPmw&feature=youtube_gdata

The horizontal fracking advantages can all be contributed to the continuing development by the energy companies in how to get the greatest amount of energy out of the ground with the smallest amount of effort.

Related articles

• Shale Gas Fracking (transloading.org)
• Marcellus Shale Fracking for Natural Gas (transloading.org)
• Natural Gas Fracking Methods (transloading.org)

Natural Gas Fracking

The term natural gas fracking is about the process for the release of trapped natural gas from a rock layer in the earth. The fracking procedure that can be used for natural gas can be either hydrofracking or propane fracking.

The reason a fracking process might need to be used to help extract natural gas is because it may be trapped in a rock layer. This is a common predicament with a shale rock deposit that has trapped natural gas in the pores of the rock. The largest deposit of this kind in America is the Marcellus shale rock deposit in the northeastern portion of America.

A portion of this shale rock layer is near the surface, but a majority of it is between 2,000 and 9,000 feet below it. This is the target deposits for the fracking process to occur. These targeted areas are well below the aquifers in the area and can have the energy reserves recovered without any collateral damage to them.

Of the two different types of fracking process, each one has advantages and disadvantages as compared to each other. The hydrofracking process uses water. The plentiful supply and ease of transporting this raw material makes the cost of acquiring it less than the propane in a gel form. It is also less dangerous than the propane gel.

The propane gel is more expensive, but is comparatively effective in the fracturing of the shale rock layers. The two leading advantages of using this gel include the time that is required to recover the propane. This time frame is only 48 hours in most instances. The hydrofracking process requires a time frame of 7 to 14 days to recover the water slurry before the well can being the process of recovering natural gas for the market place.

Another advantage for the use of the propane gel for the preferred fracking process is what becomes of the fracking slurry when has completed its job. The propane is collected in a tank that will also contain some natural gas that can be recovered at a later date.

The hydrofracking slurry has to be channeled to a waste pond near the well bore. In this pond the water and frac sand does separate but the water will still contain a small amount of contaminants. This has to be treated at a later date.

There are options when deciding which process is used for the natural gas fracking in the Marcellus shale rock deposit region of the country. Regardless of which one is chosen, both processes line the well bore so the aquifer layer along with other layers in the ground are isolated from the pressure and the slurry of the fracking process.

Related articles

• Shale Gas Fracking (transloading.org)
• Marcellus Shale Drilling Described (transloading.org)
• Where Do You Stand on Natural Gas Fracking? (upserp.com)

image via wikipedia

The pros of fracking for the natural gas and oil industries have an effect that carries onward to the American consumer. The most notably is in the form of lower prices at the gas pump and for heating the American homes.

While hydrofracking is a process used on energy wells since the first ones were drilled nearly 100 years ago.  The process is necessary for the recovery of the energy reserves of the shale rock based wells to a higher degree than the other types of wells that have been used. This is due to the makeup of where the oil and natural gas is under the ground.

For decades the fracking of wells was done to extract more oil and natural gas out of a well once the easily obtainable portion of the oil has decreased in its flow to the surface. These were vertical wells that were placed on top of large reserves that could easily be recovered. The fracking process would loosen up the edges of what remained so it could be extracted. This was done to save on the cost of drilling more wells.

The drilling of a new well has always been a risky proposition. Not every well that has been drilled was on top of an oil or natural gas deposit. For this reason once a deposit was found, the maximum amount of the trapped energy reservoir was extracted. Fracking thus saved time and money in assisting the energy company at obtaining the greatest amount of oil and natural gas from each well that was producing.

When these easily extractable reserves of oil and natural gas were not enough to meet the needs of the US and world demands, the exploration into shale rock oil recovery was initiated. By changing the way the wells were drilled from vertical to vertical then horizontal thousands of feet under the surface, a greater area of the shale rack could then be affected by the hydrofracking process.

The hydrofracking of the shale rock basin would then crush this porous rock and release the trapped oil and natural gas it contained. This can then be easily recovered at the surface to help meet the needs of the American consumer.

The alternative to fracking existing and new wells in America is vastly more expensive and controversial. The only other known areas of energy reserves left on the plant are under the waters of the oceans. If these were the only options left, there would not only be a shortage of energy for the American consumer, but also higher prices for what they could use.

The pros of fracking heavily outweigh the alternative of less energy to use with higher prices to use it. This would not be good for the pocket books of the average America nor the economy as a whole.

Related articles

• Marcellus Shale Fracking for Natural Gas (transloading.org)
• Hydrofracking Advantages (transloading.org)
• Marcellus Shale Fracking (transloading.org)

Erik Oswald on Natural Gas Exploration

Commercial from Exxon’s 2011 Corporate ad program. Exxon Geologist Erik Oswald touts the benefits of hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking) without ever calling it that… See my blog post (agmaynard.blogspot.com) to learn why most of what Oswald says h…

The Hydrofracking Advantages are many, but the main one is that it is the only way to extract the maximum oil and natural gas out of existing wells and to feed the needs of an energy hungry world.

Fracking has been in use for over 100 years and is used around the world in wells to help get trapped reserves to the surface.

It has also been shown to be the most efficient way of extracting trapped oil and natural gas from the many shale rock deposits that has been found. This has opened the door to billions of gallons of reserves that were previously thought to be unattainable.

Because hydrofracking in the many shale rock formations releases mostly natural gas, the use of this clean burning fuel can be used more readily than other dirtier fossil fuels. This will make a positive impact on the climate changes that are currently impacting the weather systems around the globe.

The majority of the drilling is done horizontal to the surface in the shale rock beds themselves with only the vertical shaft exposing the other layers of the ground to be exposed to the high pressure that hydrofracking uses to fracture the rock layers. In most instances this horizontal layer is 2000 feet deep or more.

To help prevent accidental contamination of the different layers going down, this vertical shaft is now being lined with concrete. While accidents do occur, the percentage of them in the natural gas and oil extraction field is less than 0.01%.

The hydrofracking process is done by two means. The medium used to transport the sand into position can be done by a propane gel or water. Both means are relatively safe, but the propane gel does not produce any waste water so it is the preferred choice.

For those that use the water as a medium, the makeup of the solution is over 99.5% to 99.95% water and sand. The remaining chemicals that are used are a concern for the many that oppose this scientific approach to extracting the necessary energy reserves from the ground.  What has not been brought to the fore front is the fact that this waste water is actually cleaner than most of the rivers and waterways across America.

Another fact that is left out of most discussions is that hydrofracking is also used to revitalize drinking water wells. This has been going for nearly a century also to the satisfaction of many land owners.

When looked at from a scientific view, the Hydrofracking Advantages far out weigh any misconceptions about this much needed process. The alternative is the reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels by the world. Not even the environmentalists are willing to do that.

Related articles

• Propane Fracking is a Good Alternative (transloading.org)
• Fracking Sand Qualities (transloading.org)

Shale gas drilling, Horn River basin…..British Columbia, Canada

Source:flickr

The use of Oil Shale Fracking to recover energy reserves is the latest way the energy giants are attempting to meet the increasing demand for oil and natural gas for the domestic market. This all began in large scale production about 2007 when the success of gas fracking helped the natural gas industry recover increasing amounts of energy reserves that would otherwise remain trapped.

This is what both the public and government officials need to realize about the hydrofracking process, it is the only method available to increase the amount of oil and natural gas from a well that appears to have run dry or contains shale rock formations. This is the technology that has been developed to help America become self reliant when it comes to their energy needs.

As of March, 2011, 9 different states including California, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming are actively using the oil fracking technology to increase the production of their wells and in shale rock formation wells. The potential of what this process can do is immense. Oil executives along with analysts predict the use of fracking can have such a major impact on the domestic supply of oil that it could match or exceed the production of all gulf oil sites by 2015. The gulf is the Gulf of Mexico, not the Arab states.

For those opponents of this process to retrieve the trapped energy reserves that lay below the ground, this process of hydrofracking is not new. It has been in existence since 1903 when old wells were flushed with water to recover addition oil. This process is also used to break apart rock beds as far back as the Roman times.

The most useful non-energy related application of this process is to revitalize drinking water wells that has gone on for over 60 years now. This is a safe process since the ingredients involved in hydrofracking is 99% pure water. The other 1% is mostly sand with a small amount of surfactants.

The process of oil shale fracking is the only alternative to recovering the needed energy reserves from a domestic source for domestic consumption. This is what is necessary to help decrease America’s demand on foreign oil imports that is actually possible in an economical way.

Related articles

• Shale Gas Energy Reserve (transloading.org)
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• Why Use Sand with Fracking (transloading.org)

Today there are hydrofracking services available for not only the natural gas and oil explorers across the country, but also for those looking to revitalize their water wells.

The process of hydrofracking into the wells across America has given rise to some concerned. What most do not realize is that the main ingredients of this process are just water and frac sand that are pumped into a well under high pressure. This high pressure causes a fracturing of the bedrock.

The fracture size is minuscule by comparison to any other process like blasting that causes fissures to be developed. This is why frac sand is used in the slurry. It is about the only component that can fit into these fractures because they are so small.

Since the size of the fracture is so small, there is no danger of setting off an earthquake or even a land slide. This just releases the liquid and gases from the subsurface so they can be collected at the wellbore.

There has been some concern on the effect of hydrofracking on the subsurface aquifers. What most of the people who complain about this have not realized is that the same process that is used in the oil and natural gas industry is also the same method used to bore drinking-water wells.

When used on a drinking-water well, the water that is found in the revitalized wells is consumed by people and animals alike. There is no ill effect from this process because the components are natural and found in the subsurface already. This includes water, frac sand and pressure.

The hydrofracking services that are available to all well operators have a history of the process that stretches back over 60 years. Since this technology was first used, it has become and always will be the safest and most economical way to revitalize a well, so more of the subsurface material can be extracted for human consumption.

There is shale oil fracking being done in the Marcellus area, which is located in the north eastern part of the nation. By using this well known technique, energy explorers are able to extract more oil and natural gas from existing wells in that region.

There has been some discussion about the effect this fracking procedure has on the surrounding environment. The fact that most people forget is that by using the fracking procedure, more oil and natural gas can be extracted from the existing wells so fewer wells will have to be drilled.

The two largest components of fracking are also environmentally safe. They are frac sand and water. Some well managers do add a small percentage of acid to the slurry; most do not have to in the Marcellus region, due to the makeup of the shale deposit.

The shale rock is more brittle than most rock layers in the mantel that covers the earth surface. Because of this, they are easier to fracture which allows for less pressure to be used in the fracking technique. This reduced pressure causes less of an impact on the surrounding rock layers so they have a higher percentage of staying intact while the shale layer is broken up.

The water and frac sand slurry is not the only one being used today in the natural gas and oil exploration industry. Today, they are also utilizing a new propane gel, a slurry that contains frac sand. This technique does not involve water and the slurry is recovered in a gaseous form which even further reduces any possible environmental impact on the surrounding area.

This is the modern process of shale oil fracking in use today in the northeastern part of the country.

When it comes to shale fracking, there are some important components that make this procedure a success. One of them is the horizontal drilling approach to the wellbore. This allows for a great amount of surface area of the shale rock bed to be exposed to the pressure and fracking medium.

The greater the area exposed, the more the fracking of the rock bed will occur with less effort by the crew. Less effort can be equated as less time for the process to be a success. Like all businesses, natural gas and oil exploration is done to increase the revenue stream of those sponsoring the well. The faster it is completed, the sooner the crew can move onto the next well.

One factor in the extraction process of the energy reserve that is trapped in the shale rock bed is the ease at which the shale is fractured and the size of these fractures. To deal with the different size fractures in the wellbore, there are a 3 different mediums that are added to the slurry to keep these fractures open.

The most common is crystalline silica (sand) or quartz. This material is insoluble in water and has a specific gravity of 2.65. The melting point of this material is 1710 C which is how it withstands the pressure that is exerted in the wellbore without changing form.

This frac sand is also coated with a polymer resin when the fracture openings in the wellbore are needed to be slightly larger. This medium has a higher crush level and makes the sand particles rounder for more penetration than the irregular shapes sand particles.

The last type is the ceramics or polycrystalline alumina mixed with glass ceramics. The ceramics have the highest melting points which reach up to 4000 C. This medium is the roundest of all the fracking material, which allows for maximum penetration.

Immaterial of which one is used for shale fracking, they all serve the same purpose. To hold open the cracks to allow the natural gas or oil to permeate through the fissure so it can be collected at the surface of the wellbore.

We show here a video that describes horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Marcellus Shale drilling for natural gas reservoirs is on the increase.

In 2005, the Department of Environmental Protection from the state of Pennsylvania issued just 5 permits. In 2009, the number had increased to 1,592, according to the oil and gas program manager Alan Eichler. He went further to state that half of them were for the Marcellus Shale area.

Hydraulic fracturing is done in a majority of the wells in the Marcellus shale region which requires a large amount of water. As much as 6 million gallons per well might be needed. This requires a good number of water trucks to transport it in.

Special types of sand are needed in truck load quantities to be used for filling the gas pockets and retain the integrity of the fractured gas pockets.

This Transloading blog provides information on the process of hydraulic fracturing and the use of horizontal drilling so as to be take the best advantage of the natural gas pockets. This increases the over all effectiveness of each well by reducing the environmental foot print.

Our sponsor, the TranZ company, provides rail car services and transloading services to serve the Natural Gas Fracking industry. Use the “Contact Us” form for more information.