The number of hydrofracking alternatives available to the energy companies is extremely limited. The one option that is not available is not fracking the wells at all. This is especially true for the natural gas and oil wells recovering the energy reserves in the Marcellus shale rock deposit.

The only alternative that produces the same type of results as hydrofracking is propane fracking. This uses propane in a gel state instead of water. The frac sand is still present and the use of pressure is still applied to crack the rock bed so the energy reserves can be released for recovery.

This alternative actually has an advantage over hydrofracking. When water is used in the fracking process, it remains in the same liquid state as it was when it was injected to the well. This then requires a week or better for the water to be removed before the natural gas or oil can be recovered from the well.

With propane fracking, the slurry is made up of propane in a gel state and frac sand. When this medium is injected to the well, pressure is applied. Once the shale rock formation is crushed, the gel expands and the gel changes state to a gas. At or near this same time the pressure is released at the well bore. This helps the conversion of the gel to a gas state.

With the fracking slurry converted to a gas state, it can be more easily recovered than the liquid water. In most instances this recovery process only takes 48 hours or less before the natural gas or oil can begin to be recovered. In this process, the propane is collected in a recovery tank. This is different than the hydrofracking process where the water is channeled to a collection pond near the well bore.

If the uses of neither of these types of fracking processes are used in a shale rock formation, the amount of energy reserves that would be extracted from each well would not be commercially viable. That would leave the oil and natural gas deposits in the ground with the energy companies drilling for elsewhere.

With the easy to recover energy reserves nearly gone, the expense of finding new reserves is limited. There is a possibility of new reserves under the floor of the Arctic Ocean, but the expense for recovering this energy is significantly more.

With the limited number of Hydrofracking alternatives available to the energy companies and an increase in the demand for their product, choices have to be made. For the communities that do not permit the use of hydrofracking to be used in wells in their area, are they ready for the dramatic increase in prices of oil and natural gas to sustain their supply line? The answer in most cases is no.

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The railcar transloading business has been in America for well over 100 years. The first ones were created by providing a service to those that needed an economical and safe way of transferring bulk material from railcars to tractor trailers.

The idea of this can from big industry. Most large manufacturing plants have their own transloading stations on site at their facilities. They also had a rail line running to them so the delivery of bulk material by railcar could be made.

There was a need to provide this service to the smaller business man and for industries that had small locations located in many different areas of the country. This evoked the American entrepreneur spirit in the pioneers in the transloading business.

When a feasibility study was conducted, it was determined that the average tractor trailer could make a delivery of bulk items in a 300 mile radius of a transloading station in just one day. This is the area in which any transloading station could solicit business from their community. By placing a transloading station in an area of the country that had business which needed this type of service, the building of transloading stations commenced.

It all depends on what types of industry is located in any 300 mile radius of a centrally located station that will determine if this is a profitable business venture. In the Marcellus shale rock basin in the north eastern portion of America, this service is needed by the natural gas and oil exploration companies.

This is a very large industry but they have multiple sites located in thousands of places in this area. For this reason it would not be economically feasible to run a rail line to each production well. By using a transloading station located within 300 miles of their well, the delivery of bulk material, like frac sand can be more efficiently and at a reduced cost than doing it themselves.

This saves the energy exploration companies money by them not having to spend capital on rail lines, a facility for the off loading of the material, the equipment to make the transfer and the storage bins for the material. By utilizing the transloading stations for the transfer and then the trailers as the storage bins, the cost of drilling a well is done at a lower cost.

This same service of railcar transloading is also used by many smaller businesses that have the need for large scale bulk items so the transportation costs are manageable. This also makes use of professionals that only handle bulk transfers for this task can be done at the lowest possible cost in the fastest time frame possible.

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The need for Marcellus shale fracking is real if the trapped natural gas and oil deposits are to be extracted for use by the American consumer. This deposit has been known for over a century, but it was not economically feasible to extract the energy reserves while there were easier sources to tap.

The process of fracking has been in use on wells for over 100 years. The difference from the past is that the fracking process was used to revitalize a well after the main portion of the oil or natural gas was already collected. The hydrofracking of a well that was near empty was to flush the remaining portion of the trapped energy to the surface.

In the Marcellus shale rock region, the fracking process is used at the beginning of the extraction process. The reason this more expensive extraction of energy is now being preformed is because the known easy to get at reserves of oil and nature gas are almost depleted.

The energy companies of the world now have to find energy reserves in places that are more expensive to extract the oil and natural gas to meet the every growing demand of the global community. For US domestic deposits, the Marcellus shale rock deposit is the largest known energy reserve that has yet to be tapped to its fullest potential.

Because the natural gas and oil is in the pores of the shale rock in the Marcellus region, the hydrofracking procedure along with vertical drilling of the wells must be done at the beginning of the process of extracting the energy. This is vastly more expensive and time consuming than just drilling a well and having the energy reserve rush to the surface. This is what typically occurred in the past, but is rarely experienced today.

Without the fracking process being done to recover the natural gas and oil reserves in the Marcellus shale rock formation, the energy trapped underground would remain there. This would put an even larger degree of separation from the demands for these products and the supply of them. Since price is dictated by the supply of a product verses the demand for it, prices of natural gas and oil will rise significantly without the reserves from the Marcellus region being obtained.

The Marcellus shale rock deposit is not the only one of its kind in the US or the world, but it is the largest in North America. The use of fracking and vertical drilling has been developed significantly so a higher level of efficiency and safety has been achieved in these processes in just the last few years.

With Marcellus shale fracking, more natural gas and oil will be available for the American consumer at a low cost. One fact to consider in whether this is a good thing or not is the demand for these products are not going to decline any time soon.

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Image via Wikipedia

The Marcellus gas pocket is the largest shale rock formation in North America. This formation is the sediment left over after the Devonian period 400 million years ago when the Appalachian basin was a seabed. This is when the sediment layer was placed there that has developed into the limestone and shale rock formation left over from the fossil remains of animals and the plant that that lived in the oxygen deprived waters.

Officially this region has been given to names of the Marcellus shale region and the Devonian shale region. The latter of the two is on the western edge of the deposit. These shale rock deposits reach as far north as under Great Lake Erie and to the south as far as Mississippi. To the east it can be found in New York down the east coast to Virginia and to the west in the states of Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.

The largest deposit of this trapped oil and natural gas is in the state of Pennsylvania, but almost the entire state of West Virginia is also a prime place for the extraction of these needed energy reserves. To gauge the vastness of the natural gas exploration that is currently going on in Pennsylvania, there are 8280 permitted wells exploring for natural gas in the month of October, 2011.

To extract this trapped natural gas and oil from the shale rock bed, the use of hydrofracking is required. This is because the energy reserves as encapsulated in the rock bed and not in an open reservoir as many of the easy to extract sources in the past that have already been tapped were found.

To make the most out of each well and the hydrofracking procedure, the process of horizontal drilling is now being used. This allows for a greater area of the shale rock bed to be directly exposed to the pressure of the fracking process. By proceeding in this manner, more of the shale rock bed can be fractured releasing a larger amount of trapped oil and natural gas for extraction at each well.

With the wells that have hit natural gas, this creates a larger gas pocket under the ground for a quicker recovery of this needed energy supply. This reduces the number of wells needed in the area to extract the maximum amount of the trapped energy at a lower cost.

The Marcellus gas pocket created by each of the hydrofracking procedures being done is part of the largest source of domestic natural gas production in existence today. Without this energy reserve being exploited, the cost of natural gas to the American consumer would increase dramatically.

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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.

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Image by lennox_mcdough via Flickr

The process of transporting sand for natural gas extraction from the Marcellus shale rock basin is needed because of the fracking process that must occur. This fracking process is done by mixing water or a propane gel with frac sand and injecting this slurry into the energy well under pressure. The frac sands purpose is to keep the fissures open that are the result of the slurry fracturing the shale rock deposit.

To deliver the frac sand from the quarries where it is recovered, to the wells in the energy fields are a precise path of transportation that has been developed. Most of the larger quarries are on existing railroad lines. This makes the loading of the frac sand into rail cars easy and economically feasible.

This transporting of the frac sand by rail car has been done for nearly as long as the fracking process in energy wells has occurred. This frac sand along with many other bulk items are moved across America by rail because of the amount of load the rail cars can carry and the low price of doing it in this manner.

Unfortunately most of the natural gas and oil wells in need of the frac sand are not on existing rail lines. This is why the need for transloading stations came about. These stations have only one line of business. This is to safely and efficiently transfer the contents of bulk material from rail cars to awaiting tractor trailers so it can be delivered to its final destination.

The frac sand that is brought to the transloading stations can be transferred to delivery trucks at a rate of one rail car an hour per conveyor that is used. It takes five tractor trailers per rail car when this unloading process is being done. This is an important factor when conducting this type of business because of the demurrage charges.

The demurrage charge is what the railroad companies charge when one of their rail cars is idle for over a 24 hour period. By the energy companies using transloading stations that specialize in the transfer of frac sand and other bulk items, this added expense to the transportation cost of the raw materials can be avoided. This allows for a greater profit potential the companies using this service and allows them to lower their process.

The transporting sand for natural gas exploration and the use of the transloading stations is just one way the costs that are passed down to the American consumer are as low as possible.

Click HERE for more information on Transloading.

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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.

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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.

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The Marcellus drilling transport system is a complex maze of independent businesses that work together so an efficient and reliable service can be realized by the energy industry. The benefit to the American consumer is lower energy price they will pay for the natural gas that is used in the homes and at the gas pumps.

The reason a specialized system is needed for the Marcellus shale rock basin is the number of wells located there. Unlike regular industrial business ventures, the drilling of wells requires a company to have many different locations. For this they need to set up a supply chain to provide the required raw materials needed at each well.

Fortunately for the wells being drilled in the Marcellus basin, the energy reservoirs are known to exist there. This allows for each well that is drilled to be productive. It is the nature of the shale rock layer that makes this possible. What is limited is the amount of natural gas and oil that can be extracted from each of these wells.

To supply the needs of each well the use of the railroad transit system is used. This is the lowest price and most efficient means to transport the raw materials required of each well site to an area near their location. On the rail lines there are transloading stations strategically located in areas about 600 miles apart from each other.

The reason the transloading stations are 600 miles apart is because one station can send out tractor trailers loaded with bulk material for a radius of 300 miles in a one day trip. This permits each load to be taken off the rail car and delivered to the site where it was ordered in less than a day.

The transloading stations are independent businesses that specialize in the offloading of raw materials from railcars to tractor trailers. One example of their expertise is with frac sand. This raw material is ordered by the railcar load. A transloading station that is operating efficiently can offload the frac sand from one rail car to the awaiting five tractor trailers in one hour. This is done with a dedicated conveyor. The more conveyors a transloading station has, the greater number of railcars that can be offloaded per hour.

This same delivery mechanism is also used for the transport of drilling rods and piping, water and all other bulk material needed by the energy companies at their well sites. This efficient means of Marcellus drilling transport mechanism is why the energy being extracted from this basin is arriving at such a low cost despite the added effort to recover the natural gas and oil from beneath the ground.

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Transloading Facilities

The availability of transloading facilities is limited to areas of the country where industry has a need for bulk material being delivered. This type of business is not something most American consumers are aware of or even that they exist but benefit from their services by the lower prices they enjoy on many items they use.

One of the places this cost savings is enjoyed is at the gas pump. By the transloading stations being placed near the oil and gas wells, the raw materials can be delivered to the wells for a lower cost with a reduction in the chances of it becoming contaminated or damage while in transport.

The cost savings is also realized in the American home with lower natural gas prices. This is especially true with the contribution of the transloading facilities on and near the Marcellus Shale rock deposit in the northeastern portion of the nation. These facilities are located in many of these states where there are active natural gas wells being explored.

Bulk Materials Transloading Facilities

The types of raw materials that these transloading stations handle include frac sand, water, piping surfactants and other items that are used on natural gas recovery sites. The reason these stations are so needed is because of the specific tasks they perform.

It is the responsibility of each transloading facility to transfer the raw materials from the rail cars to a waiting tractor trailers in the safest and most efficient manner while reducing or eliminating any possibility of contamination. This is possible because these stations are dedicated to handling these bulk items and do this on a regular basis.

The transfer of frac sand is the best example of this. At a transloading facility there are conveyers that take the frac sand from the rail cars and dump it into the tractor trailers. The conveyors are dedicated for this purpose so the frac sand does not become contaminated. One conveyor can transfer the contents of one rail car into 5 tractor trailers in about an hour.

With the use of 5 conveyors, 5 rail cars can be unloaded per hour reaching a total of 120 in a 24 hour period. This is important since the first 24 hours a rail car is at its final destination has a demurrage charge of $0.  After that point, there is a charge per rail car per hour it is idle. By being able to handle this type of bulk material in an efficient manner, the charges for transporting the material are kept to a minimum.

This is just one example how transloading facilities are helping to keep energy prices low. This then makes a contribution to helping the American consumer spend less on their energy needs so they can use their revenue on other necessary items around their home.

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