Marcellus Shale Fracking – Transloading Bulk Materials for Marcellus Shale Drilling

Posts Tagged ‘hydrofracking’

The shale gas from the Marcellus deposit in the upper eastern part of the United States is large enough to supply the natural gas needs of America for the next 100 years.

The natural gas found in the shale rock basins around the world uses a different process than other known and easier to extract deposits. The leading reasons these deposits are being mined for their energy reserves is the fact that most of the easily accessible deposits have already been drained of their energy reserves.

The most common process to accelerate the extraction procedure is called hydrofracking. This involves the injection of a water and frac sand slurry into the well bore under extreme pressure. The water along with the pressure behind it cracks or fractures the brittle shale rock bed with multiple micro fissures. The frac sand is present to flow into these newly formed fissures and remain there after the pressure is reduced on the slurry.

With the fissures formed, a new link to all the micro energy deposits that are naturally formed in this type of rock layer are now accessible. Without this technology of fracking being used, this energy reserve would be inaccessible for use by the American consumer. With the ever increasing demand for natural gas in America, this source of energy cannot be ignored or underutilized if the demand is to be met for.  the consumers.

The use of hydrofracking is not a new technology in the energy extraction industry. It has been around since it was first used in the early 1900’s. It was used on a conventional well bore in Texas to reactivate a dying oil well. Today this process is used on nearly 90% of all energy bearing wells around the world to help meet the ever rising demand for this natural resource. The extraction of the shale gas energy reserve is one of the ways this demand is being met.

Oil and Gas Drilling Video

How do basic oil and gas operations work? Companies looking for oil and natural gas use a drilling rig to drill their oil well or natural gas well. This animation reviews the various steps in oil and natural gas recovery, from drilling to completion….

For drillers or service companies in the fracking business that need materials delivered to the drilling sites you will do well to contact Tran-Z, the foremost transloading company in the northeast.

Click HERE to read more about shale gas fracking.

The term TranZ sand is sometimes used instead of frac sand in the transportation industry. No matter what it is being called, this little silica crystal does a remarkable job.

The term TranZ is short for transportation and loading from rail car to tractor trailer. This is how the frac sand is moved from the quarries where it is found to its final destination at the wells in the natural gas and oil industry.

Once it arrives at the well, the frac sand is combined with water to make a slurry for a process called hydrofracking. This is the typical way it is used. A new technique involving a gel made out of propane is making headway into the industry. This too uses the frac sand as the choice material to keep the crevices open underground.

The frac sand itself is divided up into what is called sieve sizes. The sieve is a metal screen that allows for smaller particles to pass through but retains the larger ones. For 20/40 frac sand, the size of the sand particles will be roughly between 20 and 40 micrometers in size.

This might sound very small, and it is, but that is all that is needed in the hydrofracking process to release the trapped natural gas and oil from the rock beds below ground.

This process of hydrofracking with sand has been used for over 60 years now. This is the same process that many use to revitalize water wells also. So no matter what you desire to collect from under the ground, the use of hydrofracking is the most economical way to achieve your goal.

The TranZ sand is the medium you should use to help you in this venture.

Click here to read more about Fracking sand and sources

Click here to visit our sponsor: Tran-Z

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.

The use of fracking sand is specific for the natural gas and oil exploration field. This is the material that keeps the fissures opened in the rock bed once the pressure is released from either hydrofracking or propane fracking.

The reason this material is used is because of its physical properties. The sand itself is very dense and round in shape. This gives it strength against crushing. Since the particles are small and only become loosely packed when in the well, it is very permeable that allows the oil and natural gas to be extracted. Both of these qualities are what are needed to keep a fracture in the rock bed open thousands of feet below the surface.
There are three basic types of sand that are used for this purpose.

1) – Northern Sand or Brady Sand comes from Santrol of Fairmount Minerals that is transloaded from Wexford Lake Sand in Yuma, Michigan.  It is a high silica content 40 – 70 mesh.

2) – Ottawa sand is generally 95% or greater SiO2 and is very spherical in shape. The size of this sand can vary from 12 to 270 on the Tyler mesh scale. The quarries this sand comes from are located in the northeastern part of the United States and Canada.

3) -  Texas or brown sand. This has higher silica content, generally around 99% SiO2, but is not spherical in shape. The irregularity of the shape does allow for this type of sand to be more permeable than Ottawa sand by some well operators. The size of sand that can be purchased for fracking is from 8 to 100 on the Tyler mesh scale. These deposits are located in the southern part of America concentrated in the state of Texas.

For many well operators, the specific kind of sand they use is dictated by the region of the country they are located in. This is due to the economical cost of transporting the fracking sand over long distances. Both do a sufficient job for the purpose they are called on to do and are used in 90% of all wells in the United States.

Contact the sponsor of this Blog, Tran-Z, for your frack sand needs.

Read our previous article on fracking sand:

The fracking methods that are deployed by the natural gas and oil explorers only involve two similar kinds. There is hydrofracking and propane fracking. Both use a similar slurry of frac sand and surfactant of about 0.5% of the overall components, but the main component is where the difference lies.

Hydrofracking involves the use of water as the main fluid source. This is a known substance that is non-toxic and non-hazardous to use and work with. This method involves a slurry mixture of 99.5% water and the remainder consisting of frac sand and surfactants. This slurry is pumped down into the borehole of the well at 100 barrels a minute, and the fracking pressure can be as high as 15,000 psi to crack the rock bed below. The fracking medium is recovered after the rock bed is cracked. The water returns to the surface and is held in a collection pond close to the borehole.

Propane fracking involves the same components but instead of water, a LPG in gel form is used. This, too, is non-hazardous and non-toxic while it is in gel form. Once it becomes a gas, there is a flammability issue that has to be addressed. The main difference is the way the medium is recovered. The LPG gel evaporates after the pressure is released, and the gas is contained in a tank instead of a pond.

This procedure has been used for over 60 years in the natural gas and oil exploration. What most people are unaware of is that it has other uses that have been deployed for the same amount of time. The most common is the use of fracking to stimulate a groundwater well. There has been some debate over the use of hydrofracking and what it is doing to the ground water, but they forget this is the method that is used to keep old water wells functioning.

Other uses include the use of fracking to help carve out mines, and for the tunnel construction for roads and railroads. This is a far safer method than with the use of dynamite.

The fracking methods that are being deployed today have many beneficial uses that include more than just extending the recovery efforts of the natural gas and oil wells.

The new alternative to hydrofracking is propane fracking. This is considered the Green alternative when the cracking of rock layers underground is needed to extract a natural gas or oil reservoir that is trapped in shale rock beds.

The principal is basically the same as hydro fracking. Liquefied petroleum gas is pumped down a well bore and into the rock bed in a gel form. This cracks the shale rock bed without the formational damage other fracking methods might present.

One of the leading advantages of using LPG over water and oil based fracking techniques is the recovery of the fracking fluid. Sand and surfactants are used in the typical hydrofracking technique. This waste water then needs to be treated or stored securely after it is used. The propane fracturing technique is different.

The LPG method places the LPG in the well bore as a liquid or gel and upon completion of the fracking procedure it is withdrawn as a gas. Unlike the hydro fracking technique that takes up to 5 days to extract 50% of the hydrofracking medium, with LPG the time is only 24 to 48 hours at a rate of nearly 100%.

The recovery of this propane gas is done along with the same pipeline used to collect the natural gas. This allows for the elimination to flare sales gas for a week or more as which is common with hydro fracturing techniques.  There are even conservative estimates that this procedure increases the productivity of a well by 35%.

LPG is a highly flammable gas but is safe to work with in gel form. This is the form that is used in propane fracking for the natural gas industry.

Our sponsor, TranZ is in the business of supplying transportation for all types of goods needed in the Marcellus Shale gas fracking business.

Update on propane fracking an environmental consideration.