Essay On Vertical Wells

Once the well reaches the right depth, it turns right or left and becomes horizontal. This is called the kick off point. The horizontal section can span anywhere from 1,000 to 6,000 feet. The drill is removed but the surrounding steel casing remains. These steel casings are meant to protect the groundwater and the surrounding area from any potential leakage during the fracking process. Down at the horizontal section of the well, little holes are punctured through the steel in thousands of spots. Then, a water solution is pumped at a extremely high pressure down the well. This causes tons of cracks and fissures in the rock. Additives and sand in the water mixture hold the cracks open, allowing oil to escape and be brought up to the surface.

Hydraulic fracturing or fracking is the process of horizontal drilling past the water table into shale rock about 5,000 to 9,000 feet vertically and up to 10,000 feet horizontally. Then pressurized fracking fluid is pumped into the ground to bring the oil and natural to the surface. In the United States, there are more than 500,000 active natural gas wells.

Over the years vertical hydraulic fracturing has become outdated and new techniques are now used. Technology now allows mechanics to drill horizontally up to 10,000 feet. This new technique only takes a single drill and it can hold multiple piping lines and have them extending out in all directions at once. This allows more area of production to be covered in less surface area. With horizontal fracking, theoretically, the amount of area that can be covered is indefinite because more and more piping can be added if needed in the making of just one

Next drillers inject the well with extremely pressurized fluid. The fluid is a make of water, sand, and lube sent into the wellbore under high pressure. Which then initiates the adjacent rock to crack and release natural gas that has been captive underneath the earth surface. The forced mixture then creates a fairway to the well and consents the released gas to flow to the wellbore.

We also have state and federal officials over watching the procedures and practices. These officials also make sure the production wells are able to maintain integrity. “Maintaining well integrity and reducing surface spills and improper wastewater disposal are central to minimizing contamination from the hundreds of chemicals found in fracturing fluids and from naturally occurring contaminants such as salts, metals, and radioactivity found in oil and gas wastewaters” (Jackson, et al. 2014) If there is any problem with these wells, the operator knows that the emergency procedure is to stop the process and report it. These well operators understand the laws, reporting procedures, and well maintenance. “Any well drilled into the Earth creates a potential pathway for liquids and gases trapped underground to reach the surface.” (Jackson, et al. 2014) Every year they have to submit a report to the state or federal agencies to make sure the well is maintaining the integrity and report the production of the oil and

The first step in hydraulic fracturing is drilling the actual well and then inserting a steel pipe into the wellbore. The steel pipe is pierced so that the fluid that is pushed through can penetrate into the target zones where the oil or gas is located ("Hydraulic Fracturing 101," n.d.). These kinds of wells can be drilled thousands of feet below

In today’s society the issues of producing energy is becoming more and more scare which, constantly posses the question, “How will energy be obtained in order to sustain future generations?” Hydraulic fracturing, informally known as fracking is believed to be an effective alternative to provide us with the energy we need to fuel tomorrow. Hydraulic fracking was first used at Texas Stanolind Oil and Gas Cooperations in 1947. However, it was not until 1949 that The Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Cooperation was given a licensee to use hydraulic fracturing. Since then a combination of two advanced methods have been introduced and incorporated (4). These methods are slick-water hydraulic fracturing and precision drilling of wells. Nevertheless,

The process of the collection of an underground fluid would not be possible without the use of hydraulic fracturing. In the Shale reserves, located about 5,000 feet underground, suffer an extremely low permeability rate. Permeability is the measure of how well a fluid flows through an absorbent material at the depth, and within such nonporous rock, the ability of fluids to travel to the well is greatly limited. Fracturing increases the area of the fluid that is exposed to porous materials and thus greatly increases production. The method of fracturing utilizes a few key components which allow for an economical extraction of resources.

Fissures created by high pressure fracking fluid to increase gas flow to the well also create pathways for leakage and consequent contamination of groundwater (Yu et al. 2014). Boreholes drilled for well access must pass through shallower strata, which may contain groundwater aquifers, before reaching target natural gas reservoirs (Davies et al. 2014). Passing through shallow layers of strata introduces a potential source of contamination to groundwater resources (Davies et al. 2014). Leakage into groundwater wells can occur due to poor well completion practices, the corrosion of steel casing, and the deterioration of cement during production of shale gas (Davies et al. 2014). Therefore, shale gas well integrity is important in reducing contamination events.

Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” is a process that fractures rock formations in the earth’s surface in order to release hydrocarbons. When these hydrocarbons are released, they flow more freely through the rocks and up to the wellbore, were oil and gas are extracted to (Suchy, 2012). Not all rock formations require a hydraulic fracturing operation to be done because the fluids move freely through rocks that have been naturally fractured. Shale gas reservoirs on the other hand are not permeable and have very few natural fractures; therefore the trapped gas and oil must be extracted by fracking only.

The natural resource industry continues to improve, providing the world with energy that fuels machines and keep homes warm. Drilling is the way the world has been getting oil from the ground due to the efficiency. A certain process can only work for so long and the output continues to decrease. Due to the high demands oil and natural gases, the world has turned to alternative ways retrieve these resources. Hydraulic fracturing is now the most effective way to retrieve oil and natural gas from the ground. Recently, the number of earthquakes have increased near hydraulic fracturing sites. Hydraulic fracturing is both beneficial and destructive at the same time. Several examples of seismic activity linked to fracking

Fracking or “hydraulic fracturing”, is a method used for acquiring oil and natural gas in tight compact geological formations. These natural gases are known as shale gas or tight gas. In the fracking process a well is drilled vertically to

Wells located in Texas and Oklahoma were the first two Halliburton used hydraulic fracking on in 1949. The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) “recounts that 332 wells were fracked in the first year alone, with up to 75 percent production increases recorded” (MacRae, “Fracking: A Look Back”). In the 1990 's the Mitchell Energy & Development Corporation began work on a horizontal fracking technique. In this technique the well is first drilled vertically and then drilled horizontally. “About 90 percent of the wells in operation have been fractured – and the process continues to be applied to boost production in unconventional formations – such as tight gas sands and shale deposits” (Shooters – A “Fracking History”).

Hydraulic fracking is a process in which metal pipes are first drilled vertically thousands of feet deep into the ground and then further drilled horizontally in order to maximize the drilling of several wells from one drilling pad. Meaning, there is more efficiency through horizontal drilling because shale which is the horizontal layer where natural gas is found, is found at certain rock layers rather than being abundant randomly. This would defeat the purpose of constantly drilling vertically and waste money and time, therefore, the technique of horizontal drilling is efficient to the extraction process. Furthermore, this method uses millions of gallons of water and chemicals which are injected down a pipe, thus causing the shale rock layer to break. As a result, due to a difference in pressure the natural

To make health care coverage more affordable, the country must address the soaring cost of medical care that continues to increase at a dangerous rate. A greater focus is needed on the main drivers of medical cost growth: soaring prices for medical services, new costly prescription drugs and medical technologies, unhealthy lifestyles, and an outdated fee-for-service system.