Contents
Introduction 1
What is Hydraulic Fracking? 2
The Roberts Torpedo, 1864 3
Kelpper Well No. 1, 1947 5
Hydrafrac, 1949 6
The Growth of Hydrafrac, 1949 - 1954 8
Introduction
Hydraulic fracking (‘Fracking’) dominates the US oil and gas industry. Although it is currently a politically dividing topic due to environmental concerns (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2010), the concept behind fracking has been around for over 150 years (Roberts, 1866), and has been in use in its current state for over 60 years (Clark, 1949). This report will cover the early history of fracking, and its early technological advancements.
What is Hydraulic Fracking?
Fracking is a well-stimulation technique used most commonly in oil and gas production. Hydraulic fracking is usually performed on shale reserves, but conventional wells are also able to be fracked. Fracking is an extremely important technique; not only increasing production rates of wells but also adding approximately 20 trillion m3 of natural gas and 9 billion bbl of oil to the US reserves (Montgomery & Smith, 2010).
Fracking follows this basic process:
1. Fracking fluid is pumped into the well under high pressure (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2010).
2. This flows into the (perforated) reservoir rock, and creates hairline fractures (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2010).
3. Minute particles such as sand, called ‘proppant’ are suspended in the fluid
high pressure in order to fracture rocks to release gas inside. Some types of fracking are
Now I will introduce how fracking actually works. A shaft is drilled several hundred meters into the earth. Then, a horizontal hole enters gas bearing layer of rock. After this, fracking fluid enters using high performance pumps. This fracking fluid consists of water, sand, and chemicals. Then, this mixture goes into the gas layer and produces a ton of tiny
In recent years, the subject of hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking has been a constant subject of interest in the news media. The pros and cons of fracking are passionately debated. However, the public should become educated on the subject of fracking prior to choosing a side of the argument. In the scholarly article, “Super Fracking,” published in 2014, by Donald L. Trucotte, Eldridge M. Moores, and John B. Rundle, a detailed description of fracking is provided, followed by their analysis of current issues surrounding the controversy. According to Trucotte, Moores, and Rundle, fracking saves the consumer money. The wellhead cost to produce natural gas in January of 2000 was two dollars and sixty cents per one thousand cubic feet. At an alarming rate, the cost at the wellhead to produce natural gas had risen to eight dollars per one thousand cubic feet by January of 2006. Comfortingly, the wellhead cost dropped to two dollars and eighty-nine cents by the end of 2012. Impressively, gas production increase and price decrease over the time period are a result of fracking. In their article, Trucotte, Moores, and Rundle describe in great detail that hydraulic fracturing, most commonly referred to as fracking is the process of drilling down into the earth to fracture the layers of rock so that a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the oil or natural gas inside. This method of fracking has been used commercially for the last fifty years.
Fracking is a highly controversial practice that utilizes the injection of water, chemicals and abrasives to extract relatively inaccessible pockets of natural resources. Although fracking has the potential to benefit the domestic economy, the practice of hydraulic fracturing, if left unregulated and mismanaged poses significant risks to the environment, the ecosystem and safety.
Hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, is the process of removing oil and natural gas from in between layers of shale and other low-permeability rocks. This is done by drilling both a well and a horizontal tunnel. Sand and chemicals are shot through the tunnel with incredible pressure, which cracks the shale allowing the oil and natural gas to travel up the well (Jackson, 2014). Fracking has caused a breadth of controversy due to the economic benefits and the geological consequences.
“Fracking is the process of obtaining Natural Gas from below Earth’s surface by drilling 1000’s of feet into the earth before a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside.” Water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure which allows the gas to flow out to the head of the well.” (Jackson). Hydraulic Fracturing got its name due to the fact of how the rock is fractured apart by the high pressure mixture of a number of chemicals, sand, and water. Drilling companies first began Fracking in the early 1940’s, and starting in the 1990’s companies began “safer drilling” due to the amount of concerns that had arisen because early drillers had to detonate small explosions that eventually ended up killing many people. Fracking has been used for nearly 60 years and the number of concerns about it are rising every day. Due to the new technological advancements in drilling Fracking has changed greatly over the years. Before, the drilling would go on for weeks on end in order to extract only a small amount of natural gas. Now, due to the invention of higher powered drills, the drills get double the amount then they used to be able to get in more then half the time. Over 95,000 square miles of shale deposits have been found around the Appalachian Basin but the only way to reach these deposits of shale is through fracking. “Fracking is a technique designed to recover gas and oil from shale rock by drilling
Hydraulic fracturing also called fracking has been around for many years despite the recent events of controversy to continue fracturing or not. With the earth’s resources depleting rapidly every year and no sufficient replacement for energy humanity needs fracking. The process of fracking has been around for more than six decades. Fracking has been around since the 1940s and was created to increase the removal flow of oil and natural gas. In the words of chemical engineer Robert Rapier “Fracking involves pumping water, chemicals, and a proppant down an oil or gas well under high pressure to break open channels in the rock holding the oil or gas (Rapier).” A proppant can be different materials,
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process used to excavate oil and gas trapped in shale rock.
Fracking is a shorter form of Hydraulic Fracturing which is the extraction process of both natural gas and oil. The process involves drilling deep into the Earth’s surface. Fractures are then created by “pumping large quantities of fluids at high pressure down a welfare and into the target rock formation” (EPA, 2016). After making these openings for the gas or oil to come up (known as “flowback”) the materials can be stored. The reason the fracking process occurs is because “more usual methods of extraction may not be able to fully reach the deposits of shale gas and oil” (2015).
If John D. Rockefeller, one of the first oil tycoons, were to look at the oil industry today, would he believe his eyes? With millions of oil barrels being imported and exported each year, the oil industry has changed dramatically since the 19th century. At the forefront of the oil industry is the emergence of an oil drilling technique known as fracking. Fracking is an unconventional drilling process that is accomplished by using high-pressured water to release oil and natural gas from rock formations, known as shales. The use of fracking in the United States has made it one of the top oil producing countries in the world. However, this newfound oil and gas drilling method has not come without its costs. Despite the economic boom near drilling locations, politically, fracking has caused some international relationships to be strained. Also, fracking is seen as highly controversial by conservationists because of the environmental threats that it poses. The drilling method of fracking has deeply impacted the United States from an economic, a political, and an environmental standpoint.
Fracking is a technique designed to get gas and oil out of shale rock in the earth. Natural gas has been used for light and heat for more than 100 years, natural gas is considered one of the cleanest fossil fuel but since it is a fossil fuel it is also a finite resource. Natural gas industry developed a new drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing also known as fracking . fracking is a means of extracting natural gases from shale. Tons of chemicals some toxic are mixed with large amounts of water and sand and pumped up to 8,000 feet under ground. The pressure fractures the shale and allows the gas to freely move.
Host Greg Dalton, describes fracking as “the injection of a cocktail of water and chemicals at high pressure to release bubbles of oil or gas trapped in shale rocks.” Though this is said in a comical tone, all he said is within reach. The
Hydraulic fracturing or most commonly known as fracking was first invented in 1997 and it is basically a technique and form of mining/drilling into the earth’s shale in search for shale gas and oil. Throughout time fracking has evolved and know a day’s hydraulic fracturing evolved from only drilling vertically to horizontally allowing companies to extract large amounts of oil and gas from places that could not be reached due to environmental concerns. Although fracking does have negative effects it also has positive ones. These include increasing the production of natural gas and increasing economic activities. In other words, fracking allows the state and the nation to access and have an alternative source
First of all, what is fracking? Hydraulic fracturing is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at high
Hydraulic fracking is vertical well bores are drilled thousands of feet into the earth, through sediment layers, the water table, and shale rock formations in order to reach the oil and gas. The drilling is then angled horizontally, where a cement casing is installed and will serve as a conduit for the massive volume of water, fracking fluid, chemicals and sand needed to fracture the rock and shale. In some cases, prior to the injection of fluids, small explosives are used to open up the bedrock. The fractures allow the gas and oil to be removed from the formerly impervious rock formations. Although fracking has technically been in existence for decades, the scale and type of drilling now taking place, deep fracking, is a new form of drilling