Pore Pressure Lab Report

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

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.

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.

Hydraulic Fracturing (also commonly known as fracking) is a process used to extract natural gasses deep within the earth. This is done by drilling vertically into the ground until the desired depth; then drilling horizontally; and pumping millions of gallons of water, sand, and other chemicals into the drill at a high pressure to create fissures through which the gas can escape. Currently, hydraulic fracturing is extensively used in the United States in order to access fossil fuel energy deposits which were previously inaccessible. Although fossil fuels can now be accessed easily through this process, there are many health and environmental risks associated with fracking that may make it less than ideal. For instance, fracking can contaminate drinking water, increase air pollution, and leave workers and near-by residents open to many health risks. Although there have been laws and regulations passed to help minimize the risks involved with fracking, an in-depth analysis of the opinions of supporters of fracking and the research behind it will show how fracking needs to be further regulated in order to be safe and effective for everyone. While we do not have to completely stop the use of fracking, improving the fracking process or reforming the current laws and regulations can allow us to receive the economic benefits of fracking, while also being environmentally and health conscious.

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.

This organization is opposed to not allowing wells to reach a depth of 600 meters or greater unless a risk assessment has been conducted and a special permit has been obtained (Gagnon, 2016). A risk assessment usually includes; advanced and adjourned hydraulic samples of well water, a fracturing plan, a design, an estimate of fracture proliferation, specific depth and the cement integrity (Gagnon, 2016). During drilling, non-toxic drilling fluids and non-saline water must be used until all porous strata that are less than 600 meters have been isolated (Gagnon, 2016). Surface casing requirements state that casing is obligated to underneath the porous strata or must be cemented entirely to the surface (Gagnon, 2016). The BCOGC must ensure that wells are within 100 meters of the natural embankment of water or from an uncontrolled flow (streams that dry up or naturally move over time) could reach (Gagnon, 2016). During drilling, examination of groundwater or surface water is by no means required and water testing is only required if requested by the property-owners (Gagnon,

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

September 5, 1927 marked a turning point in the history of oil exploration. Before then, to assess the composition of subsurface rocks to find oil pay-zones, scientists had to rely on core samples brought up from boreholes. These were highly unreliable and drilling companies frequently missed oil zones. Conrad Schlumberger had the idea of running an electrical probe into the drilled borehole to measure resistivity through the formation. This first log taken in the Alsace region of France was a simple hand-plotted graph, but it effectively aided engineers to “view” what was inside the

For those who don’t know, fracking is a process that gas and oil companies use in order to increase production for their wells. Similar to traditional drilling techniques, a vertical well is drilled beneath a well pad. Once the desired depth is reached, the drill is repositioned in order to drill horizontally. This horizontal bore varies in length but can extend to distances up to two miles long. At this point, a mixture of water, sand, and

The Eagle Ford shale formation in south Texas has recently become the focus of many oil industry operators searching for new sources of hydrocarbons by using the latest technology in previously unexplored areas. This exploration enhances the development of even more advanced techniques as issues are identified and problems solved to address the unique properties of the formation and the surrounding surface environment. Even though a formation may be comprised of a single sedimentary layer from a similar geological time frame it is not a homogeneous block and has many features and anomalies that effect the pressure, permeability, type of hydrocarbons trapped and methods required to extract them. To understand these properties one must understand that shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock that forms from the compaction of silt and clay placing it in the mudstone category of rocks [1]. Shale is different from other rocks in this category because it has a fissile structure and is laminated. The black shale in the Eagle Ford formation (Fig 1.) has a special property such that it contained organic material when it was deposited and during compaction over a millennium, the organic materials were converted into trapped oil and gas hydrocarbon deposits. This oil and gas are very difficult to remove because it is trapped within tiny pore spaces and or adsorbed onto clay mineral particles that makeup the shale.

Hydraulic fracturing is a controversial practice commonly used by oil and natural gas producers. This practice, better known as “fracking”, is used to stimulate the production of oil by fracturing shale to release natural gas. The birth of modern day hydraulic fracturing began as early as the 1940s and today it is widely practiced across the United States, from New York, to Oklahoma, even all the way to California. The process of fracking is fairly simple, hydraulic fracturing (fracking) involves tapping shale and other tight-rock formations by drilling a mile or more below the surface before turning horizontal and continuing to drill several thousand feet more (Energy from

It has long been known that large amounts of natural gas reside in deep layers of sedimentary rock such as shale. However, this gas could not be extracted until recent years due to previous limitations of technology making it economically unfeasible. This is now possible due to developments in drilling technology that now allow drillers to drill horizontally. Millions of gallons of water and chemicals are then injected at extremely high pressure that fractures the rock surrounding the drill hole, allowing trapped gas to escape. This process is called hydraulic fracturing, but is known colloquially as “fracking.”

Though completely different approaches to fracking were introduced over the last decade, the thought and process of fracking isn 't new. Within the oil and gas industries, fracking is any method that involves the forcing of many different substances into the fully grown to access oil or gas in the layers of sedimentary rock. While drilling is done vertically, fracking occurs horizontally (MacRae). Increasing need for access to natural gas and oil in this country and the belief that

To calculate the expected number of pipette tips needed per month take the number of pipette tip per sample to multiply it with the average sample analysed per month, 5 x 100 = 500.