The Production Of Production Activities

Hydraulic fracturing is also known as “fracking” is a technique which involves drilling down, then horizontally as far as 10,000 feet below the surface to release natural gasses stored in the sedimentary rock known as Shale. The channel is then encased with concrete or occasionally steel to allow millions of gallons of water to be injected into the wellbore. Most water used in fracking comes from surface water sources such as rivers, lakes, or other accessible bodies of water nearby. Not only is there water being funneled into the wellbore, but also a mixture of sand and other chemicals. When the high-pressure mixture is injected underground it fractures the Shale around the wellbore and creates fissures. The fissures are then held open with

The extraction of natural gas requires a borehole which is dug down to the deep shale formation. After the hole is dug, a steel pipe is inserted into the borehole where it is encased with cement on the outer perimeter of the pipe. A perforation gun is lowered into the cement-encased piping. Using an explosive, the perforation gun perforates the casing and puts initial fractures into the shale at targeted locations. The shale is fractured further by inserting fracking fluids, which consists of 98% water and sand, plus 2% proprietary fluids. The fracking fluids are pushed down into the wellbore and pressurized to 3000 psi causing the initial fracture to spread in the shale, along the shale natural fracture lines. The sand in the fracking fluids keeps the created fractures open which allows the gas from the shale pores to flow into the casing and then to the surface, where it is collected.

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.

If the well fails to demonstrate mechanical integrity during a test or a loss of mechanical integrity becomes evident during operation (such as presence of pressure in the tubing - casing annulus, water flowing at the surface, etc.), the Permittee shall notify the Director within 24 hours (see Part III Section D.11(e) of this Permit), cease injection, and shut-in the well within 48 hours unless the Director requires immediate

After this, small holes are made in the horizontal bit of the well pipe, through which a mixture of water (90 percent), sand (9.5 percent) and other chemicals (0.5 percent) are pumped at high pressure to create micro-fractures in the rock that are held open by the grains of sand. The other chemicals play a number of roles, including helping to prevent pipe corrosion, this is a great

Paragraph 1: Hydraulic fracking is a hot topic across the state of Texas. There are debates whether fracking is the actual cause of the sudden earthquakes in Texas. Fracking is an intense process where natural gas is extracted deep from within the earth. Drillers from oil and gas companies use a horizontal drilling technique that is initiated as a vertical casing and then makes a 90 degree turn. This allows the well to follow the natural fractures of shale rock. A fracking fluid mixed of water, sand, and chemicals is injected with high-pressure down the well. The fluid produces several small cracks in the shale, creating a pathway for the gas to enter and flow out of the well casing. Each well can

Hydraulic fracturing in combination with advancement in directional drilling has made it possible to economically extract oil and gas from unconventional resources. The growth in U.S. oil and gas exploration and production made possible by the increase in use of hydraulic fracturing, has raised concerns about its potential to impact human health and the environment. Concerns have been raised by the public about the effects of hydraulic fracturing on quality and quantity of drinking water resources. The hydraulic fracturing water cycle includes five main activities: the withdrawal of ground or surface water needed for hydraulic fracturing fluids; the mixing of water, chemicals, and proppant on the well pad to create the hydraulic fracturing fluid; the injection of hydraulic fracturing fluids into the well to fracture the formation, the return of injected fluid and water produced from the formation to the surface; and the reuse, treatment and disposal of wastewater generated at the well pad, including produced water (U.S. EPA, 2015). With the water cycle being so massive and prolonged, the presence of potential negative impacts is greatly increased.

To those in the energy industry, it refers purely to the process of injecting fluids-which consist of water and between three and twelve chemicals, including hydrochloric acid, sodium chloride, methanol, and isopropyic ethanol, that serve various functions-underground at high pressure to crack open shale rock, release natural gas or oil trapped there, and allow the hydrocarbons to flow to the surface. (24)

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

Before starting the process of fracking the drilling site must be suitable. The site must be four to six acres, cleared from large equipment, and have plastic lines placed for drilling waste . In addition, their must be a water impoundment with about 4 million gallons of water that is collected and stored in order to be pumped into the well. This water is transferred by tanks, trucks, or plastic-lined ponds . Hydraulic fracturing processes begins by drilling a vertical well. The drilling goes through aquifers and dozens of geological layers before it reaches desired location of shale rocked believed to contain natural gas. The drill begins drilling horizontally and a production casing is then inserted into the borehole which is surrounded by cement to case it. Next, a perforating gun is fired to make the shale rock more penetrable. A mixture of water, sand, and various undisclosed chemicals are then pumped in at high pressure in order to fracture/break the shale for the gas to escape. After the fissures in the shale rock occur the natural gas is released through the fissures and is taken up the well to the surface. Last, the water byproduct, also referred to as flow back water or produced water is released and travels back to the surface. The gas that is collected is then processed, refined, and shipped to distributors

Fracking is one step in the process to retrieve oil and gas from that has been trapped in rock formation underground for millions of years. Having access to layers in the earth that tradition methods could not reach, allows us to access natural gas that couldn’t be reached. It is often used in horizontal drilling so extract as much as possible. A vast majority of wells that will be drilled for either oil or gas will receive fracking treatment. There is a fluid used in the fracking procedure that is pumped into the rock layer of the earth and it helps to relieve pressure on the rock so that way gas and oil can flow through it more easily. There has been great concern about the fluids being pumped into the earth and contaminating the water sources. Livescience.com states The vertical well is then encased in steel and/or cement to

Where this agreement usually ends, however, is with the question of quality control refining processes from my viewpoint. Anotherwords, what control measures are enforced to ensure all contaminants are entirely removed to guarantee a high level of quality assurance and security of the petroleum sectors within the nation’s infrastructures? Are there residual contaminants affecting the quality of fuel supplied to the nation’s energy consumers? From a preceding viewpoint, it can be related to the Colorado Floods that occurred in September 2013. Even the prevailing thought of hazardous waste introduced to the Colorado geographical landscape does not eliminate the second and third order affects imposed on the nation’s petroleum pipeline infrastructure by way of corrosion, introducing chemicals into the pipeline arteries through small cracks that may extend beyond Colorado, an implication that cannot be ruled out. Water contamination prevention-or across the board programs-from the negative effect of hydraulic fracturing should be an expectation from petroleum energy producers. Moreover, it reminds us of an infrastructure security vulnerability, which is not often specified, when hydraulic fracturing is correlated to the role water functions through the conventional petroleum refining process, along with vast arrays of petroleum pipelines that exist across the nation’s geographical landscapes. These concerns should be brought

The issue of whether offshore oil drilling is a safe operation or not has been arguing for a long time in the United States. ( SPE International, N.D.) Drilling on water started in early 1930s in Louisiana by shallow-draft barges. Nevertheless, the first oil well on water was drilled in 9th of September, 1947 by Kerr-McGee’s unit Tender Assist Drilling (TAD) in the Gulf of Mexico (SPE International, N.D.). A year after year, oil companies used more and more sophisticated equipment to drill on water, but the number of spilled accidents has been rising since 1964 (Ivanovich, and Hays, 2008). After all, while

When steam is injected to the formation a steam chamber around the well is created [3]. The pressure of the steam should be lower than the fracture pressure of the rock mass to prevent the deflection of the rock [4]. Steam injection will go on for months during which the steam chamber expands and the viscosity of the bitumen decreases. This will cause the bitumen to flow down under gravity towards the production well. The produced oil is then pumped to the surface. Surface facilities are then used to separate the water

The extensive roles of energy in economic growth are well known. Kaiser, Mark .J (2007) posits that there is a solid relationship between national economy and energy development, as energy supply, demand and pricing have enormous influence on economic growth. With the fast pace of economic development over the past decades, many developing nations experienced a sharp annual growth in petroleum demand. However, those with large or potentially large petroleum deposits, very sufficient and financial resources for supply investments, especially for the development of oil and gas production and exploration.