hydraulic fraccing

[kevin]

i have recently taken on a new job as a sandworm.

my company is one of many involved in hydraulic fracturing of gas-bearing shales in pennsylvania, west virginia, and ohio.

fraccing takes a pre-drilled well and injects high-pressure fluids at depth into the surrounding country rock, producing vast numbers of cracks less than a millimeter across. the cracks are filled with a fine sand that holds them open when the pressure is released, allowing natural gas and natural gas liquids to flow into the well bore. the process permits hydrocarbon recovery from formations that were previously impermeable, and promises to provide vast amounts of fossil fuel to the united states, postponing peak oil for decades.

my job as a newbie-- a worm-- is to tend the sand hopper, at the end of several conveyor belts delivering hundreds of thousands of pounds of beautiful wisconsin sand into the trailer-mounted machinery that mixes the sand with filtered pond water and a suite of surfactants, acids, buffers, biocides, and gels to be injected into the well bore.

the work is hard, generally about 80 or 90 hours per week. i carry steel pipes that are way too heavy for me, shovel sand that spills out onto the ground, and drive the oversize combination vehicles that tow the sand kings, the T belt, the blenders, hydro, missile, and of course, the pumps. it's also a bit dangerous, as the pumps work at over 10,000 psi, and at that pressure steel pipes, pumps, and fittings blow up, like the night before last. part of my job is to stand on top of a 3000-gallon tank of hydrochloric acid and push in a dipstick to measure how fast we're pumping it down.

so what do you folks know about this new source of energy? what are your opinions of its necessity and environmental risks? it has the potential to get the united states out of the middle east, and for that reason alone is something that we should all be aware of.

here's your chance to learn more, straight from the horse's ass.

[none]

I thought it is called fracking with a k.
nice topic ( no controversy )
what I know about it is that is causes earthquakes and poisons underground aquifers.
supposedly a 1" think sleeve of concrete is supposed to provide protection to the environment and that almost always this 1" of concrete fails. like 99% of the time and there is leakage from the well into the surrounding environment.
I saw on the news from denver these people tacking a bic lighter to their water faucet to light the "water" coming from the kitchen sink on fire.
and I guess in the south mid-west they are experiencing "tremors"  ( earthquakes ) that were once unusual.
it is as about as ethical as being a bouncer at an illegal brothel is my opinion, but I know a guy has to work but why that job?
oh yeah, and the waste water from the drill process is placed into the soil after they ship it off from the drill site.
it would be interesting to see the MSDS's for the chemicals used because Cheney made sure that nobody really knows what chemicals are being used.

[davdi]

After a period of time when fraccing had been used in Faulkner County, Arkansas, there were a number of "earthquakes" experienced in the area around the towns of Damascus and Greenbrier wg
Here the fraccing had been going on!  Heard of this have you?

[kevin]

I thought it is called fracking with a k.
nice topic ( no controversy )
what I know about it is that is causes earthquakes and poisons underground aquifers.
supposedly a 1" think sleeve of concrete is supposed to provide protection to the environment and that almost always this 1" of concrete fails. like 99% of the time and there is leakage from the well into the surrounding environment.
I saw on the news from denver these people tacking a bic lighter to their water faucet to light the "water" coming from the kitchen sink on fire.
and I guess in the south mid-west they are experiencing "tremors"  ( earthquakes ) that were once unusual.
it is as about as ethical as being a bouncer at an illegal brothel is my opinion, but I know a guy has to work but why that job?
oh yeah, and the waste water from the drill process is placed into the soil after they ship it off from the drill site.
it would be interesting to see the MSDS's for the chemicals used because Cheney made sure that nobody really knows what chemicals are being used.

fraccing is just an abbreviation for fracturing, so the spelling can be whatever you want.

there's some evidence that deep fluid injection lubricates rock layers under stress and allows micro earth quakes to occur. but those are all little bitty things, as i understand. i lived on top of the san andreas fault for seventeen years, and i experienced small earth quakes every week, and the 7.0 lomo prieta once. the actual fraccing doesn't cause the quakes, rather, it's the optional process of disposing of waste water in deep disposal wells. you can do other stuff with the waste water, including using it again. chesapeake energy does that, so the disposal issue is pretty nil with them.

all this takes place thousands of feet below drinking water aquifers. the utica shale that lies under my house is about 3000 feet down, and my well is 22 feet deep. there's no interchange of fluids, and all the water down that deep is salty brine. if the well casing breaks down, then you can have surface contamination, but that's very unusual, as all the pressure work takes place the better part of a mile or two down hole.

people have been lighting their well water with natural methane for generations. lots of places have surficial oil and natural gas, like the la brea tar pits. i don't think the gas-in-the well-syndrome is related to fraccing. if it is, then the well needs to be repaired.

gotta go to meeting.

[Jstwebbrowsing]

I thought it is called fracking with a k.
nice topic ( no controversy )
what I know about it is that is causes earthquakes and poisons underground aquifers.
supposedly a 1" think sleeve of concrete is supposed to provide protection to the environment and that almost always this 1" of concrete fails. like 99% of the time and there is leakage from the well into the surrounding environment.
I saw on the news from denver these people tacking a bic lighter to their water faucet to light the "water" coming from the kitchen sink on fire.
and I guess in the south mid-west they are experiencing "tremors"  ( earthquakes ) that were once unusual.
it is as about as ethical as being a bouncer at an illegal brothel is my opinion, but I know a guy has to work but why that job?
oh yeah, and the waste water from the drill process is placed into the soil after they ship it off from the drill site.
it would be interesting to see the MSDS's for the chemicals used because Cheney made sure that nobody really knows what chemicals are being used.

Concrete is used to hold the casing, large metal tubing, in place.  The casing is actually what holds the well's production.  But it does sometimes spring leaks.  In my experience these leaks are not typically repaired unless it's severe enough to interfere with production.  This is because of expense.  However, these are relatively small leaks. 

Fracking opens up what is below the concrete and the casing, allowing more production to get to the bottom of the well and up the casing.

And I don't know what chemical a refinery may use but typically the only fluids pumped back into the earth is just salt water.  The oil, water, and gas naturally seperate in a tall slender tank called a seperator.  The salt water is then put back into the ground and the oil and gas are sent to sales.  I dunno what happens to them after that.  Sometimes the water must be pumped back down the disposal well at higher pressure (up to about 1000 lbs), depending on the quality of the well and the elevation of your water tank in relation to the well.  Some disposal wells can just be fed by gravity. At least that is the case around where I live and work.

Generally the only foreign fluid I've seen pumped down a well, in any significant amount, is HCL when performing an "acid job".  This is performed to clean out corrosion.  However, after the acid is pumped down there it is followed by hundreds of barrels of fresh water to dilute it.  If you do not then it will eat up your casing and your tubing, or even your above ground lines.

However, I've only ever worked in the oil field itself.  I dunno what happens after things leave the lease.

[kevin]

oh yeah, and the waste water from the drill process is placed into the soil after they ship it off from the drill site.
it would be interesting to see the MSDS's for the chemicals used because Cheney made sure that nobody really knows what chemicals are being used.

the drilling is over months before the well is ever fracced. drilling contractors aren't involved in well completion, typically. i think you mean deep well injection when you say "placed in the soil." that's a time honored but controversial practice that ought to be phased out, in my opinion. most injection wells are old oil wells that have gone dry (as all wells will do, eventually.) the permeable formations way down that used to contain oil and gas (naturally hazardous materials) is pumped full of the waste as a permanent means of disposal. bad idea, i think.

regarding chemicals used in fraccing, that's no secre, reallyt. the MSDS are available in an envelope in the front office of the company i work for. along with the water and sand, there's 28% hydrochloric acid, polymer gel, flow recovery surfactants, friction reducers, acid buffers, poisonous fungicides, and anti-scaling chemicals. all of it is labelled on the sides of the totes going down the road, and comes from weatherford chemicals:

http://www.weatherford.com/Products/EngineeredChemistry/FracturingChemicals/Hydrocarbon-BasedFracturingFluids/

[Jstwebbrowsing]

Yep and I dunno much about drilling.  I mostly know about producing and maintaining a completed well.

[Jstwebbrowsing]

Kevin you should try to get a pumping position.  It's easy and pays fairly well.  There's not much heavy lifting involved.

[kevin]

Fracking opens up what is below the concrete and the casing, allowing more production to get to the bottom of the well and up the casing.

these horizontal wells out here actually case the hole completely first, because they may frac as many as 90 different spots along a 5-mile length of well bore. they use a perf gun to blow holes in the casing at the correct distance and then frac through the perfs. they start at the bottom, frac one section, then shut that section in with a packer and frac another closer to the well head. the packers are permanent seals with a conical hole in the middle. when a section is perfed, they just drop a plastic ball down the hole that makes a one-way plug like the one in a toilet tank. it seals only in on e direction.

Generally the only foreign fluid I've seen pumped down a well, in any significant amount, is HCL when performing an "acid job".  This is performed to clean out corrosion.  However, after the acid is pumped down there it is followed by hundreds of barrels of fresh water to dilute it.  If you do not then it will eat up your casing and your tubing, or even your above ground lines.

my company pumps abpout 750 gallons of acid down just before the frac to swab the hole and burn off the rocks and pebbles clogging the perfs.

very different from the old days. they used to just drop dynamite down the hole to frac it, and follow up with an acid job. much more carefully done now.

[kevin]

Kevin you should try to get a pumping position.  It's easy and pays fairly well.  There's not much heavy lifting involved.

yes, i was watching the pumpers the other day and thought of you. you work all the time, though, and i get days off. but you're right, the lifting will kill me. i'm planning on getting promoted out of that as soon as i possibly can. the standard plan is for a new hire to know how to run all the machinery within the first six months, so we'll see what i can do.

these pads have three or four separate well bores about fifteen feet apart. bothe the wells i've been involved with have one well bore already completed and in production, so it's protected by a giant metal cage from all the activity going on around it with the other wells.

there's a couple of what look more like the old little cracking towers and then water and condensate tanks sitting over on the edge of the pad to handle the producing wells.

[kevin]

After a period of time when fraccing had been used in Faulkner County, Arkansas, there were a number of "earthquakes" experienced in the area around the towns of Damascus and Greenbrier wg
Here the fraccing had been going on!  Heard of this have you?

that's more or less where it all started, isn't it? fraccing of permian carbonates and sands?

out here the gas shale stuff is very new, and people are still trying to figure it all out.

the first stuff was back in the 1940s, i think.

[Jstwebbrowsing]

Not all pumpers work seven days a week.  A lot of company pumpers have "relief pumpers" that pump one or two days a week.  But a contract pumper is the way to go if you are able though.  Even though you have to have $1,000,000 liability insurance that costs about $2500 a year, and you must provide your own tools and truck it pays considerably more.  Around here the average per well is $200 to $400 per well per month.  And if your wells are not too spread out you can tackle 30-40 wells without difficulty, more if you want longer than 8 hour days.  Most of your time is spent driving.  And minor repairs is all you have to worry about.

You are on call 24/7 but in the three years I've been pumping I've only been called out like three times.  Twice was because of wild fires and once because of a leak.  And then all I really had to do is shut down the lease.  And if you are a contract pumper you can pay someone to relieve you once of twice a week.  Some customers won't allow this but the ones I have are okay with it.  However I don't use any because things seems to stay smoother if I'm the only one taking care of them.  Relief pumpers seem to have a problem remembering to tell you if there is a problem.  But typically the hardest part of the job is greasing the pump jacks, but even some of them have lines running up to the bearings so you can grease them from the ground and don't have to play monkey.  And if they don't have them you can always put some on yourself and charge the company for materials.  And most of them only need to be greased about once a month so you can spread them out over several days.

But usually oil field experience is required to be a pumper, but it's not like it's rocket science.     

[Jstwebbrowsing]

Some companies can be a pain.  I used to have a company that wanted me to be on sight anytime any sort of work was done on the well just so I could babysit, as if their well is the only one I have to worry about.  And since I'm the one that chooses who comes and does repairs, I won't use companies that need to be babysat.  So I avoid those type of companies that can be a real pain.

Where do you live?

[kevin]

[Jstwebbrowsing]

But definately be careful out there.  In my experience there are a lot of people working in the oil field that shouldn't be.  My first experience in the field was on a pulling unit.  But my operator was very good and practiced safety first.  In two years we didn't have any injury worse than a smashed finger or torn off finger nail.  And avoid any company that doesn't keep the equipment, at least that which provides safety, in good repair.  The oil field is one of the most dangerous jobs around but accidents are almost always human error.  And alot of people seem to have the motto of "speed at all costs". 

I remember once I was filling in on a single pole pulling unit and we were running tubing into the well.  I dunno if you've seen it done but the tubing, either 2 3/8" or 2 7/8' x 30' is pulled off the rack by the rig by attaching to the end and lifting.  The bottom of the tubing slides up and off the rack and the floor hand has to catch the bottom of it.  It is common practice for the  operator to slow down a bit just as the bottom of the tubing is lifted of fthe rack and it swings to the floor hand which catches it so it does not swing in too fast. 

At any rate this one operator didn't slow up a bit and I was the one catching the tubing and it was 2 7/8" tubing.  If you do not catch it then the other floor hand is likely to get a mouthful of tubing.  After I caught a few like that and hurt my wrist catching one I made a comment.  The operator said his motto is "if it doesn't lift you off the ground then it's not coming in too fast".  This mentality doesn't seem to be uncommon in the oil patch.

Since that time this same operator has crowned the rig twice, one of which resulted in tubing being dropped on a floor hand's back, breaking his back.  He once worked on one of my wells after I became a pumper and he crowed the rig, resulting in him dropping the tubing down the hole.  And that is just what I am aware of.  He doesn't work on my wells anymore.  I'd rather the job take 10% longer and it be done right with noone get hurt.  If the companies I work for don't like that they can replace me, but they haven't.

So just watch your back out there. 

   

[kevin]

i've never done any workover stuff, but i've been in the oil fields from time to time all my life. very dangerous stuff, what with 30,000 pound drill collars swinging around your head and fires.

i worked on drill ships when i was sixteen years old, when there wasn't any place to go if there was a blow out. then my first real job out of school was as an operations geologist in the permian basin.

i've been lucky and never been involved in anything nasty.

[Jstwebbrowsing]

I've never worked around a drilling rig.  I've done some minor drilling with a work over rig but that is quite different.  I've only worked on a pulling unit, done roustabout, and pumping.  I also use to calibrate flow meters but I barely consider that oil field work, but that is not a bad job in a related field either as long as you can do some basic algebra and use a computer.  But pumping is my favorite.  I enjoy the solitude and the simple nature of the job.

[none]

just saw a map on the documentary gasland 2 showing the want to put wells next to that supervolcanoe yellowstone

[kevin]

sure

you have to go where the hydrocarbons are if you want to turn on the lights. i've just sold the mineral rights under my property to a gas and oil company. if they put a well on my property they'll pay me $30,000 for the inconvenience, in addition to royalties. the drilling and fraccing are noisy and busy, but after that it's just a flat place in my hayfield with a wellhead on it.

[kevin]

fraccing attire, less the hardhat and safety glasses:



the sand is deliverered by truck, and then is loaded into the movers. this is the operator next to me controlling the sand dropping onto the conveyor below him.



the conveyor has two belts that carry the sand into the hopper:



at the hopper, the sand is sucked into three augers that haul it into the blenders, where it is mixed with water, guar gum, surfactants, fungicides, friction reducers, and hydrochloric acid (only at the beginning):



looking over the two blenders. directly beyond in the middle is the missile, a trailered manifold which feeds the pumps at low pressure on either side and then accepts the high pressure sand/water mixture and feeds the steel pipes that lead to the wellhead.

the wellhead is the yellow riser in the middle with all the pipes leading into the top. this one goes down and sideways some 10 or 15 thousand feet to the perforations:



the steel pipes carry abrasive silica sand, and they wear out and blow up. during a fraccing stage, nobody but the line boss is permitted near the iron, and he walks the pipes at intervals looking for leaks. if he gives the okay, then the pressure is raised several thousand psi at a time, up to the operating level of around 10,000 psi.

at that pressure, the country rock is fractured and the cracks are separated enough to allow the sand/water slurry into the interstices. the pump valves and seats are good for a dozen stages or so, and then must be rebuilt on site. a typical well may have 30 to 90 stages.

[none]

I am so happy you are so excited by earth raping.

[kevin]

none, turn off your lights.

turn off your heat.

park your car.

then get back to me about raping the earth.

until then, can you spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E ?

[none]

none, turn off your lights.

turn off your heat.

park your car.

then get back to me about raping the earth.

until then, can you spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E ?

yeah at least I ain't making a cheap buck off it

[Gilgamesh]

I'd love to make money using electricity and burning gas.

[none]

I'd love to make money using electricity and burning gas.

It seems to me when there is so much damage done in the wake of fracking would cause one to pause but heck I am talking to americans

[Gilgamesh]

I was just being cheeky, none. Right now we're pretty dependent on those little hydrocarbons. But I'm all for safer regulations.

[kevin]

get real, none.

your previous posts express a garbled and incoherent knowledge of the realities of gas and oil exploration. and you've several times posted comments indicating that you consider it environmentally unsound.

if you don't like gas and oil exploration, then you can remove yourself from the picture by refusing to use it in your daily life. i suspect that doing so is too hard for you, and you prefer to look down upon the industry that makes your cushy lifestyle possible while taking advantage of all that it has to offer.

you live in the first world, and your lifestyle is a first world lifestyle. it's you, none, that makes gas and oil exploration necessary and profitable in the united states. you are the reason that fraccing exists, none. if you don't like it, change your life to do without it first, then you'll have the moral high ground that you currently claim and don't merit.

[none]

get real, none.

your previous posts express a garbled and incoherent knowledge of the realities of gas and oil exploration. and you've several times posted comments indicating that you consider it environmentally unsound.

if you don't like gas and oil exploration, then you can remove yourself from the picture by refusing to use it in your daily life. i suspect that doing so is too hard for you, and you prefer to look down upon the industry that makes your cushy lifestyle possible while taking advantage of all that it has to offer.

you live in the first world, and your lifestyle is a first world lifestyle. it's you, none, that makes gas and oil exploration necessary and profitable in the united states. you are the reason that fraccing exists, none. if you don't like it, change your life to do without it first, then you'll have the moral high ground that you currently claim and don't merit.

yeah, I understand that I have to do more than just mention it harms the enviornment my personal use is limited like I said it is not me looking at helping destroy the enviornment,
you get a big button to put on your chest because you are lobbying for the LPG cartels.
wow you da man!!

[kevin]

none, your personal use is NOT limited.

you're on the net, bud. your electricity comes from fossil fuels where you live. your computer is made from polyethylene plastic.

do you know where polyethylene comes from? it comes from oil wells, none.

are you wearing polyester clothing right now, none? do you know where esters originate?

how about cotton cloth, instead? are you self-aware enough to know that american cotton is one of the most hydrocarbon-intense agricultural products in the world, in terms of fuel, fertilizer, and pesticides?

how about your daily bread, none? twenty-six cents out of every dollar that you spend on a loaf of bread goes to pay for the fossil fuel that is used to manufacture the ammonium fertilizers used to grow it.

your personal use isn't limited, none. you're in it right up to your self-deceiving eyeballs, and your piously hypocritical posts reflect the sad truth that you're blinding yourself to your own personal involvement in fossil fuel use.

in the real world, none, responsible hydrocarbon exploration and production is what you depend on every day, from pumping the water you use to brush your teeth to cooking your food to providing the electricity that you use to post on IGI.

there's nothing wrong with mining gas and oil as part of a responsible transition to sustainable solar, wind, geothermal, and tidal sources of energy. but there's a great deal wrong with people who pretend that it's somebody else who's buying the electricity, consuming the plastics, eating the food, and burning the gasoline that comes from fossil fuels in the meantime.

don't preach to me about fossil fuels until you move back into a teepee and burn buffalo s**t for heat.

[none]

yeah yeah, now that button that you have been awarded is shiny.
I wear animal skins and use bamboo for shoes.
a hamster drives the generator that powers my house.,
And I have a flinstones car.
what else do you want?