Hydraulic Fracture Drilling-Part 7

Increased Seismicity due to injection wells





Within the central and eastern United States, the number of earthquakes has increased dramatically over the past few years. Between the years 1973–2008, there was an average of 21 earthquakes of magnitude three and larger in the central and eastern United States. This rate jumped to an average of 99 M3+ earthquakes per year in 2009–2013, and the rate continues to rise. In 2014, alone, there were 659 M3 and larger earthquakes . Most of these earthquakes are in the magnitude 3–4 range, large enough to have been felt by many people, yet small enough to rarely cause damage. There were reports of damage from some of the larger events, including the M5.6 Prague, Oklahoma earthquake and the M5.3 Trinidad, Colorado earthquake.
This increase in earthquakes prompts two important questions:

• Are they natural, or man-made?
• What should be done in the future as we address the causes and consequences of these events to reduce associated risks?

Preliminary Findings

Cumulative number of earthquakes with a magnitude of 3.0 or larger in the central and eastern United States, 1970–2014. The dashed line corresponds to the long-term rate of 29 earthquakes per year, with an increase in the rate of earthquakes starting around 2009.

A team of USGS scientists led by Bill Ellsworth analyzed changes in the rate of earthquake occurrence using large USGS databases of earthquakes recorded since 1970. The increase in seismicity has been found to coincide with the injection of wastewater in deep disposal wells in several locations, including Colorado, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Ohio. Much of this wastewater is a byproduct of oil and gas production and is routinely disposed of by injection into wells specifically designed and approved for this purpose.
Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking,” does not appear to be linked to the increased rate of magnitude 3 and larger earthquakes.
Although wastewater injection has not yet been linked to large earthquakes (M6+), scientists cannot eliminate the possibility. It does appear that wastewater disposal induced the M5.3 Raton Basin, Colorado earthquake in 2011 as well as the M5.6 quake that struck Prague, Oklahoma in 2011, leading to a few injuries and damage to more than a dozen homes.

Hydraulic Fracture Drilling-Part 6

Major Federal Fracking Legislation Introduced -- Return of the FRAC

Posted by Maggie Clarke on March 16, 2011

Yesterday, the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act was re-introduced in both the House and Senate.  The House bill (H.R. 1084) was introduced by Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), and Jared Polis (D-CO) and has 31 co-sponsors to date.  Senator Robert Casey (D-PA) introduced the companion Senate bill (S. 587), with Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Ben Cardin (D-MD) as original co-sponsors.  Congresswoman DeGette and Senator Casey were the lead sponsors of the FRAC Act in the previous Congress.

The legislation would repeal the current exemption for hydraulic fracturing under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).  The Energy Policy Act of 2005 amended the SDWA to preclude EPA from regulating the underground injection of fluids (other than diesel fuel) for hydraulic fracturing purposes.  In repealing the exemption, the FRAC Act would require disclosure of the chemical constituents used in the fracking process, but not the proprietary chemical formula (an emergency provision is included requiring disclosure of the proprietary chemical formula if the information is needed for the provision of medical treatment).  Under both bills, disclosure would be to the State regulatory agencies (or to EPA, if EPA has primary enforcement responsibility in the State) and the chemical additives would be made publicly-available online.

Senator Casey introduced two other drilling-related bills on Tuesday, commenting, "[n]atural gas drilling offers Pennsylvania tremendous economic opportunities if we do it right."  Senator Casey's S. 589, the Faster Action Safety Team Emergency Response (FASTER) Act authorizes the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to draft regulations to strengthen emergency response procedures at oil and gas wells.  S. 588, the Marcellus Shale On-the-Job Training Act, authorizes grants to strengthen on-site training programs for the natural gas drilling and production industry to "ensure the jobs are going to Pennsylvanians."

Overview: H.R.1084 
 

Sponsor:	Rep. DeGette, Diana [D-CO-1] (Introduced 03/15/2011)
Cosponsors:	73
Latest Action:	03/21/2011 Referred to the Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy.
Major Recorded Votes:	There are no Roll Call votes for this bill

Hydraulic Fracture Drilling-Part 5

Halliburton and Cheney: An Undeniable Connection

Former vice president Dick Cheney was never very popular with the people. This was proven even more evident from a poll conducted right before Cheney’s retirement, which put the former VP’s approval rate at an all time low, at just 13%.

There have been very few political figures who have been so continuously loathed throughout their career. For anyone who slept through the heart of the Iraq war or spent an entire decade with a slow internet connection, here’s a reminder of just why Dick Cheney is such a despised figure.

What is Halliburton?  Halliburton is the worlds single largest oilfield service company currently operating in over 80 different countries. The company itself was created in 1919 but wasn’t named the Halliburton Company until 1961. In the early 1990’s Dick Cheney served as the Pentagons defense secretary until 1995, when he became CEO of Halliburton.

Halliburton absorbed Dresser Industries in 1998. At the time, Dresser Industries was under the control of Prescott Bush. Even George H.W. Bush worked under Dresser Industries for several years until he founded the Zapata Corporation, which is also an oil company. And for anyone who needs reminding of how malevolent Prescott Bush can be, he was accused of doing finances for Nazi’s in New York City just after the end of the second world war. So all of this tells us two things: The Cheney and the Bush family really loved oil, and the only thing that could make their oil empire larger and more profitable would be: Access to more oil. 

Hydraulic Fracture Drilling-Part 4

Public debate

 

Poster against fracking in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, October 2012

Politics and public policy

To control the hydraulic fracturing industry, some governments are developing legislation and some municipalities are developing local zoning limitations. In 2011, France became the first nation to ban hydraulic fracturing. Some other countries have placed a temporary moratorium on the practice. The US has the longest history with hydraulic fracturing, so its approach to hydraulic fracturing may be modeled by other countries.

The considerable opposition against hydraulic fracturing activities in local townships has led companies to adopt a variety of public relations measures to assuage fears about hydraulic fracturing, including the admitted use of "mil­i­tary tac­tics to counter drilling oppo­nents". At a conference where public relations measures were discussed, a senior executive at Anadarko Petroleum was recorded on tape saying, "Download the US Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual, because we are dealing with an insurgency", while referring to hydraulic fracturing opponents. Matt Pitzarella, spokesman for Range Resources also told other conference attendees that Range employed psychological warfare operations veterans. According to Pitzarella, the experience learned in the Middle East has been valuable to Range Resources in Pennsylvania, when dealing with emotionally charged township meetings and advising townships on zoning and local ordinances dealing with hydraulic fracturing.

Police officers have recently been forced, however, to deal with intentionally disruptive and even potentially violent opposition to oil and gas development. In March 2013, ten people were arrested  during an "anti-fracking protest" near New Matamoras, Ohio, after they illegally entered a development zone and latched themselves to drilling equipment. In northwest Pennsylvania, there was a drive-by shooting at a well site, in which an individual shot two rounds of a small-caliber rifle in the direction of a drilling rig, just before shouting profanities at the site and fleeing the scene. And in Washington County, Pa., a contractor working on a gas pipeline found a pipe bomb that had been placed where a pipeline was to be constructed, which local authorities said would have caused a “catastrophe” had they not discovered and detonated it.

Hydraulic Fracture Drilling-Part 3

Water Consumption

The large volumes of water required have raised concerns about hydraulic fracturing in arid areas, such as Karoo in South Africa and drought prone areas of North America. During periods of low stream flow it may affect water supplies for municipalities and industries such as power generation, as well as recreation and aquatic life. It may also require water overland piping from distant sources.

Hydraulic fracturing uses between 1.2 and 3.5 million US gallons (4.5 and 13 Ml) of water per well, with large projects using up to 5 million US gallons (19 Ml). Additional water is used when wells are refractured. An average well requires 3 to 8 million US gallons (11,000 to 30,000 m³) of water over its lifetime. Using the case of the Marcellus Shale as an example, as of 2008 hydraulic fracturing accounted for 650 million US gallons per year (2,500,000 m³/a) or less than 0.8% of annual water use in the area overlying the Marcellus Shale. The annual number of well permits, however, increased by a factor of five and the number of well starts increased by a factor of over 17 from 2008 to 2011. According to the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, greater volumes of fracturing fluids are required in Europe, where the shale depths average 1.5 times greater than in the U.S. To minimize water consumption, recycling is one possible option. In the Spring of 2013, new hydraulic fracturing water recycling rules were adopted in the state of Texas by the Railroad Commission of Texas. The Water Recycling Rules are intended to encourage Texas hydraulic fracturing operators to conserve water used in the hydraulic fracturing process for oil and gas wells. Another possible option is to use carbon dioxide instead of water.

Hydraulic Fracture Drilling-Part 2

Fracturing fluids

Water tanks preparing 

for a frac job

Note detailed list of fluids used in fracking below.

High-pressure fracture fluid is injected into the wellbore, with the pressure above the fracture gradient of the rock. The two main purposes of fracturing fluid is to extend fractures, add lubrication, change gel strength and to carry proppant into the formation, the purpose of which is to stay there without damaging the formation or production of the well. Two methods of transporting the proppant in the fluid are used – high-rate and high-viscosity. High-viscosity fracturing tends to cause large dominant fractures, while high-rate (slickwater) fracturing causes small spread-out micro-fractures.


This fracture fluid contains water-soluble gelling agents (such as guar gum) which increase viscosity and efficiently deliver the proppant into the formation.

Process of mixing water with

fracking fluids to be injected into

the ground

The fluid injected into the rock is typically a slurry of water, proppants, and chemical additives. Additionally, gels, foams, and compressed gases, including nitrogen, carbon dioxide and air can be injected. Typically, of the fracturing fluid 90% is water and 9.5% is sand with the chemical additives accounting to about 0.5%. However, fracturing fluids have been developed in which the use of water has been made unnecessary, using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and propane.

A proppant is a material that will keep an induced hydraulic fracture open, during or following a fracturing treatment, and can be gel, foam, or slickwater-based. Fluids make tradeoffs in such material properties as viscosity, where more viscous fluids can carry more concentrated proppant; the energy or pressure demands to maintain a certain flux pump rate (flow velocity) that will conduct the proppant appropriately; pH, various rheological factors, among others. Types of proppant include silica sand, resin-coated sand, and man-made ceramics. These vary depending on the type of permeability or grain strength needed. The most commonly used proppant is silica sand, though proppants of uniform size and shape, such as a ceramic proppant, is believed to be more effective. Due to a higher porosity within the fracture, a greater amount of oil and natural gas is liberated.

The fracturing fluid varies in composition depending on the type of fracturing used, the conditions of the specific well being fractured, and the water characteristics. A typical fracture treatment uses between 3 and 12 additive chemicals. Although there may be unconventional fracturing fluids, the more typically used chemical additives can include one or more of the following:

• Acids—hydrochloric acid (usually 5%-28%), or acetic acid is used in the pre-fracturing stage for cleaning the perforations and initiating fissure in the near-wellbore rock.
• Sodium chloride (salt)—delays breakdown of the gel polymer chains.
• Polyacrylamide and other friction reducers—minimizes the friction between fluid and pipe, thus allowing the pumps to pump at a higher rate without having greater pressure on the surface.
• Ethylene glycol—prevents formation of scale deposits in the pipe.
• Borate salts—used for maintaining fluid viscosity during the temperature increase.
• Sodium and potassium carbonates—used for maintaining effectiveness of crosslinkers.
• Glutaraldehyde—used as disinfectant of the water (bacteria elimination).
• Guar gum and other water-soluble gelling agents—increases viscosity of the fracturing fluid to deliver more efficiently the proppant into the formation.
• Citric acid—used for corrosion prevention.
• Isopropanol—increases the viscosity of the fracture fluid.

Hydraulic Fracture Drilling-Part 1

The "Fracking" of America

 

The process of "fracking," a natural gas well

Typical Well site

 

Typical distribution of individual well sites within several square mile area

 

Well density in Weld County, Colorado

 

 

Well density distribution in the United States

This is an enormous issue!