Hydraulic Fracking free essay sample

In this paper we will â€Å"drill† deeper into the process of hydro fracturing. We will give a description of the process. We will discuss the political, sociological and environmental effects of fracking along with the benefits and drawbacks associated with the process. We will discuss the history of fracking, along with different items used in the fracking process including sand, water, proppants and chemicals. We will also discuss new jobs, products and entire businesses being created because of the fracking process. Hydraulic Fracturing Description According to dictionary. com hydraulic fracturing is â€Å"the process in which fractures in rocks below the earths surface are opened and widened by injecting chemicals and liquids at high pressure: used especially to extract natural gas or oil† (Dictionary. com, 2012). The description of Hydro Fracturing or commonly known as fracking is fairly simple. Drill a hole into the ground. Pump some water into the ground. Release natural gas for human consumption. We will write a custom essay sample on Hydraulic Fracking or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The process sounds simple enough. Well, as most things in this world fracking is much more complicated. Fracking takes an unbelievable amount of resources, manpower, and engineering. In return fracking creates jobs which help our embattled economy. Fracking offers the U. S. an independent source of energy free from the rest of the world’s influence. Fracking also creates ancillary jobs for additional products and equipment associated with the fracking process. Fracking is the process of drilling into the earth’s surface and extracting natural gas in the shale below. This is done first by drilling vertically into the earth’s crust several thousand feet below the water line. The drill then heads horizontally continuing on until the drill hits the projected target several thousand feet below the earth’s surface. After the fracking target is reached, pipe is inserted into the drilled out hole. After the pipe reaches the drilled target, high pressure frac water mixed with â€Å"frac sand† and other additive components are pumped into the shale. This process allows shale to become unstable and open up, so natural gas can escape (Zdunczyk, 2012). Once gas is released, it is brought to the surface, stored, processed, and then sent to market for consumption. The other materials are stored, recycled or disposed of by other various means. History of Fracking Hydraulic fracturing or â€Å"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. Some of the earliest â€Å"fracking† techniques can be traced back as early as the 1860’s (Carlson, 2011). These early techniques, used primarily in oil wells, used liquid nitroglycerin as a stimulant to break up shallow, hard rock wells that were located Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The use of nitroglycerin was extremely hazardous and often deemed illegal in many states; however, this â€Å"shooting† process was very successful. Shooting† is a term used for injecting the nitroglycerin into the well to produce rubbished rock to increase both initial flow and the recovery of oil (Montgomery, 2010). Because of the success on oil wells, the similar principles were applied to gas and water wells. In the 1930’s well engineers began to look for something that was not as h azardous for the rig operators. They started to inject a non-explosive fluid, which was acid, into the wells to break up the rock formations to acidize the rocks. By acidizing the rocks it would allow the fracture to remain open creating a â€Å"pressure-parting† inside the well. Pressure-parting increased the flow to the well along with increasing the overall productivity (Montgomery, 2010). Eventually this new technology lead to engineers trying water as an agent to break the rock while squeezing cement around the barrier to keep the well open. In the late 1930’s, Floyd Farris of Stanolind Oil and Gas Corporation, also known as Amoco conducted a study between the relationship of well performances and treatment pressures. Mr. Farris was particularly curious about the â€Å"formation breakdown† and the specific results when acid, water or squeeze cementing was used. At the end of the study, Mr. Farris conceived the idea of hydraulically fracturing the well to increase production from both gas and oil wells (Montgomery, 2010). In 1947, the first official hydraulic fracturing procedure took place in Hugoton Gas Field, Grant County, Kansas by Stanolind Oil Company (Suchy, 2012). On the Klepper No. 1, about 1,000 gallons of naphthenic-acid and palm oil, also known as napalm, was mixed in a thickened gasoline mixer and injected at 2,400 feet, followed by a gel breaker that was used to stimulate the limestone formation (Willie, 2011). As with the nitroglycerin, the napalm made the process extremely hazardous for the rig workers. The main goal of this â€Å"hydrafrac† was to compare fracking with the acidizing that was used previously. The outcome for the experiment was deemed a failure because the wellbore was clogged with drilling mud from the operation; however, the engineers did not give up hope. By 1948, the hydrafrac process was introduced more into the industry in a paper written my J. B. Clark of Stanolind Oil; and in 1949 the first patent was issued to Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company (HOWCO) (Suchy, 2012). The fracking procedure that was done in 1947 became an industry standard for all well stimulations done in the United States (Willie, 2011). On March 17, 1949, HOWCO performed the first two commercial fracturing operations. One located in Stephens County, Oklahoma which cost around $900 (that’s about $50,000 today), and the other one in Archer County, Texas that cost $1,000 ($56,000 today). Instead of injecting hazardous liquids, like nitroglycerin or napalm, HOWCO used crude oil or a blend of crude oil and gasoline along with 100 – 150lbm of sand. This mixture seemed to be very profitable. The first year yielded a production increase of 75% from 332 wells (Montgomery, 2010). By the mid-1950’s there were more than 3,000 well treatments that operated per month which resulted more oil supply for the United States. Stephens County, Oklahoma was not only the site of the first commercial fracking, but in 1968 it also was the site of the first half-million-pound fracturing job. This meant that the well recovered over a half-million pounds in recoverable resource. This amazing job was performed by Pan American Petroleum Corporation (now BP) (Montgomery, 2010). During the 50’s Canada decided to give hydraulic fracking a try for the first time at Cardium oil field in central Alberta. By the time the 1980’s and early 1990’s came around, engineers were also considering drilling horizontally in order to discover more untapped resources. Horizontal drilling begins with drilling vertically at first, and then at a specific depth the borehole turns and begins drilling horizontally for a specific length in a single rock formation. Such drilling has allowed highly productive projects in recovering shale gas, tight gas sandstone, and coal bed methane.