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Fracking
Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, fracing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of formations in bedrock by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "fracking fluid" (primarily water, containing sand or other proppants suspended with the aid of thickening agents) into a wellbore to create cracks in the deep-rock formations through which natural gas, petroleum, and brine will flow more freely. When the hydraulic pressure is removed from the well, small grains of hydraulic fracturing proppants (either sand or aluminium oxide) hold the fractures open. Fracking, using either hydraulic pressure or acid, is the most common method for well stimulation. Well stimulation techniques help create pathways for oil, gas or water to flow more easily, ultimately increasing the overall production of the well. Both methods of fracking are classed as ''unconventional'', because they aim t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydraulic Fracturing In The United States
Fracking in the United States began in 1949. According to the United States Department of Energy, Department of Energy (DOE), by 2013 at least two million oil and gas wells in the US had been hydraulic fracturing, hydraulically fractured, and that of new wells being drilled, up to 95% are hydraulically fractured. The output from these wells makes up 43% of the oil production and 67% of the natural gas production in the United States. Environmental safety and health concerns about hydraulic fracturing emerged in the 1980s, and are still being debated at the state and federal levels. New York banned massive hydraulic fracturing by executive order in 2010, so all natural gas production in the state is from wells drilled prior to the ban. Vermont, which has no known frackable gas reserves, banned fracking preventatively in May 2012. In March 2017, Maryland became the second state in the US with proven gas reserves to pass a law banning fracking. On May 8, 2019, Washington became ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fracking In The United Kingdom
Fracking is a well-stimulation technique in which rock is fractured by a hydraulically pressurized fluid. It requires a borehole to be drilled to target depth in the reservoir. For oil and gas production, hydraulically fractured wells can be horizontal or vertical, while the reservoir can be conventional or unconventional. After the well has been drilled, lined, and geophysically logged, the rock can be hydraulically fractured. Fracking in the United Kingdom was claimed to have started in the late 1970s with fracturing of some 200 onshore conventional oil and gas wells. The technique attracted attention after licences were awarded for onshore shale gas exploration in 2008. The 200 wells claim had been made by a joint report in 2012 of experts from the Royal Society and Royal Society of Engineering, but turned out to be misleading, in that small-scale local fracking may have been performed at these wells, for example for wellbore cleaning, but no high volume hydraulic frac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Environmental Impact Of Hydraulic Fracturing In The United States
Environmental impact of fracking in the United States has been an issue of public concern, and includes the contamination of ground and surface water, methane emissions, air pollution, migration of gases and fracking chemicals and radionuclides to the surface, the potential mishandling of solid waste, drill cuttings, increased seismicity and associated effects on human and ecosystem health. Research has determined that human health is affected. A number of instances with groundwater contamination have been documented due to well casing failures and illegal disposal practices, including confirmation of chemical, physical, and psychosocial hazards such as pregnancy and birth outcomes, migraine headaches, chronic rhinosinusitis, severe fatigue, asthma exacerbations, and psychological stress. While opponents of water safety regulation claim fracking has never caused any drinking water contamination, adherence to regulation and safety procedures is required to avoid further negati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shale Gas
Shale gas is an unconventional natural gas that is found trapped within shale formations. Since the 1990s, a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has made large volumes of shale gas more economical to produce, and some analysts expect that shale gas will greatly expand worldwide energy supply. Shale gas has become an increasingly important source of natural gas in the United States since the start of this century, and interest has spread to potential gas shales in the rest of the world. China is estimated to have the world's largest shale gas reserves. A 2013 review by the United Kingdom Department of Energy and Climate Change noted that most studies of the subject have estimated that life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from shale gas are similar to those of conventional natural gas, and are much less than those from coal, usually about half the greenhouse gas emissions of coal; the noted exception was a 2011 study by Robert W. Howart ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Well Stimulation
Well stimulation is a broad term used to describe the various techniques and well interventions that can be used to restore or enhance the production of hydrocarbons from an oil well, or energy from a geothermal well. Well stimulation can be performed on an oil or gas well located onshore or offshore, often with specialised ships. Thglossary of technical termsprovided by Schlumberger (the world's largest oil service company) definestimulationas: Stimulation is usually part of the completion stage in the life cycle of a well. Matrix acidising operates in the near-wellbore environment, and is aimed at restoring the ''natural permeability'' of the reservoir rock. But hydraulic fracking aims to ''increase'' the permeability of a far larger volume of reservoir rock. In addition to matrix acidising there is fracture acidising, which is a variety of hydraulic fracking. The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) points out that thestwo kinds of acid treatmentoften lead to confusion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Gas
Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium. Methane is a colorless and odorless gas, and, after carbon dioxide, is the second-greatest greenhouse gas that contributes to global climate change. Because natural gas is odorless, a commercial odorizer, such as Methanethiol (mercaptan brand), that smells of hydrogen sulfide (rotten eggs) is added to the gas for the ready detection of gas leaks. Natural gas is a fossil fuel that is formed when layers of organic matter (primarily marine microorganisms) are thermally decomposed under oxygen-free conditions, subjected to intense heat and pressure underground over millions of years. The energy that the decayed organisms originally obtained from the sun via photosynthesis is stored as chemical energy within the molecules of methane and other ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydraulic Fracturing Proppants
A proppant is a solid material, typically sand, treated sand or man-made ceramic materials, designed to keep an induced hydraulic fracture open, during or following a fracturing treatment, most commonly for unconventional reservoirs. It is added to a ''fracking fluid'' which may vary in composition depending on the type of fracturing used, and can be gel, foam or slickwater-based. In addition, there may be unconventional fracking fluids. 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. In addition, fluids may be used in low-volume well stimulation of high-permeability sandstone wells ( per well) to the high-volume operations such as shale gas and tight gas that use millions of gallons of water per well. Conventional wisdo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tight Oil
Tight oil (also known as shale oil, shale-hosted oil or light tight oil, abbreviated LTO) is light crude oil contained in Unconventional (oil & gas) reservoir, unconventional petroleum-bearing formations of low Permeability (earth sciences), permeability, often shale or tight sandstone. Economic production from tight oil formations requires the same hydraulic fracturing and often uses the same Directional drilling, horizontal well technology used in the production of shale gas. While sometimes called "shale oil", tight oil should not be confused with oil shale (shale rich in kerogen) or shale oil (oil produced from oil shales). Therefore, the International Energy Agency recommends using the term "light tight oil" for oil produced from shales or other very low permeability formations, while the World Energy Resources 2013 report by the World Energy Council uses the terms "tight oil" and "shale-hosted oil". In May 2013 the International Energy Agency in its ''Medium-Term Oil M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring unprocessed crude oil, as well as to petroleum products that consist of refining, refined crude oil. Petroleum is a fossil fuel formed over millions of years from anaerobic decay of organic materials from buried prehistoric life, prehistoric organisms, particularly planktons and algae, and 70% of the world's oil deposits were formed during the Mesozoic. Conventional reserves of petroleum are primarily recovered by oil drilling, drilling, which is done after a study of the relevant structural geology, sedimentary basin analysis, analysis of the sedimentary basin, and reservoir characterization, characterization of the petroleum reservoir. There are also unconventional (oil & gas) reservoir, unconventional reserves such as oil sands and oil sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crude Oil
Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring unprocessed crude oil, as well as to petroleum products that consist of refined crude oil. Petroleum is a fossil fuel formed over millions of years from anaerobic decay of organic materials from buried prehistoric organisms, particularly planktons and algae, and 70% of the world's oil deposits were formed during the Mesozoic. Conventional reserves of petroleum are primarily recovered by drilling, which is done after a study of the relevant structural geology, analysis of the sedimentary basin, and characterization of the petroleum reservoir. There are also unconventional reserves such as oil sands and oil shale which are recovered by other means such as fracking. Once extracted, oil is refined and separated, most easily by disti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tight Gas
Tight gas is commonly used to refer to natural gas produced from reservoir rocks with such low permeability that massive hydraulic fracturing is necessary to produce the well at economic rates. The gas is sealed in very impermeable and hard rocks, making their formation "tight". These impermeable reservoirs which produce dry natural gas are also called "Tight Sand". In reality the term "tight" refers to reservoirs where wells are unable to be commercially exploited at current economic conditions in the absence of artificial stimulation or changes in well geometry. It is economic criteria (gas price, opex, capex, royalties and fiscal regime) which define this status and in many cases, as gas/oil prices rise then, projects that have been previously shelved become viable; improvements in technology or changes in available infrastructure may also rehabilitate otherwise stranded gas. Tight gas reservoirs historically were generally defined as having less than 0.1 milli darcy (mD) matr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
