Opinion on Future Production

Here's a short video of an industry management stand point on the future of these unconventional shale plays which have changed the perspective of future oil and gas production.

Seismic Monitoring

Fracture optimization can lead to a huge turn around in the production of oil and gas.  This is especially true in these unconventional reserves which are beginning to be produced today.  There are many tight gas sand and shales which depend upon fracturing to flip them from being uneconomical to economical.  One large step in the optimization of fracture placement and well spacing is the use of microseismic evaluation.  There are a few ways to obtain microsiesmic data.  The most effective method is to place receivers downhole in a monitor well but the equipment is restricted to about 330 degrees Fahrenheit.  Another method is to obtain data with surface receivers but surface noise such as bypassing trucks can make data worthless.  Typical fractures create hypocenters which is where the origin of the acoustic waves is located.  The problem with this evaluation, is that the location of the hypocenter determined from wave velocity is that the origin of the acoustic data isn't necessarily the location where fracturing is occurring.  A typical fracture will be monitored between -1 and -4 on the Richter scale.  A felt earthquake can be around 3 or so on this logarithmic scale.  As you can tell, the monitors are very sensitive to acoustic activity.  Research today is being directed toward evaluating this obtained data in hopes of optimizing well spacing and fracture placement.  As I said before, this discovery would enhance the economic potential of unconventional reservoirs for the future.  Also, this could mean better management of limited resources and reservoirs and lead to a longer life of the effective energy that oil and natural gas provides to the world.

Optimaziton = $$$$

My last post had some information on the abrupt changes which are introduced into the oil and gas industry in the blink of an eye.  Hydraulic fracturing was a huge discovery several years ago which really changed the country's perspective on the whole idea of peak oil.  Many uneconomical reserves became economic to produce hydrocarbons out of with the technique of hydraulic fracturing.  Today, the industry faces another issue related to fracturing.  Fracturing has to be executed in stages to ensure more effective penetration into the reservoir.  Fracturing requires thorough study about the rocks mechanical properties (Young's Modulus and Poisons Ratio in particular).  When one zone is perforated, these moduli are changed for the neighboring zone which is set to be fractured next.  There is no clear answer to what number of stages is the optimum number to fracture a well with.  Although wells differ greatly, some wells being drilled with similar trajectories and into the same target reservoirs are being hydraulically stimulated in completely different ways.  As a guest speaker state "Everyone is doing completely different stimulation methods for similar well, but no matter who you ask, they are doing it the correct way despite the massive differences in techniques."  Monitoring the paths of the induced fractures in the rock is key to the answer of optimization of hydraulic techniques.  There have been several advances in this aspect and continue to progress.  I don't have a guess as to how much more economical these wells can become if fracturing optimization is achieved, but I do believe it has a great possibility of altering the perspective of peak oil once again in the near future. 

Sure Energy

The research being applied to sources of clean energy seem to be increasing throughout the years.  As observed with the disaster in Japan, each energy source has some flaws to it.  Nuclear reactors produce fear in the public just as the instance in Fukushima.  Radioactive elements released into the atmosphere is a big issue and despite the fact that statements have been made that there are minimal amounts present which are not "likely" to increase health problems, there IS still that possibility that radiation may raise chances of health problems to those individuals exposed.  The oil spill was certainly a disaster and set many businesses back for a period of time.  Oil exposed to the atmosphere however, has less (basically zero) human health impacts.  In the case of wind farms and solar power, large amounts of turbines as well as panels are required to produce incremental amounts of energy that oil and natural gas are capable of generating.  Technology in drilling seems to strike significant findings in the aspect of ways to improve economic operations in the extraction of hydrocarbons in spontaneous instances.  These advancements change the whole perspective of fossil fuels, like shale and tight gas sands have done so recently.  The minds of engineers and R&D staff in the oil and gas industry are always turning, and there are multiple methods to improve economic recovery out there that are waiting for that one spark to begin applying practices in industry.  The spark may come tomorrow, next month, or a year from now.  Natural gas is said to be cleaner burning fuel than oil, but a refining technique may arise an option to generate cleaner fuel in the future with the quick changes that the ever expanding oil industry experiences.  The public seems to want to through out drilling for hydrocarbons much more easily than other sources of energy which can result in a disaster such as a nuclear one for example.  Cleaner energy is more beneficial to the environment, but the fact is that the U.S. is starving for energy, and the one sure source which has been around for many years is oil.

Stimulation Video

As an extension to my last post, here is a video that shows the basics of the hydraulic stimulation of a well.  The video also shows the basics steps to followed to drill a horizontal well which is the majority of the type of wells being drilled today.

What is a Frac Job?

I've had several posts on frac jobs of oil and gas wells.  It is actually a complex process and there is a lot of chemistry that goes into the design of a frac.  Each frac is specific to the well and its properties such as pressure, temperature, pH level, lithology, and others.  Thousands of gallons of water are used for frac jobs and very miniscule amounts of chemicals (.004% per thousand gallons of water) can completely alter the properties of the fluid .  The idea of a fracture job is to create a super highway for hydrocarbons to travel into the producing wellbore.  The shape charge perforations which I explained in earlier posts are the first step to the job.  The frac fluid is pumped into the wellbore and uses a crosslinker to suspend sand proppant and carry it into the perforation.  The crosslinker can vary from fluid to a solid composition such as one that Schlumberger uses.  The crosslinker can be modified to delay the conversion of the fluid into gel so optimization of sand suspension and placement can be achieved.  The type of sand used depends on the pressure encountered at the fracture.  Some sand can be crushed if the pressure is too great and man made ceramics can be used in these cases.  Once the gel has carried the sand into the fractures to create a super hydrocarbon highway, a breaker is added to return the fluid system to a less viscous state.  The fluid is pumped back to surface returning the majority of chemicals and additives in the fluid system to tanks on surface while leaving the proppant to maintain the fracture open.  This method of stimulating a well has become routine for nearly every well drilled in order to enhance production.  This method is the technology driving these tight gas sands and shale research for economic production of new reservoirs being discovered today.  Multiple zone fractures are highly common and a 3D image is seen below to monitor the effectiveness of a hydraulic fracture stimulation job.  Each color represents a different zone.

A frac job also requires a lot of hydraulic horsepower.  This is achieved by connecting several pump trucks ranging from 1000 hp to 3000 hp each to a unit called missel located in between the group of all the trucks.  

Video Blog

Here is my very FIRST video blog post ever.  It's a little hairy, didn't really know what I was doing or what I wanted to talk about exactly, but there's some good background info about the drilling industry.  Enjoy!