Something that struck Brian Price as odd when he started selling chemicals to shale producers a few years ago was how few of them were thinking about whether the fracturing additives they pumped might cause trouble downhole. The man who is now vice president of technology and strategic optimism at Rockwater Energy Solutions--yes, it is optimism--had spent years working offshore. Engineers working in the Gulf of Mexico worried about the possible impact of chemicals pumped into highly permeable sandstone reservoirs made up of minerals such as quartz and feldspar. Both are fairly inert compared to the highly reactive mix in shale formations. While the job of offshore teams is to methodically consider how to maximize production from a few high-cost wells that are expected to produce for decades, those in the shale business have used standard designs to mass-produce wells in bad-quality rock, with a goal of maximizing production in year one.

Water is the most commonly used fluid in hydraulic fracturing, and it is used in large quantities. Chemicals are added to the water to aid in fracturing and prevent damage to the reservoir, and normally less than 1 percent of the fluid contents are chemical compounds. Because fracturing involves a large amount of water, innovations to reuse/recycle and safely dispose of the water are an important part of environmental stewardship. Hydraulic fracturing is the process of pumping fluid into a wellbore at an injection rate too high for the formation to accept without breaking.[1] During injection, the formation's resistance to flow increases, and the pressure in the wellbore increases to a value called the break-down pressure, which is the sum of the in-situ compressive stress and the strength of the formation.

Water sources are treated for disposal, injection as a liquid, or injection as steam with three types of facilities. Produced water is treated in offshore operations for overboard disposal or injection into a disposal well. Water sources are treated for disposal, injection as a liquid, or injection as steam with three types of facilities. Surface water is treated offshore for liquid injection and onshore for liquid- or steam-injection purposes. In all instances, the surface water must be cleaned of dispersed and dissolved solids to a level suitable for reservoir or steam-generation purposes.

The process of drilling and completing coalbed methane (CBM) wells is similar to wells in conventional reservoirs. Coring, however, can pose special challenges. The first step in creating a drilling program for a CBM well involves gathering information about existing wells in a given area. After these data are gathered and analyzed, a preliminary drilling and completion prognosis can be drafted with the input of field operations personnel. An important aspect in drilling frontier or appraisal wells is to keep the drilling procedures relatively simple.

A useful first step in the characterization of any new coal area is to compare its characteristics with those of successful CBM projects. Table 2 summarizes the characteristics of several successful projects in the US and includes parameters related to reservoir properties, gas production, gas resources, and economics. The table shows that successful projects have many similarities, including high permeabilities and high gas resource concentration; however, the table does not include aspects such as government incentives or high-value markets, which could elevate a marginal project to commercial status.

Polymers are used to viscosify the fluid. Crosslinkers are used to change the viscous fluid to a pseudoplastic fluid. Biocides are used to kill bacteria in the mix water. Buffers are used to control the pH of the fracture fluid. Surfactants are used to lower the surface tension.

Documentaries are used both to educate and tell stories that their makers believe should be heard. That applies to documentaries about the inner workings of various industries such as oil and gas. To many outside the petroleum industry, those inner workings are a black box: Money and engineering goes in, gasoline and petrochemical products come out. It is also full of stories, making it an industry ripe for documentarians. The following reviews consider a small handful of the documentaries covering the petroleum industry and what might be learned from them beyond their immediate message.

Explaining Traditional Engineering Models It is a well-known fact that models of physical phenomena that are generated through mathematical equations can be explained. This is one of the main reasons behind the expectation of engineers and scientists that any potential model of the physical phenomena should be explainable. Explainability of the traditional models of physical phenomena is achieved through the solutions of the mathematical equations that are used to build the models. Explanations of such models are achieved through analytical solutions (for reasonably simple mathematical equations) or numerical solutions (for complex mathematical equations) of the mathematical equations. Solutions of the mathematical equations provide the opportunities to get answers to almost any question that might be asked from the model of the physical phenomena. Solutions of the mathematical equations are used to explain why and how certain results are generated by the model. It allows examination and explanation of the influence and effect of all the involved parameters (variables) on one another and on the model's results (output parameters).

US tight-gas producer Southwestern Energy is acquiring smaller rival Indigo Natural Resources in a deal valued at about $2.7 billion. Houston-area based Southwestern said on Wednesday that the acquisition will add to its portfolio nearly 149,000 acres in the gas-rich Haynesville and Bossier shale formations in northern Louisiana. Indigo operates 330 producing wells and holds more than 1,000 future drilling locations, according to corporate reports. The properties are expected to average 1.1 Bcf/D for the year and proven reserves in 2020 were estimated to be 3.1 Tcf. The area serves as the major supply hub for liquified natural gas (LNG) plants and industrial markets along the US Gulf Coast.

Free data from the first Permian Hydraulic Fracturing Test Site is available online and reports from the second test site will be available this summer. Those reports offer a unique look at fracturing in the Midland and Delaware Basins, using nearly every diagnostic test an engineer can think of and analysis by technology leaders including Occidental and Shell among the partners. Because the US government shares the cost with industry partners, the data are made publicly available after a period during which the companies that pay half the cost have exclusive access to it. The data posted draw on work begun more than 5 years ago. It is available on the National Energy Technology Laboratory's EDX data sharing site (details below). The files offer processed data from testing done at an 11-well pad in the Midland Basin dating back to 2015, said Gary Covatch, a petroleum engineer at the US Department of Energy.