I saw the notices you see in the picture, yesterday, pinned to the gate that blocks the entry to the Chesapeake Energy Scott Avenue Thomas 1H Barnett Shale natural gas drilling site.I've been a Citizen, I mean Victim, of the Shale for a lot of years now and I still don't understand how it works. I guess I have not tried too hard to learn.
These notices indicated "Frac Dates" of Monday 1/12/09 to Wed 1/14/09. And a "Pump Time." Pumping what?
Yikes! Typing that made me realize this Frac date is not next week, it was a year ago. I forgot we have moved into a new decade and left the "Aughties" behind.
Which means the question that was perplexing me is no longer perplexing me. And that question was I thought the fraccing had already taken place at this site, because I remember video taping it.
So, is the fraccing a one time deal? Somehow a lot of chemically enhanced water is sent down into Barnett Shale via the hole that's been noisily drilled and this water causes the shale to shatter and release a lot of natural gas?
What role does the sand play? The second notice has to do with "Staging Sand Trucks." The Queen of Wink told me that she's seen mysterious giant piles of sand appear in her zone of West Texas. Is that where the sand is coming from?
After the chemically enhanced water does its fraccing job, then where does the chemically enhanced water go? Back to the surface? How does that work? I mean the chemically enhanced water has shattered the shale, releasing gas, that released gas, I assume, starts coming up the well shaft.
I'm perplexed. Maybe I'll try reading the Wikipedia article about the Barnett Shale again. When I tried that previously it didn't help alleviate my ignorance on this subject.
Oh my goodness...2009...I guess once a dumb blonde...always a dumb blonde!
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ReplyDeleteI guess I'm blonder than you cuz it was I who took the picture thinking this to be a current thing.
Hahaha. What makes it all worse is that you could have just excluded the pic and portion about the frac dates! I thought I was blonde! :P
ReplyDeleteWhat's "aughties" mean? How do you even pronounce that? Am I supposed to know this tidbit o' knowledge?
Sand soaks up the fracking fluids and gross water to be sent somewhere to dry out before being disposed of. I don't think every company uses this method. I feel like most prefer the open pond way.
Chemically enhanced water (haha -- makes it sound like powerade or something) is either added to sand or put in a pit to dry out. That's how it gets into the water supply. Rain runoff, etc. Also because sometimes, the water table below the ground isn't separated from the fracking sites causing groundwater intrusion.
The Barnett Shale is a weird source of natural gas because it's layered. Like shale, gas, limestone, shale, gas, etc (though that's not the exact order). Anyways, the fracking fluid causes cracks between the layers and ultimately to the surface giving the previously trapped natural gas pockets somewhere to escape to. The cracks/paths would look kind of like an upside down Christmas tree with the trunk being the main well and the branches being the cracks into the gas pockets. All the newly added pressure forces most of the fracking fluids back up the well or into the very pockets they break open since gas is lighter than both fracking fluid and stone. You'd normally only frack once or twice because once the gas is flowing, you can't really stop it until it's all gone, in which case they may frack the well again if there's enough evidence of more gas deeper. Did that help? Or did you already figure it out and now I'm just rambling? Ehhhh, I'm sure Sharon would be more help than I. My roommate is a petro engineer, want me to ask her?
There will possibly be more well bores drilled running different directions than those already drilled at the Thomas site. Those will need to be "fracced". Also, the existing wells can possibly be "re-fracced" in the future as gas production declines, to re-stimulate the flow of gas.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the petro lesson, Jovo.
ReplyDeleteGood questions and answers, but the thing that's not addressed here is the costs/consequences of this "hole in the ground" (i.e. when there's no way to move the released natural gas, as in 16-24 inch gathering pipelines, then that's essentially all it is= a hole). See why CHK and the City have been so fraccing desperate and fraccing relentless in trying to rob that guy Steve D's front yard? They've invested million$ in leasing bonuses all the way to the actual fraccing itself (not counting what kind of "palm greasing" expenses)and don't have even a red cent to show for this "slam dunk" of a deal due to cheap easements taken from poor people on Carter Ave. and very low overhead expenses in that there only a handful of different leassees to pay the royalty to each month. The Startlegram reported in Oct. that some of those out of state leaseholders are mighty angry about not getting the ton of money promised them by CHK, but directed their fury at the City in writing letters to demand an immediate issuance of permits to cross city streets that CHK had told them was THE reason for not having a gathering pipeline over a year after the scheduled completion date. Word is that these mad leaseholders are starting to realize that fraccing CHK has been lying to them all along (too embarassing to admit that one little guy managed to block the well-planned scheme by a billion$ corporation AND a large city government filled with gassed up politicians for quick easy profit)and are looking into suing them for breach of contract. Oh, for the love of money
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