Natural gas drilling is starting in my area

[Lee]

I'll have only one comment here. That is, if you power your home with nuclear energy, get off. If you power your home with natural gas, get off. If you power your home with fuel oil, get off. If you power your home with wood, get off.
Now before I get flamed, consider the alternatives. Geothermal? Did I mention electricity? Solar? What happens when "da sun don't shine?" Wind power? What happens when it don't blow? Rest assured, the deep pockets have us all in mind, just not favoribly. Did I mention gasoline prices? With all the "stuff" we are expporting, O'Bummer sure isn't worried about where AF1 is gonna cart his sorry *** next week.
OTHERWISE, any action you take, any decision you make has consequences.
I am rural. 2-3 years after moving here, a petition was circulated demanding the local dairy farmer close down, from a newbie yuppie, because every May, he "spread the wealth", and the smell bothered the little stupid yuppie commune next to me.
The petition STATED "everyone one knows milk comes from the store. We don't need these smells."
Please, take time to consider the consequences of your(our) actions.
No flaming please. We all need to consider the consequences of our actions ..... Lee

[Bad Water Bill]

About 30 years ago I took a great shower in Virgin Valley Nv.

Almost every square inch of the valley was staked out.

Yes they knew about the thermal waters just below the surface.

If thermal is so great why hasn't the Canadian company that spent the bucks and staked it out and filed the claims developed it yet?

[Gator 45/70]

And a 'wet' contract.

pretty sure they ain't..
they call them separators for a reason.

just do a search here, you'll find the answers in the past postings several of us [that do this stuff everyday] have already posted.

[jebsca]

It's nice to see that bit everyone is getting the facts from the media. Keep in mind, this is the same media that is pushing anti-gun. I have been working for a frac company for about 10 years now, and feel that we are doing a very good job of looking out for all of our best interest. If we mess up the drinking water, that will be a big problem for me as well. I still haven't been able to live without it. As for the hell that we can play on the local roads and what not, that is a broad paint brush getting used. I have seen some companies that do not care about the roads, SOME. Most of us know that we have to use the roads for the life of the well, and not only do we take care of them, we tend to help the roads we are allowed to work on. I know that in south central Kansas, the dirt roads around here are much better now than when I first started. I have seen different companies bring in rock and pay for dirt work to make poor roads usable, and build roads that were sorely needed.

[xs11jack]

A few days ago, some government agency, I think, released a study about the earthquakes that have been plaguing some areas of Oklahoma. The bottom line was that fracking is the cause. Some of the quakes are as high as 4 on the Rickter(sp) scale and cause damage. As Bill says "What say you?"
Ole Jack

[DLCTEX]

Oklahoma has been having earthquakes since Adam was a pup. The recent quakes are not occuring in the areas that most of the fracking is being done. We have had fracking going on for years here and wells drilled everywhere. No quakes here other than a minor tremble like those that have occured every great once in a while since man has been here.

[runfiverun]

they backed off from blaming the fracking and are now blaming it on the injection wells in the area.

oh well... if it weren't for "earthquake oil" they wouldn't have found much of it down texas and Oklahoma way when they first did.

[DLCTEX]

I wonder if the fact that the oil and gas in this area is found along the Anadarko fault may be a key to why earth quakes happen? No one is surprised when they happen along other fault lines.Duh!

[dakotashooter2]

It is rumored that North Dakota is also begining to experience some quakes. This is actually our second "oil rush" so we have been through it before but apparently didn't learn any lessons. I wasn't concerned at first but grow more concerned every day. The pace of development is staggering and our rural lifestyle and landscape is taking some big hits. In the western part of the state water is also becoming an issue. This state has been in a "wet" weather pattern for 15-20 years but that is going to end at some point. If water is an issue now (used for fracking) what is going to happen when we get back into our normal (dry) weather cycle. Water was already and issue previous to our current "wet cycle".

[farmerjim]

I hope they drill on one of my 3 leases soon.

[.45Cole]

Natural gas is hard to pay by itself, but many of the wells target "wet" gas. Natural gas liquids (NGL) make gas production profitable and is what makes the gas "wet". NGL's are C4-C6 ish and are sold off at a higher price than gas. Most ground water is less than 1000', while the drilling for the target formations will likely be 6000'+. The business is really neat, and you might look into it. Seismic is most likely what they are doing around you. They usually place many receivers around and then thumper trucks create a pulse wave (you probably won't even be able to perceive it) and then a map of densities and reflections will be made to map out possible well sites. The engineering of the whole process is really amazing. I'm in the DJ basin in the Wattenburg field.

[Gator 45/70]

I looked at some 3-D shots today in a meeting, I was surprised at how well the fractured and different layers of plates showed up, Also was shown a salt dome 3-D shot that had pushed thru the bedrock, You have miniature mountains below you, Its truly a science to find the production sands.

[waksupi]

Here locally, we average over 300 quakes per year. No drilling going on, just the Earth being the Earth.

[runfiverun]

no-dak definitely didn't pay attention the first time, the benefits and troubles are a localized phenomenon in some of the western/central cities and the east is untouched and in the dark.
the state is just now trying to make a [re] deal for increased revenue percentages and is seeing all that extra profit being burned off everyday all day long. [even though they give out the permits to do so]
oh a lot of that flairing off is about to change.
the federal government stepped in and is about to really make a dent in production in the state, pushing us back to number-2 or even further down the chain in production.
yeah prices are gonna go up again unless another field takes up the slack.
the Mandan tribal council is now laughing to the bank and is actually on the forefront of action compared to what the state itself is doing.

I guess opening the ground 20 microns could manufacture earthquakes [shrug] but I doubt it since to fissures are already there the fracking just keeps them open enough to retrieve the oil.
btw the ground is opened to 308 diameter [on average at the well opening] and then proppant
[between 20 and 70 mesh in diameter] is pushed in/out from there it is actually propping open the mostly already there fissures not collapsing [breaking anything] or making new ones it.
if you collapse it or just leave the unconnected fissures there the oil won't flow.

[David2011]

The fracking in layman's terms is blasting the bedrock/strata which contains the natural gas. The fractured rock allows the gas to escape to the well more easily. The fracking takes place hundreds if not thousands of feet down. There is no way that it can cause surface subsidence or movement.

There are few chemicals used in drilling and fracking. Wells are drilled with water and the fracking is nearly the same as dynamite. Unless they are within 100 feet of your well I doubt there would be damage.


I would be more concerned with a neighbor pouring out his used motor oil than drilling for gas. Mining were a mineral or coal is removed from the ground presents new and a lot more problems.

WV,

With all due respect, this is misinformation. "Fracking" (fracturing) is NOT blasting. It is a continuous pumping operation in which great volumes of a fluid, usually water and a proppant, either sand or an inert synthetic substance, are pumped into the production zone at a high rate of flow and high pressure. The fluid cracks the rock. The proppant props the cracks open. The result is that the oil or gas is more easily recovered. Explosives are not part of fracturing. OTOH, "perforating" is the use of shaped charges (explosives) to puncture the cement, steel casing and formation for several feet prior to fracturing. It gives fracturing a place to start. The pumping rates can be up to 90 barrels/minute at 15,000 PSI.

My day job is working for one of the major players in this industry.

David

[jebsca]

If you read where the earthquakes are taking place, it's like 4 or 5 miles below the surface. Fracing is deep in this country if it's 2 miles down, but in northern OK, it's more like just over a mile down. Not even close. Something else to keep in mind, the first frac job was in the 1950s. Now that I'm trying to remember, I am drawing a blank. I'll have to get the info on that again.

[Dale in Louisiana]

Natural gas is hard to pay by itself, but many of the wells target "wet" gas. Natural gas liquids (NGL) make gas production profitable and is what makes the gas "wet". NGL's are C4-C6 ish and are sold off at a higher price than gas. Most ground water is less than 1000', while the drilling for the target formations will likely be 6000'+. The business is really neat, and you might look into it. Seismic is most likely what they are doing around you. They usually place many receivers around and then thumper trucks create a pulse wave (you probably won't even be able to perceive it) and then a map of densities and reflections will be made to map out possible well sites. The engineering of the whole process is really amazing. I'm in the DJ basin in the Wattenburg field.

Yes! Since I went to work for a natural gas pipeline (I'm THE electrical guy) I've learned a lot about 'natural gas'. Commercially, it's mostly methane, CH4, but what comes out of the ground is NOT pure methane. If you go back to your high school chemistry, then you know about hydrocarbon chains. Methane is the simplest one, but the wells produce mixtures of methane and varying aomunts of the longer chains. Gathering systems take the stuff from the wells and send it to "midstream" plants. These take the raw gas from the gathering system and strip away that heavy stuff for sale. It's like taking a shovel full of pea gravel and finding rubies in it. The heavy stuff, propanes and butanes and ethylenes are sold to companies that use them for various products.

The remaining, much more pure natural gas goes back into the pipeline where we transport it to companies who sell natural gas for fuel.

Costs? a gallon of gasline ist $3.50 around here right now. That's 125,000 BTU of energy. Today's trade in natural gas is around $4.00 for a MILLION BTU, or one-eighth the cost of gasoline for the same energy.

dale in Louisiana
(having fun in the energy industry since 1977)

[dtknowles]

..............Costs? a gallon of gasline ist $3.50 around here right now. That's 125,000 BTU of energy. Today's trade in natural gas is around $4.00 for a MILLION BTU, or one-eighth the cost of gasoline for the same energy.

dale in Louisiana
(having fun in the energy industry since 1977)

Dale

I think it might be more fair if you used wholesale prices or subtract the taxes from the gasoline. Natural gas will still a lot be cheaper per BTU but not eight times. Wonder what would happen to NG prices if we got used to using it as a motor fuel.

Tim

[runfiverun]

they have been using it for years.
international harvester used to offer propane conversions from the factory on their pickups in the 70's..
ford used to build bronco's and Taurus's that run on natural gas and the gas company would drive them around to read meters and such.


that other type of proppant mentioned above is ceramic.

90 barrels a minute job is not that high, I have done jobs around 140 barrels a minute.
[that's 5880 gallons a minute]
and worked pressures up near 20-thousand psi.

[Dale in Louisiana]

Dale

I think it might be more fair if you used wholesale prices or subtract the taxes from the gasoline. Natural gas will still a lot be cheaper per BTU but not eight times. Wonder what would happen to NG prices if we got used to using it as a motor fuel.

Tim

Good point, Tim!

According figures I just Googled, April's gasoline wholesale price (the latest on that chart) was 2.981/gallon. That makes it only six times as expensive per BTU.

The feds and the states both pile taxes onto gasoline. If you had a compressor and set a vehicle up for using CNG (compressed natural gas) as fuel, a not uncommon bit of technology, you'd still save a bundle, although amortizing the cost of that compressor might stretch it out a bit.

dale in Louisiana