Gasland

Cowards and fanatics will always cry the sky is falling in spite of whether it is or not. Facts and statistics don't play into their fears and over active imagination. Facts are fracing has been done for over 40 yrs and not one single case of process causing anything. Scant handful of situations where contractors cut corners and caused fairly minor problems. More cases of activists{above stated cowards} falsifying and staging accidents then real cases. We have been poking holes in the Earth for centuries. And the Earth has been shaking the whole time. Why aren't all the other well types failing? Much more primitive construction materials and techniques. Pull head out of sand. Do your job like a professional without cutting corners to save a buck and enjoy the spoils of your work. Would love to argue with wimp. But have to go to work. Not in patch. Got that money while getting was good. Too many showing up these days willing to work for scraps and griping about the industry. No wonder they couldn't cut it where they came from. Making almost the same locally in own bed every day. BCBS for $74 every 2 weeks. Free uniforms and laundry. No one hollering to hurry up. 2011 is oldest reserve truck. Most 2012-13. Gotta love it. Be safe and if the BIG ONE should hit-oh well nothing you can do about it anyway. Take some pictures of the wells blowing out . LOL

 

These chemicals aren't just soap. Acid is probably the nastiest thing we pump down hole along with oxidizes every once in a while. Lots of companies have said that te slurry mixture is less than 1% chemicals and the rest is sand and water and from what I've seen that is absolutely true. Boreholes are extremely reinforced with heavy casing that can withstand anywhere from 10000-20000 lbs of burst pressure from the inside and then cemented in with varying thickness of cement. The closer to surface the thicker the cement. I've heard three foot thick surface cement. These companies are vary aware of shifting plates were they drill. They don't want anything to happen to the well anymore than we do cause they'll lose all that money which is what their all about.

 

Hundreds can be used; they're using seven on Me99's job. Some of it is extremely nasty, some of it is in your food. And some of it is "soap;" more accurately referred to by its industry-generic name of surfactant. (http://fracfocus.org/chemical-use/what-chemicals-are-used) I find it rather amusing whenever someone trots out the fact that benzene is sometimes used.

Read what I posted above, re: frac fluid disposal, with respect to "leaving chemicals in the ground."

How often does this happen? Rare, rare, rare. Is it an issue? No. Concern? Minor, at best. As Me99 pointed out, O/G companies have billions invested in wells. Do you think they want to see that investment neutralized?

Are they referring to hydrocarbon aromatics as a result of an industrial process? If so, are they just as concerned about the exhaust from the jet they took to Europe? The exhaust from their car? Coal-fired power plant emissions? I wouldn't spend a lot of time breathing any of the aforementioned, but they're a part of the process. You said it, "'Energy' is just a dirty business." That doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to do it as cleanly as possible, but we have to accept certain levels of pollution if we wish to continue to inhabit this planet.

It takes energy to make energy... "there is no free lunch."

Environmentalist harp about alternative fuels. Well, natural gas is a reasonably clean, convenient fuel which we can use while we refine/invent alternative fuels/methodology.

Or, I suppose we could go back to caves, clubs and fire.
(Yes, I know there are some nutcases that think that's exactly what we should do. They should do the planet a favour and just "off" themselves.)

 

Fracing isn't the problem. Their focus should really be on cementing and completion procedures.

Fracing has the potential to be very hazardous and/or problematic, but if the preceding procedures are not done correctly is where everything can go pear-shaped.

 

Another thing about these chemicals. Energy companies don't even want to use them. If they had their choice in a perfect world all we would use would be sand. Most of the chemicals and water we use damages production so it's in their best interest to use the least amount possible. There not just throwing hundreds of chemicals down there they strategically decide what they has to use to maximize production. I've been on many frac jobs that used three chemicals and acid. Biocide and acid were the only harmful ones and Biocide is used to minimize h2s while the well is in production.

 

Yup, use as little as possible. Some chemicals are necessary though, like what you have stated, or the necessity of adding an inhibitor to the acid so it doesn't degrade well assets... common sense.