The vast majority of oil wells that are being drilled in the Williston Basin employ hydraulic fracturing as a completion technique.The study is on-going.
These wells use, on average, three to five million pounds of proppant, be it natural sand or spherical ceramic beads, to keep these fractures open.
Because of the tremendous amount of product utilized in North Dakota, the North Dakota Geological Survey undertook 1) a study to find local sand deposits that would meet the criteria and could be used as natural proppant and 2) a study to find local clay resources (kaolinite) that could be utilized in the manufacture of ceramic proppant.
My hunch is that some entrepreneur between South Heart and Hebron is about to start a whole new industry, clay --> ceramic proppants. And unlike the Chinese proppants, ND ceramic proppants will be radiation-free.
By the way, one of the best little books I have ever read is Graham Cairns-Smith's book on the origin of life. It's a very, very short book. I think one can read it one evening. He provides a convincing scientific argument that God indeed used clay to fashion man. But it was a somewhat complicated recipe and required a few years to bake.
this would be a good place to use all this Cheap NG that is being flared..
ReplyDeleteSounds like a new industry is in the making for North Dakota. The economic miracle just keeps getting better.
ReplyDeleteSo if God used clay to fashion man and it needed years to bake does that mean we now what is wrong with fax-enviromentalist. They are only half baked?
Half-baked -- very, very clever.
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