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Friday, August 31, 2012

Update on Schlumberger Fracking Technology: Hiway

Link here.

I talked about Schlumberger Hiway fracking a long time ago.  That posting has been one of my most visited sites; this should be of interest to those looking for an update.
So how does Hiway work?

Hodenfield, who grew up in North Dakota where the Bakken field is at the centre of the U.S. shale gas boom, brightens at the opportunity to explain a process that adds a proprietary fiber to the traditional sand and fluid mix, and uses a "pulsing" system to send globs of the fiber in between each injection.

The dissolvable fiber globs create more effective channels for the gas to flow, and the pulsing rhythm can be made to match the geological structure of the rock, also pushing the sand deeper into the cracks and resulting in more effective openings that conduct gas better for every liter pumped in.
Hiway is not the only new technique on the scene as oil companies look to use fracking to reach more lucrative oil as well as gas.

Schlumberger and other innovators are also using sophisticated seismic techniques, combined with data from pilot wells, to reduce the number of fracks along a drill pipe and target only the "sweet spots" in the field.
This is one of the better articles on fracking I have seen in a long, long time, updating the technology now being used, in a language I can understand.

Go to the link; there's a lot more information there.

A huge "thank you" to a reader for sending me this link.

4 comments:

  1. Hodenfield went to UND and majored in Petroleum and Geological Enginnering graduating in 1985.

    For a UND dropped Petroleum Engineering as a major, but brought it back about five years ago. Now, the popularity Petroleum Engineering is actually a factor in UND's record enrollment of 14,800. Both the Chemical Engineering and Geology Department (which also cosponsors Geological Engineering) are very good and helped (re) establish a Petroleum Engineering major. Petr Engineering is now a department in its own right.

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    1. Some time ago there was a big story about Harold Hamm visiting UND, and I assume the appropriate schools/departments. A consensus hunch at the time was Harold Hamm was recruiting geologists to join his team.

      What an incredible story. If UND brought the program back about five years ago, that was pretty quick moving. The North Dakota boom is only about that many years old.

      Thank you for taking time to comment.

      Delete
  2. I was the original commenter on this thread. Turns out the Petroleum Engineering major wasn't restarted until 2010. Perhaps it took three years or so of talk and approvals to get it going again.

    The Grand Forks Herald mentioned that Petroleum Engineering major has had so much growth, that it is actually impacting UND's enrollment size.

    http://und.edu/admissions/enrollment/includes/pdf/petroleum%20engineering.pdf

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    1. Time flies when one is having fun. Yes, that happens to me, also. The Bakken seems to have been around longer than it really has. It seems like I've blogged forever, and yet it's only been since 2009 for this blog.

      I actually think I remember posting that story but maybe not.

      Delete

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