There has never been a better time to invest money in oil. The United States is experiencing a boom in shale oil and gas exploration and production. In fact, thanks to rich reserves of oil and gas held deep within fine-grained shale rock formations, the United States has gone from being a net importer of oil to the top oil producer, ahead even of Russia and Saudi Arabia. Being an oil and gas investor Brookshire Salt Dome would have already paid off. So far, ten million barrels of oil have been extracted.
Novel technologies in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have opened up vast reserves of gas and oil that have been hitherto trapped inside the close-grained shale rock deposits deep beneath Texas, Oklahoma and much of New England. Extracting it involves drilling a horizontal hole, laying perforated pipe and blasting holes into the rock.
A mixture of sand, water and a handful of chemicals are then injected into the well to keep the fractures open, allowing the trapped gas and oil to flow through the pipe to the surface. A single frac project can require as much as tens of millions of gallons of frac water. Multiply that by an anticipated tens of thousands of fracking projects and the volume of water is nothing short of astounding.
New technologies in wastewater disposal and recycling are critical to the success of the hydraulic fracturing movement. Not only are large amounts of water trucked or piped into a drilling project, but water lying within the shale rock itself is released by the process. This is called produced water. Frac water, sand, chemicals and produced water flow up to the Earth's surface as backflow.
Produced water can amount to anywhere between three and eight times or more the volume that is pumped under pressure into the ground in order to create the fractures. Some of it is recycled, some of it is transferred into rapid evaporation pits to minimize the amount that has to be transported off site. The remainder is injected, sometimes at high pressures, into wastewater disposal wells.
It is the wastewater disposal wells that are responsible for the occurrence of abnormal seismic activity in areas that are being fractured. Understandably, the public is concerned about this seismic activity. So much that the United States Geological Survey of southern California has been studying what have become known in Oklahoma as "frackquakes." It is not the water used for fracturing that causes the seismic activity.
The USGS have been able to confirm a temporal relationship between injecting produced water into the rock under pressure and the occurrence of seismic activity. Another hazard of hydraulic fracturing is the potential for public drinking water to be contaminated. Again, this is down to produced water.
One way to become an indirect oil and gas investor Brookshire Salt dome is to invest in high volume frac water technologies. Existing reserves of oil and gas in shale oil deposits contain enough energy to see us well into the next century. Novel ways of recycling and treating wastewater are essential if we are to realize its full potential.
Novel technologies in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have opened up vast reserves of gas and oil that have been hitherto trapped inside the close-grained shale rock deposits deep beneath Texas, Oklahoma and much of New England. Extracting it involves drilling a horizontal hole, laying perforated pipe and blasting holes into the rock.
A mixture of sand, water and a handful of chemicals are then injected into the well to keep the fractures open, allowing the trapped gas and oil to flow through the pipe to the surface. A single frac project can require as much as tens of millions of gallons of frac water. Multiply that by an anticipated tens of thousands of fracking projects and the volume of water is nothing short of astounding.
New technologies in wastewater disposal and recycling are critical to the success of the hydraulic fracturing movement. Not only are large amounts of water trucked or piped into a drilling project, but water lying within the shale rock itself is released by the process. This is called produced water. Frac water, sand, chemicals and produced water flow up to the Earth's surface as backflow.
Produced water can amount to anywhere between three and eight times or more the volume that is pumped under pressure into the ground in order to create the fractures. Some of it is recycled, some of it is transferred into rapid evaporation pits to minimize the amount that has to be transported off site. The remainder is injected, sometimes at high pressures, into wastewater disposal wells.
It is the wastewater disposal wells that are responsible for the occurrence of abnormal seismic activity in areas that are being fractured. Understandably, the public is concerned about this seismic activity. So much that the United States Geological Survey of southern California has been studying what have become known in Oklahoma as "frackquakes." It is not the water used for fracturing that causes the seismic activity.
The USGS have been able to confirm a temporal relationship between injecting produced water into the rock under pressure and the occurrence of seismic activity. Another hazard of hydraulic fracturing is the potential for public drinking water to be contaminated. Again, this is down to produced water.
One way to become an indirect oil and gas investor Brookshire Salt dome is to invest in high volume frac water technologies. Existing reserves of oil and gas in shale oil deposits contain enough energy to see us well into the next century. Novel ways of recycling and treating wastewater are essential if we are to realize its full potential.
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