Super fracking

Turcotte, Donald L.; Moores, Eldridge M.; Rundle, John B.

doi:10.1063/pt.3.2480

Cited by 35 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The increase in length is enabled by a decrease in cost per length drilled, which has fallen 57% in the past 4 years (10), current costs (2015) being about 1000$/ft, more (wet) or less (dry) depending on the produced fluid. Fractures are introduced along these laterals by injecting liquids at high flowrate (in excess of 90 bbl/min (14)), stimulating ever-increasing reservoir volumes from isolated wells, recently termed 'super fracking' (15).…”

Section: A Brief History Of Hydraulic Fracturingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Complex Fluids and Hydraulic Fracturing

Barbati

Desroches

Robisson

et al. 2016

Annu. Rev. Chem. Biomol. Eng.

165

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Nearly 70 years old, hydraulic fracturing is a core technique for stimulating hydrocarbon production in a majority of oil and gas reservoirs. Complex fluids are implemented in nearly every step of the fracturing process, most significantly to generate and sustain fractures, and transport and distribute proppant particles during and following fluid injection. An extremely wide range of complex fluids are used: naturally occurring polysaccharide and synthetic polymer solutions, aqueous physical and chemical gels, organic gels, micellar surfactant solutions, emulsions, and foams. These fluids are loaded over a wide range of concentration with particles of varying size, and aspect ratio, and are subjected to a extreme mechanical and environmental conditions. We describe the settings of hydraulic fracturing (framed by geology), fracturing mechanics and physics, and the critical role that non-Newtonian fluid dynamics and complex fluids plays in the hydraulic fracturing process.

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Section: A Brief History Of Hydraulic Fracturingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Complex Fluids and Hydraulic Fracturing

Barbati

Desroches

Robisson

et al. 2016

Annu. Rev. Chem. Biomol. Eng.

165

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“…Дополнительно к этому внимание исследователей стала привлекать проблема так называемого сти-мулированного объема пород, который образуется при использовании технологий добычи сланцевых углеводородов, основанных на бурении горизон-тальных скважин в продуктивном пласте и созда-нии гидроразрыва с помощью закачки «скользкой» воды (т.е. раствора, вязкость которого понижена на порядок по сравнению с обычной) [Turcotte et al, 2014]. Стимулированный объем охватывает об-ласть разветвленных трещин гидроразрыва и/или активизированных естественных трещин, его раз-витие регистрируется микросейсмическими собы-тиями [Maxwell et al, 2010] и теоретически модели-руется как на основе континуального [Norris et al, 2015a], так и дискретного [Norris et al, 2015b] под-хода.…”

Section: о континуализации искусственной и естественной блочной струкunclassified

On Discrete Structure of Geologic Medium and Continual Approach to Modeling Its Movements

Мухамедиев

2016

Geodin. tektonofiz.

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This paper discusses the structure of a geologic medium represented by accessible lithified rocks and provides an overview of methods used to describe its movements. Two basic opinions are considered in the framework of the discussion: (1) an initially homogeneous and continuous geologic medium acquires the structure composed of blocks in the process of the geologic medium's deformation/destruction/degradation, and (2) a geologic medium is composed of blocks (and often has hierarchic, active, energy-saturated features), and the continuity model is thus not valid for describing the geologic medium's deformation. Proponents of the first point of view actively apply the standard or modified continuum model of a solid deformed body (SDB) in estimations of the stress-strain state, but the input parameters of this model do not contain any information on discreteness in principle. Authors who support the second opinion, either explicitly or implicitly assume that the block structure of the geologic medium, which is detectable by geological methods, makes a direct and unambiguous impact on all other mechanical properties of the geologic medium and, above all, on the nature of its movements.Based on results obtained by interpreting the data collected in our long-term field studies of rock fracturing, mathematical processing of GPS-measurements, and theoretical models, we agree with the concept of the geologic medium's block structure, but argue that the geologic block-structure property is not acquired but congenital. Regarding sedimentary rocks, it means that the discrete structure has been already embodied in the rock before sediment lithification, regardless of the intensity of macroscopic deformations. A discrete structure is the form of the geologic medium existence and a cause of the congenital anisotropy of the geologic medium's strength characteristics. Due to subsequent deformation of the geologic medium, some elements of the structure can be manifested more clearly, and the structure itself can become more complex due to secondary effects. At the same time, the structure of geologic blocks is not directly manifested in the spatial and temporal features of the recent movements in the geologic medium. However, it is not an obstacle to developing continuum models of such movements in the same way as, for instance, the adequacy of the continuum general theory of relativity is not denied in view of the discrete-hierarchical structure of the Universe.The key requirements to a model include its applicability, testability, confirmability/deniability of its predictions in the investigated space-time scale, and compliance with conservation laws. This paper briefly discusses the most important aspects of the continuum approach based on the concept of an effective continuous medium and, above all, the Cauchy continuum model, envisaging that the dynamic response of the medium in spatial descriptions is given only by the Cauchy symmetric stress tensor (T). In more general continuum models of the medium (such as mom...

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“…The dissipation of fluid flowing through the channel is dominated by the shear flow across z and, using (1), is…”

Section: A Summary Of Theory For Elliptical Fluid-driven Crackmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The extraction of natural gas and oil from mudstones (popularly known as shales) is a technological marvel [1]. The hydrocarbon-bearing layers are thin residues of the floors of ancient bodies of water, now sitting at depths of a kilometer or more.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simple models of the hydrofracture process

2015

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Hydrofracturing to recover natural gas and oil relies on the creation of a fracture network with pressurized water. We analyze the creation of the network in two ways. First, we assemble a collection of analytical estimates for pressure-driven crack motion in simple geometries, including crack speed as a function of length, energy dissipated by fluid viscosity and used to break rock, and the conditions under which a second crack will initiate while a first is running. We develop a pseudo-three-dimensional numerical model that couples fluid motion with solid mechanics and can generate branching crack structures not specified in advance. One of our main conclusions is that the typical spacing between fractures must be on the order of a meter, and this conclusion arises in two separate ways. First, it arises from analysis of gas production rates, given the diffusion constants for gas in the rock. Second, it arises from the number of fractures that should be generated given the scale of the affected region and the amounts of water pumped into the rock.

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Super fracking

Abstract: Injecting large volumes of low-viscosity water helps energy producers extract oil and gas from shales that tightly confine those fossil fuels. But the technique also confronts technical and environmental issues.

Cited by 35 publications

References 10 publications

Complex Fluids and Hydraulic Fracturing

Complex Fluids and Hydraulic Fracturing

On Discrete Structure of Geologic Medium and Continual Approach to Modeling Its Movements

Simple models of the hydrofracture process

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