Hydraulic Fracking Has Rewarded Oil and Gas Investors
Hydraulic fracturing is a method used to create fractures that extend from a wellbore into rock formations, such as limestone or shale. The method is called fracking or hydrofrac. The technique is used to increase or reclaim the rate which fluids and gases, such as oil and natural gas that can be produced from the geological formation.
By creating or re-enhancing existing fractures, the surface area or the face of the formation exposed to the borehole is increased and the newly created or enhanced fractures provides a conductive path connecting the reservoir to the wellbore, which effectively increases the rate that fluids can be produced from the reservoir formations. Water driven fracking includes the injection of hundreds or thousands of barrels of water, sand and chemicals into the target formation. Sand or Silicone is used to keep the minor fractures or existing fractures, created by the high pressure injection, open to create a better porosity from the formation. It allows the oil and gas to flow with much better results.
Fracturing equipment provides a range of pressures and injection rates, and can reach up to 15,000 psi and 100 Barrels per Minute. The objective is to create a network of interconnected fractures that will increase production amounts substantially.
While the technique of hydraulic fracking is fairly new to many of today’s applications, the procedure has been in implemented for more than a hundred years. It was developed as early as 1903, but was much more widely used in the 1940’s.
Hydraulic fracturing, in conjunction with horizontal drilling has turned previously unproductive fossil-rich shales into the largest natural gas fields in the entire world. The Marcellus Shale, Barnett Shale(Texas), Bakken Formation and the Eagleford Shale in my state of Texas, are examples of previously unproductive formations that have been converted into huge benefits to oil and gas companies and investors in that industry. Oil and gas investments have had great rewards in this market. Oil and Gas Investing in these types of drilling programs can be very rewarding in profits and tax benefits.
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