Hydraulic Fracturing
3
The Hydraulic Fracturing Project
Table of Contents
· Legal and Environmental Issues
· State and Federal Law and Regulations
· Understand Hydraulic Fracturing to United States Energy Needs
The procedure known as Hydraulic Fracturing consist in create fractures in the rocks or rock formations, and it is done by introducing a mix of sand and water inside the cracks in order to force the underground to expand. The large fissures will allow that more oil and gas flow out and into the well bore to be extracted. This process forms channels that improve the rate in which the fluids can be generated from the reservoir formations, and in some cases the percent can be increased considerable.
The safety steps included in this process are aimed to protect water supplies to be used by the population and to assure that neither the fluid that will be pumped through the well, nor the oil or gas that will eventually be gathered enters in contact with the water sources designated for the human consumption. To comply with these regulations steel surface or intermediate casings are interleaved into the well to depths of between 1,000 and 4,000 feet. The space between these casing “strings” and the drilled hole (wellbore), called the annulus, and is filling up with cement. Once the cement has been set, the drilling continues from the bottom of the surface or intermediate cemented steel casing to the next depth. This process is repeated, using smaller steel casing each time, until the oil and gas-bearing reservoir is finally reached (generally 6,000 to 10,000 ft). Once taken these and others precautionary measures, the pumping of large amount of fluids begins, creating the sufficient pressure to restore or generate the small fractures in the reservoir rock, which are needed to make production practicable.
Hydraulic fracturing has become a regular method that facilitated the production of oil and natural gas. But this process has caused
The Hydraulic Fracturing Project
Table of Contents
· Legal and Environmental Issues
· State and Federal Law and Regulations
· Understand Hydraulic Fracturing to United States Energy Needs
The procedure known as Hydraulic Fracturing consist in create fractures in the rocks or rock formations, and it is done by introducing a mix of sand and water inside the cracks in order to force the underground to expand. The large fissures will allow that more oil and gas flow out and into the well bore to be extracted. This process forms channels that improve the rate in which the fluids can be generated from the reservoir formations, and in some cases the percent can be increased considerable.
The safety steps included in this process are aimed to protect water supplies to be used by the population and to assure that neither the fluid that will be pumped through the well, nor the oil or gas that will eventually be gathered enters in contact with the water sources designated for the human consumption. To comply with these regulations steel surface or intermediate casings are interleaved into the well to depths of between 1,000 and 4,000 feet. The space between these casing “strings” and the drilled hole (wellbore), called the annulus, and is filling up with cement. Once the cement has been set, the drilling continues from the bottom of the surface or intermediate cemented steel casing to the next depth. This process is repeated, using smaller steel casing each time, until the oil and gas-bearing reservoir is finally reached (generally 6,000 to 10,000 ft). Once taken these and others precautionary measures, the pumping of large amount of fluids begins, creating the sufficient pressure to restore or generate the small fractures in the reservoir rock, which are needed to make production practicable.
Hydraulic fracturing has become a regular method that facilitated the production of oil and natural gas. But this process has caused