What technology is used in fracking?
What technology is used in fracking?
Hydraulic fracturing
Hydraulic fracturing is a technique in which large volumes of water and sand, and small volumes of chemical additives are injected into low-permeability subsurface formations to increase oil or natural gas flow.
How are tracers used in fracking?
Injection of radioactive tracers, along with the other substances in hydraulic-fracturing fluid, is often used to determine the injection profile and location of fractures created by hydraulic fracturing. Wells are hydraulically fractured in different stages. Tracers with different half-lives are used for each stage.
Does fracking use explosives?
The fractures in the fracking process are initially created by a perforating gun. The gun, loaded with explosive charges, is lowered into the well and detonated from the surface. That’s the hydraulic fracturing by which the process is named. The exposed oil or gas is then released up to the surface.
What kind of pumps are used for fracking?
Because fracking is typically done at very high pressure, Positive Displacement Quintuplex Pumps are the most commonly used on fracking site. However the frack water supply is done with centrifugal pumps because you are required to move the water right to the pumping site.
What is flowback equipment?
Flowback Equipment Flowback refers to the process of recovering fluid from the well used to hydraulically fracture a shale formation at the surface. Emco Oilfield Services uses top-quality equipment to ensure we meet the demands of the region while matching well conditions effectively while cutting operating costs.
What two technologies make fracking possible?
Most fracking wells in use today rely on two technologies: hydraulic fracturing, which has been in use since the 1940s, and horizontal drilling, a technique that first became widespread in the 1990s, according to Columbia University’s Earth Institute.
What method was used before fracking?
Precursors. Fracturing as a method to stimulate shallow, hard rock oil wells dates back to the 1860s. Dynamite or nitroglycerin detonations were used to increase oil and natural gas production from petroleum bearing formations.
What chemicals are used as tracers in fracking?
Fracking operators often track short-lived radioactive isotope tracers such as 110Ag or 131I with a scintillation detector lowered into the well hole. They sometimes use chemical tracers such as fluorinated benzoic acids with mass spectrometry detection.
Is brine from fracking radioactive?
But brine can be radioactive whether it comes from a fracked or conventional well; the levels vary depending on the geological formation, not drilling method.
