re: ExxonMobil: New Fracking Technology Can Double Oil Output

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was all for fracking until I heard the real details of what it does and how much it destroys the terrain that’s fracked, and the sheer volume of terrain that has to be destroyed to get a small amount of oil.

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An 8 well superpad draining 4 square miles is a few acres. Then all that is left is a gravel square with some wellheads and a few tanks/vessels.

Lol have you seen the Permian basin? Its worthless desert.

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“surface “ is not destroyed by fracking nor does actual “fracking “ take place on the surface.

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Fracking is just pumping fluid at a high rate and pressure into a formation. The fluids they pump are water based fluids with a gelling agent to thicken it up so it doesn't leak off as fast, therefore building pressure as it's pumped. The pressure causes the rock to crack open along a stress plane creating a highly permeable flowpath to the wellbore. This "frac"ture takes place thousands of feet below ground and should be contained to the hydrocarbon bearing formation, otherwise you are losing all your valuable hydrocarbons. The fluid is gelled by natural gelling agents from my understanding (I don't deal with the chemistry side of things although I have some rudimentary knowledge). I've watched people regularly handle it by hand. When the job is done, the pump trucks leave. It does require a lot of fresh water, but again, this is a temporary requirement often fulfilled with portable tanks.

You need space to park trucks and you need to design the well and frac job to not have something fail under the pressures of the frac job. Outside of that, it really should be negligeable environmental impact.

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I was all for fracking until I heard the real details of what it does and how much it destroys the terrain that’s fracked, and the sheer volume of terrain that has to be destroyed to get a small amount of oil. It’s really messed up. Drill baby drill, but fracking should be a last resort

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not sure if serious

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ExxonMobil: New Fracking Technology Can Double Oil Output

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PEAK OIL

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Can it be recycled and used as driking water of any other use?

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some of it is used to frac the next well. Most wells being frac'd now are simply, water, surfactant, and river sand. Not many jobs anymore with gelled products. Offshore still uses quite a bit of gelled systems (outside of waterpacs) but the industry has been reusing water for a few years now especially in the permian.

For those questioning me, I was a frac engineer for 8 years both land and offshore.

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For those questioning me, I was a frac engineer for 8 years both land and offshore.

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and there it is

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What happens to the water after the fracking is finished?

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Just a few short years ago, the returned frac water, as well as additional saltwater (tons in the Permian, used to pretty much an ocean or something before God created dinosaurs and F150s for human travel), would just simply be put downhole in an SWD.

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Can it be recycled and used as driking water of any other use?

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These days, though, TONS of really good engineering and further research and development into recycle programs, both for oilfield reuse (additional fracs) and beneficial use (crops). Those research programs continue to develop, and it is alot of people's hope one day that large scale crop irrigation and even just discharge back rivers and watersheds that need the water can be accomplished in an efficient and environmentally safe method. It's actually pretty cool and exciting.

I'm not sure about drinking water, sort of like trying to get potash mines to take additional salt solids. One upset with hydrocarbons into some of that, and you may have a problem....at least that's been my understanding on the human consumption side.

I will continue to add that offshore wells, most of the time use seawater as a base. There are a few "fluid systems" that use fresh water, or heavy completion fluids (non calcium) as a base due to the complexity of the job.

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What happens to the water after the fracking is finished? Can it be recycled and used as driking water of any other use?

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Some is recycled but that shite is nasty and it's expensive to treat, and even the movement of it is a massive pain in the arse because if you spill it, you're getting a fat bill for clean up.

There's a 0.0% chance i would ever drink anything that used to be frac water.