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re: Lawmakers rush to stop 'catastrophic-level event' at Texas oil fields
Posted on 4/1/24 at 6:44 am to Street Hawk
Posted on 4/1/24 at 6:44 am to Street Hawk
Water production is standard during oil & gas production. But I have 2 questions for you oil baws.
1. Aside from organic material/pollutants/etc deposited during climatic events(ex: peat accumulation in bottomlands after percolation/evaporation post-flood events), isn't virtually everything dissolved in brine, and oil for that matter, derived from the local minerals/soils? Take calcium for instance. Limestone is Calcium carbonate. If you have excess water in that soil horizon/formation(due to an aquifer for instance), some of the limestone would dissolve and the resultant solution would contain calcium ions, no? And the amount would increase with volume of water, temperature/heat, and/or appearance of catalysts(CO2) that could aid in increasing solubility
2. If 1 is true, then mineral extraction is essentially just removing large amounts of sub-surface soil using drilling fluid and other chemicals to aid in dissolving whatever soil(mineral found in it) is the target. I would assume the only reason this doesn't cause major ecological issues(land slides, sinkholes, earthquakes) is due to cementing at each end of the well bore and replacing what was extracted with an equivalent volume of water. But if evaporites, salt formations, were to be drilled into/extracted, wouldn't it cause those 3 ecological issues? Replacing the volume removed would be almost impossible due to salts high solubility in water
Seems to me that if enough salt were removed, it would cause a cataclysmic land slide/migration and the end result would be a surface that looks something like grand canyon
1. Aside from organic material/pollutants/etc deposited during climatic events(ex: peat accumulation in bottomlands after percolation/evaporation post-flood events), isn't virtually everything dissolved in brine, and oil for that matter, derived from the local minerals/soils? Take calcium for instance. Limestone is Calcium carbonate. If you have excess water in that soil horizon/formation(due to an aquifer for instance), some of the limestone would dissolve and the resultant solution would contain calcium ions, no? And the amount would increase with volume of water, temperature/heat, and/or appearance of catalysts(CO2) that could aid in increasing solubility
2. If 1 is true, then mineral extraction is essentially just removing large amounts of sub-surface soil using drilling fluid and other chemicals to aid in dissolving whatever soil(mineral found in it) is the target. I would assume the only reason this doesn't cause major ecological issues(land slides, sinkholes, earthquakes) is due to cementing at each end of the well bore and replacing what was extracted with an equivalent volume of water. But if evaporites, salt formations, were to be drilled into/extracted, wouldn't it cause those 3 ecological issues? Replacing the volume removed would be almost impossible due to salts high solubility in water
Seems to me that if enough salt were removed, it would cause a cataclysmic land slide/migration and the end result would be a surface that looks something like grand canyon
This post was edited on 4/1/24 at 6:48 am
2
Posted on 4/1/24 at 6:52 am to Street Hawk
Stop the drilling like biden wants.
Posted on 4/1/24 at 7:08 am to Lolathon234
quote:
Water production is standard during oil & gas production. But I have 2 questions for you oil baws.
1. Aside from organic material/pollutants/etc deposited during climatic events(ex: peat accumulation in bottomlands after percolation/evaporation post-flood events), isn't virtually everything dissolved in brine, and oil for that matter, derived from the local minerals/soils? Take calcium for instance. Limestone is Calcium carbonate. If you have excess water in that soil horizon/formation(due to an aquifer for instance), some of the limestone would dissolve and the resultant solution would contain calcium ions, no? And the amount would increase with volume of water, temperature/heat, and/or appearance of catalysts(CO2) that could aid in increasing solubility
2. If 1 is true, then mineral extraction is essentially just removing large amounts of sub-surface soil using drilling fluid and other chemicals to aid in dissolving whatever soil(mineral found in it) is the target. I would assume the only reason this doesn't cause major ecological issues(land slides, sinkholes, earthquakes) is due to cementing at each end of the well bore and replacing what was extracted with an equivalent volume of water. But if evaporites, salt formations, were to be drilled into/extracted, wouldn't it cause those 3 ecological issues? Replacing the volume removed would be almost impossible due to salts high solubility in water
Seems to me that if enough salt were removed, it would cause a cataclysmic land slide/migration and the end result would be a surface that looks something like grand canyon
The solution to prevent those types of issues is in the drilling mud design. When drilling, you definitely do not want to wash out a zone. Something like that is more likely to happen in an exploratory well, in which case you monitor your pit volumes and cutting returns very closely to make changes as needed. After one or more wells are drilled and the geology is known, a better mud design can be planned for the entirety of future wells in the same area/formations. There's a lot more to it than just knowing the types of formations you're drilling through though. The people that monitor and make changes to the mud during drilling are often referred to as mud engineers, even though they are not actually engineers.
Posted on 4/1/24 at 7:12 am to Steadyhands
quote:
The solution to prevent those types of issues is in the drilling mud design. When drilling, you definitely do not want to wash out a zone. Something like that is more likely to happen in an exploratory well, in which case you monitor your pit volumes and cutting returns very closely to make changes as needed. After one or more wells are drilled and the geology is known, a better mud design can be planned for the entirety of future wells in the same area/formations. There's a lot more to it than just knowing the types of formations you're drilling through though. The people that monitor and make changes to the mud during drilling are often referred to as mud engineers, even though they are not actually engineers.
Saltwater is a byproduct of the production phase and what is commonly injected in saltwater disposal wells. Drilling muds are reused many times over and as far as I know never injected in disposal wells.
Posted on 4/1/24 at 7:17 am to Lolathon234
quote:
If 1 is true, then mineral extraction is essentially just removing large amounts of sub-surface soil using drilling fluid and other chemicals to aid in dissolving whatever soil(mineral found in it) is the target
Not how it works at all. During the drilling phase the drilling mud creates a filter cake and interaction with the formation is kept to a minimum which is by design. Once each section is drilled the open hole is cased off with steel casing and cemented to make a barrier. During the production phase you are only extracting liquids with some sand (depending on the production zone).
This post was edited on 4/1/24 at 7:20 am
Posted on 4/1/24 at 8:06 am to redstick13
quote:
Saltwater is a byproduct of the production phase and what is commonly injected in saltwater disposal wells. Drilling muds are reused many times over and as far as I know never injected in disposal wells.
Correct. The only thing that will come into contact with most of the formations is the drilling mud when drilling the wells, which makes the filter cake as you stated. Whether the well is for production or injection/disposal, the produced water should, by design, never come into contact with a formation that it could dissolve. If it happens while drilling, that would likely be a kick, which could lead to a blowout if not handled properly. Otherwise, for an injection/disposal well, it would be designed to inject into a formation that is compatible with the produced water.
Posted on 4/1/24 at 11:57 am to redstick13
Well, the idea is to drill into sands, which typically have shale both above and below, right? The shale is what's extracted, er well as a solute in aqueous form. Fracking is an an extreme example as concentrated HCl or ~equivalent is injected to dissolve whatever rather than relying on water. And the formations are typically consistent in a particular field, the only variance being total vertical depth to reach them as the surface's height above mean sea level varies
Seems to me that if it hasn't happened organically, then you have to create a slurry or mud before extraction is possible. Water should typically be available in the water table, but would need to be injected into the right location, no? I'd venture you need a water source nearby, aquifer/river or creek/large lake or reservoir/ to supply an injection well(s), which would saturate whatever formation and provide the solvent for creating the slurry for x amount of production wells thereafter. CO2 entry would likely find it's way in as part of the drilling fluid or maybe dissolved carbonates in closer-surface formations that are now dissolved in the fluid and have undergone redox rxns
Seems to me that if it hasn't happened organically, then you have to create a slurry or mud before extraction is possible. Water should typically be available in the water table, but would need to be injected into the right location, no? I'd venture you need a water source nearby, aquifer/river or creek/large lake or reservoir/ to supply an injection well(s), which would saturate whatever formation and provide the solvent for creating the slurry for x amount of production wells thereafter. CO2 entry would likely find it's way in as part of the drilling fluid or maybe dissolved carbonates in closer-surface formations that are now dissolved in the fluid and have undergone redox rxns
This post was edited on 4/1/24 at 12:08 pm
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