Drilling advances

	Vol. 230 No. 10
JIM REDDEN, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Frac furor attracts unlikely bedfellows

I concluded long ago that your average politician is orally ambidextrous. That is, they are equally adept at employing either corner of their mouths to contradict themselves at any given time.

That admittedly unscientific diagnosis is once more being validated in the US Congress in the form of proposed bills that would restrict hydraulic fracturing and effectively toss a wet blanket over the prodigious Barnett, Haynesville and Marcellus shale plays. This at a time when the mantra of nearly every politico is for the country to get serious about increasing the development of clean energy and, with it, desperately needed jobs.

What makes this whole effort particularly flabbergasting is that even the most conservative estimates suggest there are enough recoverable reserves in those emerging plays to heat and cool a considerable number of US homes and businesses for years to come, with very low carbon emissions, no less.

Then there’s the matter of jobs. A report prepared for the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources released in April estimates that the Haynesville Shale alone created 431 new jobs in 2008 and was a major contributor to the 32,742 additional positions generated within the state last year. What’s even more jaw-dropping is that the 431 new jobs were reported by only seven of some 17 companies operating in the Haynesville Shale. There’s also the $2.4 billion in additional business sales that those seven companies brought to the state.

One would assume that the production, revenue and jobs the shale generates would be untouchable. Then again, the bureaucrats responsible for regulating the industry generally have no knowledge of oil beyond the fact that it comes in a can and some guy with dirt under his fingernails occasionally pours it into their cars.

This time, however, the all-too-familiar plot takes an improbable twist. There are actually hints that the politicians may be tempering the knee-jerk “we don’t like it, so quit doing it” approach they’ve taken with past energy legislation. Not only are they soliciting, albeit indirectly, expert advice, but they are also putting up money to positively impact shale gas production, while also appeasing those who argue, without hard evidence, that fracing is contaminating their water wells. I refer specifically to the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) partial funding of research programs aimed at stimulating the shale plays.

The R&D projects are administered through the public-private Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America, or RPSEA, which became fully functional in 2007.  The program is funded through lease bonuses and royalties paid to produce on federal lands. As part of its Unconventional Resources module, RPSEA has approved funding in its last two program years for at least 14 shale gas-related projects.

One of the projects initiated late last year and completed this February evaluated a promising alternative method for stimulating gas production from low-permeability rocks, including shale, tight sands and coalbed formations. The goal of the project, which was carried out by Carter Technologies Co., MI Swaco, the University of Oklahoma and Texas A&M University, was to assess the feasibility of using a cable saw to cut a deep slot from the end of a horizontal borehole into the formation at 5,000- to 10,000-ft depths.

The result of the project was the conceptual SlotDrill formation cutting technology, which the researchers claim provides an effective alternative to conventional fracturing without the enormous water resources required. The method uses a long cable saw that is run alongside the drill pipe in a fishhook- or bow-shaped directional well. After total depth is reached, the abrasive cutting element is held in tension by the drill pipe as it is reciprocated along the cut. The force pressing the cable saw into the rock face is generated by the cable tension around the curve of the hole. Modeling indicates that cut length can exceed 2,500 ft.

The researchers put the price of using the new technology at less than half the cost of a conventional frac job, which is said to be more expensive than the actual drilling of a typical shale well. In addition, the concept, which will now move to more in-depth engineering analysis, is touted as having much less potential for formation damage than fracturing. Computer models also indicate that it has the potential to generate higher total recovery from a given lease acreage than does conventional fracturing, while also sustaining long-term production. This is due to the increased area of reservoir rock exposed by cutting a deep slot into the formation rather than creating tiny fractures, and the tendency of that slot to stay open, whereas fractures often close over time even with the most advanced proppants.

Another newly funded project will examine new low-impact technologies, such as lightweight drilling rigs with reduced-emission engine packages and on-site waste management systems, designed to increase unconventional gas production while limiting environmental impact. Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) is leading the $2.2 million initiative with such improbable participants as the National Resources Defense Council, the Nature Conservancy and the New York State Energy Research Development Authority.

Texas A&M University and Terra Tek are also leading an investigation of the causes of downhole losses of frac fluid and losses of fracture conductivity. Additionally, as part of the most recent RPSEA program year, the Gas Technology Institute and the University of Texas are among the investigators of a project to develop water management methods aimed at reducing the shale plays’ demand for freshwater and the environmental impact of brine disposal.

As these and other RPSEA projects demonstrate, conventional hydraulic fracturing has its share of technical and economic drawbacks, but for now it’s the only game in town. Luckily, it does seem that the feds, for one of the few times in their less-than-storied history on energy matters, are at least taking that reality into account. Let’s hope that this rare demonstration of sound energy policy spills over into the frac regulation debate and other areas.