Innovative thinkers

Growing up in Bossier City, Louisiana—opposite Shreveport, on the Red River—John Terracina was one of six children in a second-generation Sicilian family. He says that his father, a self-employed grocery store owner, put him to work at an early age. “That’s definitely where I learned my work ethic,” Terracina said. “As soon as I could walk and talk, I was working in the store.”

It wasn’t until his high school years, at a Jesuit college prep school in Shreveport, that Terracina began to consider where a staunch fascination with chemistry might take him. “I’ve always liked math and science,” he explained. “It’s all black and white. There are no gray areas, and I think that’s what I like about it.”

When he was accepted to Northeast Louisiana University’s (NLU) College of Health and Pharmaceutical Sciences, he decided to pursue a career in pharmacy. He later transferred to pre-med and was accepted to attend Louisiana State University’s dentistry program. He soon realized, however, that neither of these were his calling.

After returning to NLU, Terracina reclaimed his passion for math and science. He graduated with a BS degree in chemistry, with a minor in mathematics. Although he lacked the experience and know-how, Terracina took a chance and decided to apply his knowledge in chemistry to the oil field. He says he remembers passing a Halliburton field camp almost every day. The frac trucks and the equipment struck a chord of curiosity, intriguing Terracina enough to submit his resume. 

He moved to Duncan, Okla., about 80 mi south of Oklahoma City, when he was hired at Halliburton’s Duncan Technology Center. He started his Halliburton career as a chemist, working with a specialized fracturing group to research and develop new frac fluids, coatings, chemicals and proppants. “Luckily, I had some great mentors. I was able to follow them around on frac jobs in the field throughout Texas and Oklahoma,” Terracina said. “It was like on-the-job training and I learned so much.”

Terracina spent 30 years at Halliburton, honing his skills and expertise as a specialist in frac fluids. During that time, he was a key contributor to the development of a number of new fracturing fluids, including the industry’s first cross-linked frac fluid with low polymer loading. According to Terracina, the fluid was easy to use, economical, and it enhanced well production considerably. In fact, it was so successful, it started an entire family of frac fluids, called DeltaFrac.

Today, as fracturing technology manager at Hexion Inc., Terracina provides training and technical support to R&D, and sales and marketing teams, as well as to clients. He acts as an advisor and mentor on the proper application of frac fluids and proppants. He said, “I try to keep the team grounded, so that we can develop products that are usable and sought after by our customers.”

OilPlus proppant is just one of those successful technologies of which Terracina supported the development. The innovative proppant technology is an advanced, resin-coated frac sand that is specially designed to increase the relative permeability to oil in the proppant pack—resulting in substantially higher oil production. Case studies have shown that the proppants are capable of increasing production by as much as 49% compared to conventional, uncoated frac sand.

More recently, Terracina has aided in the development of several resin-coated proppants, including AquaBond and kRT 100 proppants. AquaBond proppant, which utilizes a unique resin chemistry, reduces the production of formation water by altering the relative permeability of water through the proppant pack. Likewise, kRT 100 is a resin-coated, 100-mesh sand that provides operators with continued microfracture stimulation, while also reducing proppant flowback and dust generation.