Hydraulic Fracturing A Common And Widespread Technique

Hydraulic fracturing has become a very common and widespread technique, especially in North America, due to technological advances that have allowed extracting natural gas from so-called unconventional reservoirs (tight sands, coal beds and shale formations). The socalled high volume hydraulic fracturing (with treatments typically an order of magnitude larger than the conventional fracturing procedures) began in 1968. This was complemented by horizontal drilling since the late 1980s, and the use of chemicals (known as slickwater fracturing) since 1997. The conjunction of these techniques (directional drilling, high volume fracturing, fracture divergence systems, slickwater) with the development of multi-well pads has been especially†¦show more content†¦When the hydraulic pressure is removed from the well, small grains of hydraulic fracturing proppants (either sand or aluminium oxide) hold the fractures open. The term â€Å"hydraulic fracturing† is nowadays widely used to mean the process of fracturing rock formations with water-based fluids. In general terms, hydraulics is a topic in applied science and engineering dealing with the mechanical properties of liquids (not just water). 2.2. Why Fracturing is used? Fracturing is a technique designed to recover gas and oil from shale rock. Fracturing allows for extended production in older oil and natural gas fields. It also allows for the recovery of oil and natural gas from formations that geologists once believed were impossible to produce, such as tight shale formations in the areas shown on the map below. Hydraulic fracturing is also used to extend the life of older wells in mature oil and gas fields. The process can be INST2450 Technical Report Outline Muhammad Derya XXX carried out vertically or, more commonly, by drilling horizontally to the rock layer and can create new pathways to release gas or can be used to extend existing channels 2.3. Types of Fracturing 2.3.1. Hydraulic fracturing The technique of hydraulic fracturing makes use of a liquid to fracture the reservoir rocks. A hydraulic fracture is formed by pumping the fracturing fluid into the wellbore at a rate sufficient to increase