Frack Check WV » Halliburton

Fracking Continues to Pollute in Spite of Technical Changes

Duane Nichols — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 15:34:48 +0000

Electric powered drilling and fracking reduces pollution

Before going public, USWS signs new electric frack fleet deals

From Luke Geiver, North American Shale Magazine, October 31, 2018

U.S. Well Services has expanded from West Texas to South Texas with its unique frack fleet offering. The Houston-based firm announced this week it will work with an operator in the Eagle Ford and provide its electric frack fleet starting next year.

The announcement with the Eagle Ford operator comes five days after USWS said it will work with Huntley & Huntley Energy Exploration LLC by providing an electric frack fleet for HHEX’s Marcellus shale operations.

Regarding the contract in South Texas, Joel Broussard, CEO of USWS, said the company is now validated in its frack fleet design and need for the industry. “We look forward to working closely with them to provide safer operations, reduce noise , drive substantial fuel savings and achieve operating efficiencies through the use of natural gas sourced directly from the field,” adding, “We continue to gain momentum with other potential customers as the industry continues to recognize the benefits of electric frack and adopt this innovative and revolutionary technology.”

The electric fleet is powered by natural gas fueled turbine generators. The operations with natural gas-powered turbines reduces noise by 99 percent and fuel consumption by roughly 90 percent, according to USWS.

Later this year, USWS will become a publicly-traded energy company listed on the Nasdaq. Matlin & Partners Acquisition Corp., a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company, made a move to acquire USWS in July.

In 2019, USWS will have an additional four electric fleets hit the market for other customers as well, according to the company.

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Halliburton introduces new automated fracking service

From Patrick Miller, North American Shale Magazine, August 21, 2018

Halliburton Co. has unveiled its Prodigi AB hydraulic fracturing service, which the company called a first-of-its-kind technology that uses automation to improve efficiency, maximize perforation cluster performance and mitigate risks.

By automating the breakdown process of a fracturing treatment, Prodigi AB Service helps deliver better well performance. The service uses algorithmic controls and is supported by a Halliburton completion advisor who tunes the system to optimize the performance.

The Prodigi AB service is designed to improve overall efficiency, maximize the performance of perforation clusters and mitigate the risk of screen-out. The new service provides consistent design execution, better distribution of fluid across the perforated interval and improved treatment pressures and rates. The service delivers improved precision to achieve a lower cost per BOE.

Michael Segura, vice president of Halliburton’s production enhancement business line, said, “Prodigi AB Service offers a significant change in the way we are able to optimize our hydraulic fracturing operations in real-time, accelerate the learning curve to optimize well design and improve the overall consistency of our performance at the wellsite.”

Halliburton said it has successfully used the Prodigi AB Service in the Permian basin with Primexx Energy Partners. The service reduced overall treating pressures, increased consistency of the formation breakdown process and resulted in an immediate improvement in cluster efficiency.

Sam Blatt, vice president of operations for Primexx, said, “Prodigi AB Service is helping Primexx achieve our execution and production goals. The reduction in treating pressure and operational consistency is allowing us to execute treatments more efficiently and the improved cluster distribution is helping us make better wells.”

‘Halliburton Amendment’ Taints Fracking Regulations in WV

Duane Nichols — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 11:34:44 +0000

: Safety Datasheets Needed for Each Fracking Chemical

MORGANTOWN DOMINION POST, April 26, 2013:

EDITORIAL: No trade secret to success

As a rule, whenever lobbyists talk about trade secrets, it’s no time to shut your eyes, close your ears or hold your tongue.

But we got the impression the WV Senate did when it approved the Department of Environmental Protection’s (WV-DEP) Horizontal Well Act rules.

Oh, the Senate was actually all eyes, ears and voice votes approving the WV-DEP’s gas well drilling regulations. But as we pointed out here in mid-March, it lost its senses when it inserted what’s come to be known as the “Halliburton amendment.”

And although the House Judiciary Committee was successful at making this amendment a bit less contaminated, it’s impossible to swallow.

What the amendment does is provide special protections to drilling operators that allow them to not disclose the identity or concentrations in their fracking fluids, at the recommendation of Halliburton. Or should we say, at its behest, or order. After all, campaign contributions might even be at stake in 2014.

We realize that some legislators did and continue to dispute this amendment. And we have no issue with the concept of proprietary information. However, this is no trade secret.
It’s simply an attempt by a corporation to not let anyone know what it is and how much of they are injecting into the earth beneath our feet.

Furthermore, most drilling operators already post their fracking fluid’s ingredients on the Internet and the maximum concentrations in them. This amendment does not even provide for the WV-DEP to have on file what ingredients and amounts are used in fracking fluids, except in an investigation or a medical emergency.

The House was able to amend the bill, however, these efforts qualify as tweaks at best. For instance, the bill out of the Senate required doctors treating a patient for fluid exposure to verbally agree to confidentiality over the phone in an emergency, and to then sign off on a written agreement later.

The House’s tweak substituted that requirement with a provision that the well operator notify a doctor that this fluid is a trade secret, and disclosing it may subject the doctor to legal action.

We are encouraged to see the Legislature and the WV-DEP making progress on the agency’s 46 pages of rules it developed based on the 2011 Marcellus legislation. However, well operators should be required to list all frack fluid additives, the chemicals in them and their maximum concentrations. It’s essential the DEP and health care providers — at a minimum — have access to this data.

Anything short of such practical provisions will simply poison the well.

New Technology May Reduce Fracking’s Impacts

Dee Fulton — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:01:04 +0000

According to a January 13th article in EE News’ Greenwire (subscription only), a handful of companies touted technologies capable of making fracking quieter, cleaner and more efficient at an unidentified industry conference recently. Here is an extract of what EE News shared.

Fewer Trucks, Less Fuel, Lower Emissions Green Field Energy Services promoted a smaller pump engine that can be fueled by diesel , biofuels or natural gas. ”You can cut the number of pump trucks in half” claims CEO Rick Fontova. Today massive pump engines are diesel powered and take up an entire truck bed to transport. Two Greenfield 4,000 horsepower pumps fit onto one flatbed.

Lower CO2 Emissions Carbon Sciences CEO Byron Elton said “”Our catalyst has given people the opportunity to take a second look at CO2, where we use CO2 as opposed to producing significant amounts of it.”

(The company) hopes shale oil and gas producers will adopt their technology to increase liquids production, taking advantage of high per-barrel prices while ending flaring at the same time.

Their process eliminates the need for oxygen in the gas-to-liquids process and uses carbon dioxide as a feedstock in converting natural gas products to synthetic petroleum.

Reduction of Toxic Chemicals Halliburton is promoting it’s CleanSuite product which aims to eliminate the nastier chemicals and rely on chemicals from the food industry. The company is also experimenting with using ultraviolet light to control bacteria rather than potent biocide chemicals.

Recycling Another Halliburton product, CleanWave, is being sold as a way to treat frack waste water for recycling and reuse. (This occurs to me as a bit ironic. That’s rather like a liquor store hosting AA meetings. But Hey, let’s not knock any effort to make fracking cleaner.)

Reduced Water and Sand Use Schlumberger is pushing its HIWAY fracturing technology which claims to use less water and sand and yield higher gas collection.

HiWAY uses equipment to deliver fluid and proppant, mixed with special fibers, to wells in short, high-frequency bursts….So far, Schlumberger representatives say HiWAY’s application has “increased 60-day cumulative oil production by 43 percent and 60-day cumulative gas production by 61 percent, while reducing water and proppant consumption per well by 58 percent and 35 percent, respectively.”

Whether or not this technology, which falls in the family of SuperFracks, will pose more environmental problems is an open question. For more info on SuperFracks, which frack deeper and wider, click here.

Improved Seismic Imaging to Reduce Risk of fracturing into Groundwater Halliburton and MicroSeismic Inc are marketing more advanced imaging technologies they say will allow companies to ensure that groundwater sources are separated from the frack zone. (I’m not sure I would buy stock in MicroSeismic if it is publicly traded. After all, everyone knows that fracking does not contaminate groundwater. At least that’s the industry story and their sticking to it. They are fighting the EPA on the Pavillion,Wyo. report. But that’s another story.)

Replace Water with Propane to Frack GASFRAC Energy Services Inc. of Calgary is actively marketing technology that uses liquefied petroleum gas — mainly propane — to break apart tight underground formations and free up oil and gas. The company says its method is safe, cheaper than using water and causes less damage to subsurface formations than can be caused by traditional fracking fluids.

However it was noted that drillers already have large amounts of flammable liquids to manage and that was a drawback to the employment of yet another flammable liquid, propane.

Award-Winning ‘Gasland’ Documentary Coming to Morgantown

admin — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 16:17:16 +0000

The award-winning documentary “Gasland” will be shown free to the public on Tuesday, Oct. 12, 6:30pm in the WVU College of Law Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom (directions), Morgantown, W.Va. The screening will be followed by a live Skype Q&A session with filmmaker Josh Fox. Beginning at 5pm there will be a public reception and information tables to browse before the film begins.

The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a “Saudi Arabia of natural gas” beneath most of West Virginia. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets and surprises, including contamination and unanticipated health risks. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown.

Fracking has come to West Virginia, and if you own land, drink water, or breathe air, it’s time to learn how fracking could impact your community. Come see the film, so you can take informed action before it is too late.

Student and citizen groups who want to reserve an information table in the lobby, please contact Kurt Doiron at kurtdoiron(at)gmail(dot)com. Other questions may be directed to Deb Fulton at dfvet(at)aol(dot)com or (304) 864-0044.

The event is sponsored in part by the West Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club and the WVU College of Law’s Environmental Law Society.