Hydro Frack Blows Out Oil Well

[ASRG]

Yesterday went out to an oil well blow out west of Innisfail Alberta. Another company was hydro fracking a well 3/4 of a mile away and it blew out the producing well!
The farmer who phoned us tried to phone the ERCB emergency hotline but no one was answering, so he phoned us.
Oil was shooting up thirty feet in the air, misting across about 6 or 7 acres, big pool of oil ran down a gully and pooled below.
According to all the government BS...this shouldn't have been possible.....maybe they really don't have a clue about much of anything?
This morning on the radio (I guess they finally answered the phone!),the ERCB says they are "investigating"! There is your "world class regulator" hard at work for you!

[ALLFARMER]

Smoke and Mirrors

The ERCB handle's Public Relations for the oil
industry.

[ASRG]

I guess most people don't see this as a big deal? If you live in Alberta......believe me the shale play is coming to you. You will be amazed at what is about to happen.
Okay.....what does that mean?
It means, quite frankly, every square inch of the province will be drilled. It won't mean a super amount of wells.....they will drill the whole thing off multi-well pads. So no big deal right?
The only problem here is this: Expect, more problems like the one that happened here. Expect some real "water wrecks"......yes that means your water well! If a hydro frack can "migrate" between zones over 1,000 meters
The new well spacing rules in Alberta means this is going to be the norm! We need to take a second look here? What is important.......water or natural gas?

[smcgrath76]

I am 100% convinced they are goning to
destroy the water resources in this
province and then walk away. Currently NG
is more important because you can sell it
for money. Wait until there is no readily
accessible potable water and see what it's
worth.
We are already working on and planning
some bigger surface water developments for
this exact reason.

[per]

It's a big deal ASRG; it kind of leaves some of us speachless. Hard to focus on all the different fronts we need to be aware of.

[grassfarmer]

What should we do on an individual farmer basis to
prevent this expansion of drilling? And what should
we do collectively as landowners? What is the best
plan of approach?

[forage]

The daily papers just arrived here at camp the Red Deer had an excellant article in todays paper. Seems you guys where there before they got the chance to cover it up. Nothing in Calgary or Edmonton. I have heard this is happening more than what is being reported. The ercb needs to wake up and start telling the truth.
Damn Damn cold here Ft.Macfoundland , sounds like the deep freeze is to stay for a while.

[Ronski]

Hey ASRG. Very interesting indeed.
Thanks for the info.

[ASRG]

I guess we can be thankful the blowout was a sweet oil well.......might have been pretty ugly if it was a sour well?
I think the government better get some better regulations in place before they let the shale feeding frenzy go completely crazy! If they can't predict where the frack is going to go, they had better keep them far away from the H2S stuff?

[per]

Help me out here ASRG. Is the Fracking any different or more powerfull than it used to be or is the shallowness of the wells the issue or the well spacing? Has this always been an issue?

[ASRG]

This isn't the old fracking we were used to. Usually the old methods involved nitrogen or propane and pressures were relatively low (generally around 1,000 psi or less).
The new methods are called "hydro fracking", lots of water (millions of gallons), very high pressure 17,000-20,000 psi! Various chemicals added (surfactants, propellants, biocides,lubricants, solvents,etc.) and lots of "fracking sand" (could be plastic pellets).
The old wells were vertical wells and usually the frack took place at the target zone (or a few perforated target zones). The wells in the shale and tight sands are nearly all horizontal.....when they get to the target zone they run horizontally down the shale seam up to 2km. Then they perforate down the casing and multi-stage frack down the whole length of the horizontal bore at intervals....some as high as every ten meters (depending on how "tight" the shale/sands are).
It is literally blasting the shale/sands apart by brute force. The frack sand is forced into the fractures and hold them open to let the gas/oil flow. All the chemical goodies help to dissolve the oil so it can flow easier.
This high pressure multi stage fracking process has been described as "extreme subterranean chaos" by the USA, EPA. It is very hard to control where the frack goes...a natural fault in a formation can expand beyond control....likely what happened here.

[ASRG]

Forgot to add the new well spacing rules for unconventional gas and oil: On Oct. 6/11 the ERCB changed the well spacing rules for unconventional O & G. The old well spacing rules were basically one NG well per section and one oil well per quarter (this wasn't completely correct as there were some excemptions earlier).
The new regulations recognized the reality of new horizontal bore technology. The new rules are a "horizontal leg" can be drilled every 150 meters from a central vertical well......and can be fracked every 10 meters down every leg. This means practically every square foot under your land becomes a paying target zone in the shale/tight sand layer. Coalbed methane is now subject to these same regulations.

[per]

Yikes, thanks.

[riders2010]

I guess maybe on the positive side smoking may be reduced, however the message may be difficult to spread as many that take a walk outside to have a smoke may not come back after the ignition from the match and the methane! lol

The way things work these days with political spin, one wouldn't be too surprised to hear the frac industry handing out free matches and proclaiming their efforts have reduced cancer through less smokers!

[forage]

Everyone should take a look at ASRG web re the posting Alta. water in Peril. Well done. Time someone picked up ball and ran with.
Asrg I really cann't get to involved as the position I am in right now as a friend of mine that is working at the same oil sands plant made a statement about the Ecana's cbm impacts on his dad's farm and one of the supervisors over heard him at the supper table and they hauled his ass up to management as the same company that owns this plant owns the cbm side. Long story short he got his walking papers.Really cann't afford that right now.