Hydraulic fracking fluids recovery

Montana Mineral Rights Daniels County, MT
1

I have a few questions about hydraulic fracing fluids recovery.

  1. What is the volume (percentage) of water or more correctly fracking fluids recovered? I understand they mix water, sand, and other constituents. How much of what they pump down do they get back? I was told Apache was to use 1,000,000 gallons of water per well.

  2. What is the time frame of this fluid recovery? If they used 1,000,000 gallons and 40 gallons per barrel this would be 25,000 barrels. At 500 barrels per day it would take 50 days to recover. Under this guess it would put the first well into January just recovering fracing fluids.

  3. Is fracking a one-time procedure, or do they repeat it in a number of stages?

2

Lee, I think you can get as much as 10k bbl a day of oil and water combined depending on the well and pressure. I hope you find this thought cheerful.

I don’t think stimulation need be a one-time thing but I think they get more bang for the buck drilling and fracking a new horizontal well. I believe that Marathon refracked some very early 1 frack stage horizontal wells in ND. Had the wells been at least 10 stage I doubt they would have done so. I think the process is rare in long or extended long lateral wells.

3

Thank you for your response. I am green when it comes to observing some of these developments. I see the tanker trucks hauling from the first well but have no idea if they are hauling water, oil, or a combination of both.

Does the presence, or lack thereof, of a gas flare have any significance in a normal Bakken horizontal well?

4

Lee, a flare would be encouraging.

5

Nobody has seen a flare?

Does anybody see production tank/batteries?

6

It’s early days yet and I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions. Apache could leave the first well shut in or producing at a trickle for a year to conceal what they have found. It’s a large area and one or two wells won’t tell the story and I don’t think we are even going to have many hints for the next 6 months to a year. Nothing to do but wait it out.

7

I guess patience is a virtue. When I was returning home this evening, I followed a tanker truck leaving the first well site for a few miles, as we traveled the same road. People (myself included) tend to be nosey and interested in what’s happening. I used to mentor kids some and often used the statement, patience is a virtue. Need to apply it to myself.

8

Hey Lee-

I was a hydraulic fracturing engineer for Schlumberger out of college. I also worked for a water treatment company developing technology to clean fracking flowback fluids for reuse at the well location - a much needed technology considering how much water is used in fracking operations.

Generally, operators expect to recover about 20% of the pumped fluids for reuse or disposal. Right now, injection is the most common disposal method, but as I mentioned, many companies are trying to reuse this fluid. This flowback has one big advantage - low dissolved solids (TDS) like salts, which high levels of can cause problems with the gel the operators pump during the frack.

Timeframe really depends on flowrate. Operators will watch TDS levels of the water and when they see a rise, it means they’re starting to pull formation water rather than flowback. Typically though, it’s usually 3-7 days depending on the size of the frack.

With shale oil and gas, horizontal wells, operators are fracking in multiple stages - 20 stages or more. The horizontal section can extend for a thousand feet or more depending on the size of the pay zone, where the oil/gas is trapped, etc. Operators will frack the first stage at the end of the horizontal, move the workstring up the horizontal, set a plug (so they don’t frack a stage they already did), and frack the next. No production occurs until all stages are fracked, the plugs are drilled out, the production pipe is installed, and a number of other less time-intensive steps.

Fracking is a 24/7 operation. It doesn’t take long in between stages. A frack company could be on location for a week or more, especially if they are fracking multiple wells on the same well pad. I’ve seen up to 16 wells on the same pad.

9

Bret,

Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience on fracking. I appreciate it and your answers have cleared several of the questions I have had. I was not aware of the stages and plugging, then refracking farther down the horizontal before.

10

Bret, for some reason it surprised me to read you say only 20% recovery. Any possible guesses for that?

Also, what is the temperature of the earth and fluids at say, 7,000 to 12,000 feet deep? Is it standard or does it vary a lot by location?

When they seismographed in this country in the 50’s and later they would hit hot flowing wells in certain locations. There was one on my property (then my grandfather’s property) that flowed warm for about a week and then cooled. They did not get it plugged and it is still a spring today. I use it for cattle watering in the winter. I have read there is a lot of geothermal potential in the Poplar area.

I realize these current wells are at much greater depths and completely different formations.

11

No flare. No good.

Fortuna, Red Willow and Stone have drilled six horizontal Bakken failures in this area of Montana. The history in the Bakken is zero for six.

Does anybody think Apache will be any different?

It is poppycock to think it will take a year or six months to know what Apache has found.

Apache will not “conceal” anything. Apache has no reason to conceal anything. Apache controls the vast majority of the acreage for 5-10 years. Does anybody think they would tighthole the wells to go after the remaining scraps? Hardly. In fact, Apache publicly announced this project in press disclosures last spring, trumpeting a billion barrels of oil under 300,000 acres. If they have any success, it will be announced immediately.

The best barometer of what is happening is the money trail. Shale Exp. is having issues honoring drafts for lessors? Does anybody think that Shale Exp. does not have the information about these wells? Shale has a large office in Scobey and a major presence in the community. Shale Exp. sold the whole concept to Apache. You do not need to be a detective to figure it out.

No flare. Big problem.

Get your money from Shale Exp…and fast.

12

Interesting take. I hope you don’t mind if I say you sound like a shill for Shale Exploration. I mean if you had just said lease as fast as you can that would be one thing, but to tell people specifically to “Get your money from Shale Exploration” is a little much.

Matt Roberts said:

No flare. No good.

Fortuna, Red Willow and Stone have drilled six horizontal Bakken failures in this area of Montana. The history in the Bakken is zero for six.

Does anybody think Apache will be any different?

It is poppycock to think it will take a year or six months to know what Apache has found.

Apache will not “conceal” anything. Apache has no reason to conceal anything. Apache controls the vast majority of the acreage for 5-10 yrs. Does anybody think they would tighthole the wells to go after the remaining scraps? Hardly. In fact, Apache publicly announced this project in press disclosures last spring, trumpeting a billion barrels of oil under 300,000 acres. If they have any success, it will be announced immediately.

The best barometer of what is happening is the money trail. Shale Exp. is having issues honoring drafts for lessors? Does anybody think that Shale Exp. does not have the information about these wells? Shale has a large office in Scobey and a major presence in the community. Shale Exp. sold the whole concept to Apache. You do not need to be a detective to figure it out.

No flare. Big problem.

Get your money from Shale Exp…and fast.

13

Went to the MT state web site http://www.bogc.dnrc.mt.gov/WebApps/DataMiner/Wells/WellHistory.aspx Researched Fortuna, Red Willow and Stone in Daniels County. Fortuna had 2 permits to drill, but they both expired and never drilled. Red Willow had 4 permits to drill, but they expired and never drilled. Stone never had any permits to drill.

14

Dennis, I find that interesting. Thank you.

What Mr. Roberts said about Apache controlling the vast majority of the acreage also doesn’t ring true with me. Apache may have leased more acres than anyone else but by my rough estimate there are more acres not leased by Apache. The yellow on the Apache/Shale map is where they have leased, not where they have 100% of the acres or necessarily a majority of the acres in any given section. Daniels County has in excess of 913,000 acres, last I heard Apache was only claiming 300,000 and I think some of that was in surrounding counties. The fact that the Shale/Apache map shows them spread out over such a large area means by simple logic that they must be somewhat diluted. If you don’t think this is reasonable, look up the numbers, the map and do the math yourself.

15

Fortuna did drill a horizontal Bakken well. It was in Section 4, Township 37N, Range 46E. Your search parameters must have been off. McCarty is in part of the well name. It was on State Owned land, and has since been abandoned and the site reclaimed. Red Willow did drill a well in southern Daniels County near the county border with Roosevelt County.

16

The activity at the Apache site post drilling is much more than that that occurred at the Fortuna site. Fortuna was a subsidiary of Talisman of Calgary. The new Canadian rig that drilled the well was of a different type, it hinged and lay the pipe down. After they drilled the well they went to the eastern US to drill for natural gas. The price of oil plummeted during the time they worked on the well. The price in the fall when they started was over $100 a barrel and when they completed in the spring it was $25 a barrel. It would have cost them that amount just to haul the oil away. It sat for several years before they pulled the casing and reclaimed the site. One of the big money fellas in leasing told me they hit oil there but that it was just a “tight” formation compared with the area’s where Apache is at now. He must have believed it because he just renewed the leases on some of my relatives mineral interest next to the site last fall.

As I said, the activity at the Apache site, post drilling, is much more than at the Fortuna well. Just the other day they added another large storage tank. This makes eight tanks. There are 5 plastic in one area and now 3 steel (there were 2) in another area. There are tanker trucks leaving the site. I think they struck oil, if it is of commercial quantity, I do not know. I also think Apache has been drilling two wells at each pad, the drilling rig can move sideways slightly without being dismantled. I wish Apache success. The trickle down has had more positives than negatives for Daniels County.

17

Certainly Apache controls the vast majority of the acreage in the area they deem prospective.

The fact that they did not lease all of Daniels County is irrelevant. Parts of Daniels County have no significant Bakken potential. You can be assured that Apache has under control (leased) the guts of what they perceive to be prospective.

Every play has holes in the map and lessors that are holding out for more money or better terms. This play is no exception. If there was any indication that the drilled wells are commercial - we would have noticed a flurry of activity by landmen. Many pros/landmen have been watching these wells. The absence of their activity to fill in the gaps is telling.

I will emphasize again that this area of Montana has been very unsuccessful for the Bakken.

The horizontal Bakken play was actually birthed in Richland County, Montana. The Elm Coulee field in Richland County kicked off the whole Bakken boom. Because of the success of the Elm Coulee Field, there was a highly circulated geologic technical paper of Bakken potential, that circulated in 2005, that showed a belt or fairway of prime horizontal Bakken potential running through Montana. The belt went from Elm Coulee through Roosevelt County into Eastern Valley County. In 2006, Stone Petroleum drilled four horizontal Bakken failures in eastern Valley County, just west of Daniels County. Stone’s failures happened to be right in the middle of this belt. As with the Fortuna failure and the Red Willow failures, the Stone wells technically “struck oil.” All of these failures had some oil cut in their results. BUT these wells also “hit the ocean.” All six wells encountered major water problems when flowing back the wells for results. Water in the Bakken makes the area uncommercial.

The water/oil cut is most likely 95/5 in this area.

A first year geology student who examines the well reports and logs of these six failures will conclude there is a water problem.

Bad news.

A shill for Shale Exp.? On the contrary.

Mr. Kennedy seems to have a level of sophistication in this business. It appears to be a classic case of companies issuing drafts and “riding down the well.” In the era of Chesapeake behavior, is it out of the question that if the results are unfavorable, the Lessees will disappear or find inconceivable reasons not to pay the draft?

The activity described by Mr. Humbert seems to solidify the theory they are moving lots of water. WATER.

When I express the hope that everyone gets paid quickly by Shale Exp., it is a hope that everyone gets paid in the face of what appears to be bad news. Nothing more.

18

Lee,

Sorry for the oversight. When I did the search I looked only at the company names in reference to Daniels County. I matched up Section 4 Township 37N Range 46E and it shows Southside Oil and Gas Ltd spudded it on 11-28-08. The well name is FEI McCarty 1H.

19

At a rate of 95 bbl water to 5 bbl oil, I don’t think they would bother to produce unless they had a really cheap place to dispose of the brine. In any case, one well does not a play make.

20

Dennis, yes I think the F in FEI stood for Fortuna. Southside Oil and Gas Ltd. acquired the lease a while after Fortuna originally drilled the well. McCarty happens to be the family name of the folks who lease the state land the well was drilled on. Does not seem to be continuity or conformity in how these wells get named. Many do have surface owners or lessees in their names, however these Apache wells must follow a different naming system. I guess if they got the dough they can call it what they will.