Bakken formation in1988 and fracking.

[dragoneyes]

Based out of Dickinson in 1988 the company i was working for, had a contract working for Conoco down on franks creek. When the drilling rig completed there portion of the work our work-over rig came in to put it into production. Had our order to drill out to the bakken formation then perforated the casing really never heard about that formation back then. To much detailing to get to the steps we took. To make this short Halaburton had 3 pump trucks all hooked to together to acidize the formation they never could break it down completely , never seen such a clear high grade oil in our swab testing. Dont know how fracking works to break formations down but it is a game changer. Bakken has been around an really is not that new. But really its all about the Fracman, given her hell.

 

[WormWiggler]

I am not sure what point you are trying to make, but the way I understood the Conoco wells that I worked in the early 90s were upper Bakken not Middle Bakken, didn't hear much about frackin' then but I was the tiniest worm on the tiniest gear back then.

 

[dean nelson]

Fracking it pretty straightforward you send the missile down there to perf the casing every few yards which causes small cracks to form in the immediate formation around the charge. Then you start slamming water down hole and with the fact that fluids can't be compressed you're left with one of two options either the rock will start breaking or you're going to launch the well string back out the hole... seen both happen and the later gets a wee bit spooky (never had a full blow out but did manage to lift 4 miles of pipe 10 ft into the air all while listing the sound of the main boss over the radios screaming at the top of his lungs for everyone to run)!. Then pump your send and water into the blender then mix them together with your chemicals to make a goo slime sort of substance that keeps the sand from settling out and pump her down hole. Once done the chemicals quickly breakdown and flow back out the hole and the sand is left behind to keep the formation from clamping back shut once the pressure comes off. Needless to say that an insanely simplified version of it and it has all sorts of variations and I'm sure they do it completely different now than when we were doing it back in the mid 2000's. But back then we were basically making it up as we went along so we did all sorts of crazy things from going as far as having two full Frac teams on one well trying to complete the fract in less than 3 hours to what at least last time I checked was the normal way now which is multiple-day multiple-stage fracks. If I remember right there are five layers in the bakken with the three in the middle being what they refer to as the middle play. Think it's something like a 110 feet from the top of the top layer to the bottom of the lower play with three forks just below that.

 

[RustyTackleBox]

i think this post is somewhere around 12 years late...

 

[guywhofishes]

When I first saw these I was shocked - I was relieved to learn they are for freshwater - I thought at first maybe they were for brine - ha ha. Derp.

http://www.myndnow.com/news/dickins...water-to-hydraulic-fracturing-sites/879609609

 

[fly2cast]

i think this post is somewhere around 12 years late...

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[Allen]

The first frac job I helped with while working on a workover rig was back in 1985. Basic frac'ing has been around about 30 years longer than that. The difference between then and now is that these are horizontal wells. The Bakken itself has long been known to be hydrocarbon rich, but it's too tight to get much production out of in a vertical well that only has 30-75 ft of perforations. It's really the use of horizontal wells that exposes 4000-12,000 ft of the formation to the well bore that makes it economical, plus all the refinement in the frac technology.

Getting 5-10 barrels/day out of a vertical well using 30-75 ft of perfs is the next best thing to a dry hole in that she's a loser. Using that same production per foot in a horizontal well is a winner!

 

[dean nelson]

When I first saw these I was shocked - I was relieved to learn they are for freshwater - I thought at first maybe they were for brine - ha ha. Derp.

http://www.myndnow.com/news/dickins...water-to-hydraulic-fracturing-sites/879609609

Hope it's allot more fresh then the shit we used because even that stuff was nasty!

 

[eyexer]

When I first saw these I was shocked - I was relieved to learn they are for freshwater - I thought at first maybe they were for brine - ha ha. Derp.

http://www.myndnow.com/news/dickins...water-to-hydraulic-fracturing-sites/879609609

this has been done for quite a few years already. you'll see it laying in the ditches and across pastures etc. Pump the water from depot's, the Rural water pipeline or whatever. Fracing has changed a lot in the last few years. 38-40 stages are the norm now. Takes about a week per well to frac. give or take anyway. Since the cost of the frac has gone down a bunch companies are paying the same amount as they used to but getting 50% more propant into the formation. Which leads to much larger initial production and tends to make the wells flow longer with more production for a longer period of time. It also tend to greatly impact other wells within 2000 feet of the frac. Those wells are shut in during the frac and when they are brought back on they act like they have been fractured themselves.

 

[dragoneyes]

this has been done for quite a few years already. you'll see it laying in the ditches and across pastures etc. Pump the water from depot's, the Rural water pipeline or whatever. Fracing has changed a lot in the last few years. 38-40 stages are the norm now. Takes about a week per well to frac. give or take anyway. Since the cost of the frac has gone down a bunch companies are paying the same amount as they used to but getting 50% more propant into the formation. Which leads to much larger initial production and tends to make the wells flow longer with more production for a longer period of time. It also tend to greatly impact other wells within 2000 feet of the frac. Those wells are shut in during the frac and when they are brought back on they act like they have been fractured themselves.[/QUOT
Thanks for sharing some information about how fracking works left the oil business in 1989 looks like it all went high tech. MX

 

[701FishSlayer]

 

[eyexer]

this has been done for quite a few years already. you'll see it laying in the ditches and across pastures etc. Pump the water from depot's, the Rural water pipeline or whatever. Fracing has changed a lot in the last few years. 38-40 stages are the norm now. Takes about a week per well to frac. give or take anyway. Since the cost of the frac has gone down a bunch companies are paying the same amount as they used to but getting 50% more propant into the formation. Which leads to much larger initial production and tends to make the wells flow longer with more production for a longer period of time. It also tend to greatly impact other wells within 2000 feet of the frac. Those wells are shut in during the frac and when they are brought back on they act like they have been fractured themselves.[/QUOT
Thanks for sharing some information about how fracking works left the oil business in 1989 looks like it all went high tech. MX

yea things change monthly in the frac world. can't hardly keep up. just some figures for those totally unaware of things. Once they have a stage filled to the point they start getting back pressure they will then start the ass busting portion. Ramp up to as much as 10,000 psi and 100 barrels a minute into the formation to fracture it. It's an insane pressure and a pile of frac fluid. During flow back we can get sand back for weeks sometimes a couple months or more.

 

[dragoneyes]

yea things change monthly in the frac world. can't hardly keep up. just some figures for those totally unaware of things. Once they have a stage filled to the point they start getting back pressure they will then start the ass busting portion. Ramp up to as much as 10,000 psi and 100 barrels a minute into the formation to fracture it. It's an insane pressure and a pile of frac fluid. During flow back we can get sand back for weeks sometimes a couple months or more.

How many crew members does it take to staff the fracking process?

 

[eyexer]

How many crew members does it take to staff the fracking process?

wow tough guess. I would bet 80-100 people on site all the time.

 

[Rizzo]

How many crew members does it take to staff the fracking process?

Only takes 8 to 10 guys and thats a stretch. Usually around 20 guys on a crew per shift. Most are just dead weight though.

 

[Ristorapper]

Graduated UND with a BSGE in '82. While there, a graduate student by the name of Rick Webster (From Cooperstown ND) was doing his thesis on the Bakken formation. Google 'Rick Webster Thesis on the Bakken Formation' for a variety of information on the Bakken if you are interested. There was a paper written as early as '74 on the Bakken by a gentleman named Dow.

Papers talk about thicknesses of the upper and lower Bakken along with all kinds of info if you are interested.

 

[Davey Crockett]

Graduated UND with a BSGE in '82. While there, a graduate student by the name of Rick Webster (From Cooperstown ND) was doing his thesis on the Bakken formation. Google 'Rick Webster Thesis on the Bakken Formation' for a variety of information on the Bakken if you are interested. There was a paper written as early as '74 on the Bakken by a gentleman named Dow.

Papers talk about thicknesses of the upper and lower Bakken along with all kinds of info if you are interested.

Interesting stuff , All of it. In the same time frame there were independent operators out in the field trying to accomplish what is normal today and they lost every nickle and then some. The oilfield was pretty small with about a dozen drilling contractors in the state and a hand full of independent operators with a few major players. One well I was on was when Tiger oil drilled a "whipstock" AKA horizontal well (1977-78) ? under the Missouri river . Seems to me we got about 300' past the curve and back then there was no TORQUE EZE or any mud additives to really slick up the hole so we got stuck in the hole, spotted oil and tugged with a set of jars for a week or so and finally pulled free then spent the next 30 days trying to get a test tool past the curve without tearing off the packers. He finally gave up on testing and decided to try drilling further and got stuck again, This time for good. In the end we cemented the mud motor ,stainless steel Monel DC and 20 some Drill collars in the hole. He spent several million on that adventure, Mud bill alone was 250,000 and that was unheard of back then. A year or so later back in Bottineau County the Ballantyne Brothers tried a single stage sand frac completion in the Spearfish. We drilled the well but I wasn't around to watch them frac. it worked but there wasn't any flow back so no way to clean the hole up and the sand kept eating up the pumps. Lots of good memories, good money and good times but it sure feels good driving right past a rig when I see one, Especially if it's 20 below.

 

[eyexer]

Only takes 8 to 10 guys and thats a stretch. Usually around 20 guys on a crew per shift. Most are just dead weight though.

there is six in the command center alone.

 

[Fracman]

How many crew members does it take to staff the fracking process?

Last frac I was on there was 18 frac hands 4 wireline hands 2 flowback hands 3 water transfer hands 1 water hauler 8-10 sand haulers plus myself

 

[dragoneyes]

Interesting facts on fracking, can someone name some of the top fracking company's in the patch. Just wondering had some friends that were and still are in the business up in Williston ND. In 1979 we all were employed at the same place then left for the oil patch. My one friend was very successful his name is Boyd Hoffman and Curt Donner know they worked for Dowel back in the early 80'. Thanks