Fracking

Fracking
	Fracking the Bakken Formation in North Dakota
Process type	Mechanical
Industrial sector(s)	Mining
Main technologies or sub-processes	Fluid pressure
Product(s)	Natural gas, petroleum
Inventor	Floyd Farris, Joseph B. Clark (Stanolind Oil and Gas Corporation)
Year of invention	1947

Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, fracing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of formations in bedrock by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "fracking fluid" (primarily water, containing sand or other proppants suspended with the aid of thickening agents) into a wellbore to create cracks in the deep-rock formations through which natural gas, petroleum, and brine will flow more freely. When the hydraulic pressure is removed from the well, small grains of hydraulic fracturing proppants (either sand or aluminium oxide) hold the fractures open.^[1]

Fracking, using either hydraulic pressure or acid, is the most common method for well stimulation. Well stimulation techniques help create pathways for oil, gas or water to flow more easily, ultimately increasing the overall production of the well.^[2] Both methods of fracking are classed as unconventional, because they aim to permanently enhance (increase) the permeability of the formation. So the traditional division of hydrocarbon-bearing rocks into source and reservoir no longer holds; the source rock becomes the reservoir after the treatment.

Hydraulic fracking is more familiar to the general public, and is the predominant method used in hydrocarbon exploitation, but acid fracking has a much longer history.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] Although the hydrocarbon industry tends to use fracturing rather than the word fracking, which now dominates in popular media, an industry patent application^[7] dating from 2014 explicitly uses the term acid fracking in its title.

^ Cite error: The named reference ECStimTech was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Nolan, Dennis P. (2019), "Overview of Oil, Gas, and Petrochemical Facilities", Handbook of Fire and Explosion Protection Engineering Principles for Oil, Gas, Chemical, and Related Facilities, Elsevier, pp. 33–50, doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-816002-2.00002-7, ISBN 978-0-12-816002-2, retrieved 17 October 2024
^ Cite error: The named reference Van Dyke was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Grebe JJ and Stoesser SM 1935, Treatment of deep wells. Patent no. US 1,998,756,
^ Montgomery CT and Smith MB 2010, Hydraulic fracturing History of an enduring technology. J. Petrol. Tech.December 2010, pp. 26-41,
^ Barbati AC et al. 2016, Complex fluids and hydraulic fracturing.Annu. Rev. Chem. Biomol. Eng.
^ Dean RH and Schmidt JH 2017, Method of cryogenic acid fracking. Patent no. US 9,644,137 B2.

[ECStimTech-1] Cite error: The named reference ECStimTech was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[2] Nolan, Dennis P. (2019), "Overview of Oil, Gas, and Petrochemical Facilities", Handbook of Fire and Explosion Protection Engineering Principles for Oil, Gas, Chemical, and Related Facilities, Elsevier, pp. 33–50, doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-816002-2.00002-7, ISBN 978-0-12-816002-2, retrieved 17 October 2024

[Van_Dyke-3] Cite error: The named reference Van Dyke was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[4] Grebe JJ and Stoesser SM 1935, Treatment of deep wells. Patent no. US 1,998,756,

[5] Montgomery CT and Smith MB 2010, Hydraulic fracturing History of an enduring technology. J. Petrol. Tech.December 2010, pp. 26-41,

[6] Barbati AC et al. 2016, Complex fluids and hydraulic fracturing.Annu. Rev. Chem. Biomol. Eng.

[7] Dean RH and Schmidt JH 2017, Method of cryogenic acid fracking. Patent no. US 9,644,137 B2.

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