What Happened at Fernow
A Short (Very Short) History of Fracturing
In order to better understand what happened at the Fernow Experimental Forest (and what's happening elsewhere) this chapter will present a very short history of fracturing gleaned from well reports submitted by two operators to the state.
Fracturing is the process of creating voids in formations to allow the greater flow of gas. Sand is a proppant, used to keep the voids open under the high pressures underground. Generally fracturing involves acid, water, sand, and additives to help get the sand to where it needs to go. Nitrogen foam uses nitrogen gas and less water, and is typically used for tight shale formations.
Before about 1960 wells here were drilled with the old-fashioned non-rotary rigs. We've been told that 200 feet a day was the very best to be hoped for. These rigs required little space and didn't require the mud and pressure systems used today. These gas wells were relatively shallow around here, about 2,000 feet to the Big Lime formation, though there are a surprising number of deep wells (by the state's classification, below the Onondaga formation) to the Oriskany drilled by this type of rig. The mineral lease under which the company operates that wants to drill on our property dates to the early 1940s and required the operator's first well to be to the Oriskany -- over 5,000 feet deep at 200 feet a day, max.
Rotary rigs are used after 1960 and fracturing is done on all wells (except for extremely shallow wells to the Big Lime which are mainly acidized). Notations about perforations appear on well records in the 1960s. That's where holes have been "shot" through the tubing or pipe for gas flow.
We have a friend who worked on a gas well drilling rig in the 1970s. He's described "blowing" a well using long strings of 8 foot long sticks of dynamite lowered down the borehole. It's our understanding that explosive techniques for fracturing a well aren't used any more. Explosives are still used in the wellfield (shooting perforations). The API has a safety manual for explosives and if anyone's interested we'll send them a link.
Water use in fracturing in the mid-1960s was about 35,000 gallons per fracture. The state is preparing industry Guidance for wells requiring more than 210,000 gallons of water to drill and fracture (here's our comments with the state's Guidance document appended).
After a flurry of drilling activity around here in the mid-1960s, we know of no wells drilled in the 1970s or early 1980s. Things really picked up after the mid-1990s and fracturing information in well reports includes pressures. ATP is average treating pressure; MTP is maximum treating pressure; and BDP is breakdown pressure, the pressure at which the fracturing actually commenced (pressures are in pounds per square inch). Modern fracturing processes are more sophisticated (a departure from the 1960s standard water, sand and mud acid, plus, we're sure, there were additives of some sort) and the descriptions in well reports can be quite technical.
The company that wants to drill on us seems to prefer a nitrogen foam fracture which we know almost nothing about. Those reports seem to indicate very little water is used or acid but that large volumes of nitrogen gas are pumped into the well at high pressure. The company also used a crosslinked gel fracture in 2002 -- water, sand and possibly an acid with a specially formulated gel to carry the sand deep underground.
The Berry Energy well at Fernow Experimental Forest used a similar gel type of fracture but with large volumes of water (slightly over 100,000 gallons total for the two fractures), acid (4,500 total gallons of 15% hydrochloric acid), and over 100,000 pounds total of sand. There were also additives and we'll discuss those more fully in the next chapter.
Below is selected data from well reports submitted by two operators to the state (including the Berry Energy well at Fernow), spanning 60 years. We've given the API number, date, and noted whether the well is deep (below the Onondaga formation -- Marcellus is a shallow, Oriskany is a deep well). The formation fractured is given along with an indication of depth and then a description of what was done from the well report. Wells after 1960 had perforations and we left out those details. We've only given the average treating pressure (ATP), maximum treating pressure (MTP) and breakdown pressure (BDP) when they were indicated in the well report and don't present other information like the volume per minute at which material was pumped into the well.
Some of these wells have multiple fractures (of different formations) or multiple attempts to fracture a single formation. We've examined two of the well sites and those API numbers are linked to photos.
| 47-079-00290 | 1944 |
| Big Lime (2,040 feet) Acidizing -- 1,000 gallons of acid |
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| 47-079-00706 | 1964 | Deep well |
| Big Lime (1,846 feet) Acidizing -- 6,000 gallons of acid |
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| Oriskany (4,915 feet) 33,600 gallons of water; 12,500 lbs of sand; 500 gallons of MCA. Second fracture: 33,600 gallons of water; 19,000 lbs of sand |
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| 47-079-01215 | 1996 | Storage well |
| Big Lime (2,000 feet) 500 gallons 15% HCl displaced with 462 gallons of water. Total nitrogen 29,600 scf. Total gallons 3,500. ATP 1,350 |
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| 47-039-05404 | 2002 | Deep well |
| Oriskany (4,888 feet) Crosslinked gel fracture. Total slurry 4,662 gallons. Total fluid 8,400 gallons. 4,300 lbs 20/40 sand. ATP 5,100; MTP 5,246; BDP 4,000 Packer set in Onondaga limestone |
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Newbury (5,634) Second crosslinked gel fracture. Total slurry 16,086 gallons. Total fluid 15,330 gallons. Proppant 169 sks (skids?). |
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| 47-039-05703 | 2005 |
| Berea (2,614 feet) Acid 15% HCl foam 75Q; Nitrogen 412,816 scf; 41,000 lbs of sand ATP 2,707; MTP 2,767; BDP 3,041 |
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| Huron (4,342 feet) Acid 15% HCl foam 85Q; Nitrogen 1,597,000 scf; 90,000 lbs of sand ATP 2,789; MTP 2,886; BDP 2,203 |
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| Marcellus shale (5,009 feet) Acid 15% HCl foam 80Q; Nitrogen 954,000 scf; 55,000 lbs of sand ATP 3,622; MTP 3,747; BDP 3,252 |
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| 47-093-00107 | 2008 | Deep well (the Berry Energy Well at Fernow Experimental Forest) |
| Chert (7,571 feet) 67,746 gallons of water; 1,000 gallons of 15% HCl; 76,079 lbs 20/40 sand ATP 3,901; BDP 4,442 |
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| Oriskany (7,710 feet) 32,424 gallons of water; 3,500 gallons of 15% HCl; 29,500 lbs 20/40 sand ATP 3,277; BDP 4,751 |
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| Total water usage for fracturing this well was 100,170 gallons | ||
Go to the Fracturing Chemicals chapter.
What Happened at Fernow
Landspraying
Fernow Experimental Forest
Discharge Monitoring Report
Chloride Load
SAR
Liming the Pit
A Short History of Fracturing
Fracturing Chemicals
What Happened at Fernow
Recommendations & Sources
Gas Well Study is the examination of natural gas wells in West Virginia.
Underground Injection Control Class 2 Wells
These wells are used either for the disposal of oil and gas liquid waste or for the enhanced recovery of oil or natural gas.
Gas Well Study Site Visits
Annual reports, environmental assessments, and individual well information.
YouTube Videos
Select videos from the Gas Well Study YouTube channel.
What Happened at Fernow
An investigation into what caused the vegetation death in the land application area after landspraying hydraulic fracture flowback waste.
The Spill at Buckeye Creek
An investigation into a spill from a Marcellus well site into Buckeye Creek in Doddridge county.
The Details
Plunger Lift Technology on Gas Wells
Fluids Brought to the Surface during Production
Plugging a Well
How To Read a Lab Report
Information the Completion Report Provides
Casing and Cementing