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2020 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
Hydraulic Fracturing
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Excerpt
Environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing
Any unintended consequences of hydraulic fracturing operation on the environment such as sizable induced seismicity, leakage of fracturing fluid to the water table or the surface, emission of methane gas, excessive use of water, and the footprint of the operation such as the damage caused to the road to bring supplies (sand/water, propane) to the hydraulic fracturing site or disposal of the fracturing fluid.
Fracture characterization
Use of different techniques to create a three dimensional distribution of natural or stimulated fractures. In some cases, fracture characterization also involves determining the nature of the fractures such as their length, whether they are open or closed, among other things.
Geomechanics
The science of understanding the mechanical impact of hydraulic fracturing and nature of stress, rock failure/damage and reservoir pressure created as a result of it.
Hydraulic fracturing
A process to recover oil and gas from tight formations by injecting large volumes of water, sand, and small volumes of chemical additives (proppant) to increase oil or natural gas flow.
Induced seismicity
Seismic events (mostly microseismic) caused by humans such as hydraulic fracturing, fluid injection to or production from an oil and gas field, CO2 sequestration, or geothermal operation.
Micro-seismic event
Small seismic (micro earthquake) activities (usually under 2 Richter scale, and mostly between 10 and 100,000 times smaller) sometimes caused by hydraulic fracturing. The “felt Microseismic event” is referred to as an event that does not does not cause any damage, though the shaking of the earth is detectable.
Natural versus stimulated fractures
Natural fractures are small cracks in the rock that are created over a long period of time, versus stimulated fractures that are caused by SFIP of hydraulic fracturing.
SFIP
Any Subsurface Fluid (or gas) Injection of Production operation.
Shale resources
Shale oil and gas resources are unconventional oil and gas produced from shale source rock fragments by pyrolysis.