Hydraulic fracturing was commercially introduced in the 1940’s.
Today frac’ing is used in a majority of U.S. natural gas and oil wells to enhance performance and minimize drilling. It is estimated that of the over 47,100 wells registered in the U.S., 90% use hydraulic fracturing.
The process has evolved over the years. At the beginning wells were only being drilled vertically, but as the frac’ing process has progressed, horizontal drilling is helping producers to reach more underground area with less surface area disturbance.
The drilling process still starts out vertically, but then kicks out horizontally.
Vertical drilling required many wells to be spaced out over a large area of land. Now with horizontal drilling, many wells can use the same well pad site.
By decreasing the area of the pad sites it reduces time, money and the amount of access roads and pipelines needed for the operation.
It has been estimated that there have been over 1.5 million successfully frac’ed wells, that have helped produce over 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in America.
Though frac’ing may be more popular today, technologic advances are only helping to teach this old dog some new tricks.
