Those Looking for Geoscience input

[Stewy]

(08-08-2024, 11:28 AM)KillerGoose Wrote: Phenomenal answer, thanks Stewy. So, earthquakes happen by fluids getting into a fault which lubricates them and makes it easier for them to shift. Is this an accurate understanding? 

Correct.

Quote:Also, what does the "stimulation" actually do? Does it just make it easier to extract the resource? 

When done correctly and in a controlled manner through accurate wellbore engineering it directs pressure into a specific formation which overcomes overburden weight of rock and hydraulically opens horizontal fracture networks around a vertical wellbore.  The proppant is then pumped into the formations into the opened fractures.  The pressure is released and fluids recovered from the wellbore leaving the fractures and proppant.  The effect of this is significantly increasing the surface area of the wellbore increasing the production of the well.

Oil & Gas fields are finite resources.  The economics of any particular field is directly related to how quickly you can get the hydrocarbons out vs. how many wells it takes to recover it.  In other words investment vs. profit.  Wells are the greatest expense of any O&G field.  Thus one frac's reservoir to increase "per well recovery" to reduce needed investment.  Example, "oil shales" and "gas shales" could be produced through vertical wellbores, but they'd never be profitable due to the number of wells needed to extract the resources conventionally.  Frac'ing and horizontal wells makes producing these types of reservoirs possible and they are huge portions of the US production growth since 2012.