Propane Fracking Slowly Gaining Attention as Canadian Company
Uses Technique in Texas
Process uses propane, butane instead of water
Caller.com
27 December 2011
By Rick Spruill
CORPUS CHRISTI — A Canadian company is experimenting in Texas with
a drilling technique as a substitute for the enormous amount of
water used in the hydraulic fracturing process.
Jadela Oil Corp., a Canadian exploration and production company,
fractured its El Indio No. 1 horizontal well in Maverick County
near Eagle Pass with more than 5,000 barrels of liquid propane and
butane, a process known as gas fracking.
Traditional hydrofracking has created a boom in drilling in shale
formations, including the Eagle Ford Shale across South Texas.
But it also has caused environmental concerns because of the
amount of water used — a single well requires millions of gallons
— and because the water used becomes contaminated and cannot be
reused.
The method using a propane and butane jell hopefully will reduce
production costs because, unlike water, the gas mixture can be
recovered and reused or sold, Jadela CEO Greg Leia said. The
secondary benefit, Leia said, is environmental.
"No. 1, there is no water used," he said. "Second, water damages
the shale, dampening production. Third, the deeper water goes, the
less of it comes back, and what it comes back with is contaminated
with the chemicals added to it, plus strontium, a radioactive
element."
Leia said the company has completed about 1,000 propane fracking
wells in Canada and a number in Texas, but only on vertical wells.
He said the El Indio well in the Eagle Ford Shale was the
company's first horizontal well fractured with propane and butane.
Whether they use the method again depends on the outcome of the
well that produced 2,077 barrels of oil and almost 24 million
cubic feet of gas before the company shut it down for testing.
Of the 5,000 barrels of propane injected into the well, the
company reported recovering 21 percent, or 1,143 barrels.
The well is now being pumped and a pipeline installed.
Leia acknowledged the risk of pumping chemical-laced water into
the ground.
"When you put this stuff down in the ground, depending on the
depth, you've potentially got issues," he said.
He said a common misconception is fracking far below the surface
is a source of chemical seepage into water tables when, in fact,
methane can leak into shallower water sources if well casing is
faulty.
"A Texas permit requires frackers to send down 150 feet only for
surface casing," he said. "This means methane gets transferred
into the groundwater."
Gas fracking is a promising but unproven option, said David
Burnett, director of technology at Texas A&M University's
Global Petroleum Research Institute.
Burnett said until companies grow less reticent about publishing
results from wells fracked with gas, the practice will remain on
the fringe of production options.
"It's expensive," Burnett said. "There are some safety issues with
using a flammable material."
In Canada, where it is more common, gas fracking provides an
attractive alternative to water because it does not freeze in
arctic conditions.
Brackish saltwater also may one day be used as an alternative to
freshwater, Burnett said.
"This will be particularly helpful in areas where there is
pressure — perceived or otherwise — on the freshwater aquifer," he
said.
The obstacle, he said, comes from landowners.
He said it is a common practice for West Texas ranchers to require
fracking operators to drill a freshwater well, not a brackish one.
"The freshwater well then becomes the property of the rancher when
the well is complete," Burnett said. "It's a benefit to them."