【系列专题】页岩油的创新时代：生产回忆录（5）

ONLINE WATER-SOURCING DATABASE ALLOWS OPERATORS TO FIND, DISPOSE OF WATER

Sourcewater.com is an online platform for water sourcing and disposal—a type of eBay for water. During the past five years, horizontal completions have grown from using 100,000 bbl of water per fracture to 500,000 bbl or more. Pad drilling requires millions of barrels in a short time. Historically, most water came from surface use agreements with drilling parcel owners. But now there is rarely enough water on any one parcel to supply completions. Pads require multiple redundant water sources—a huge planning and logistical challenge for completions. With water consumption setting new records, there is not enough from traditional sources to meet industry needs. Sourcewater.com enables operators to post their upcoming water needs anonymously, then receive competing water source and disposal bids from every landowner, operator and service company within range, including water type, water quality, location, price, logistics cost, volume and dates available. Sourcewater.com’s reverse auction drives down total cost while revealing all possible supplies, even nontraditional sources like produced water and flowback, treated water, and excess operator water. Sourcewater.com reduces completions engineering time managing water, ensures the water supply chain and reduces water and logistics cost. The system also enables operators to market excess water capacity to improve their infrastructure return on investment.

DELIVERY SYSTEM ADDRESSES PROPPANT SHORTAGES

Increasing lateral lengths, stage counts and fracturing sand volume in North American shale plays are creating a shortage of proppants. These factors point to fracturing sand demand of 65 million tons to 80 million tons this year and 90 million tons to 120 million tons in 2018—double historic maximums. Sand production at the mines and sand transportation along the railways will both be tested, but the final pinch point of “last-mile sand logistics” could likely be the determining factor of whether the needed supply reaches the wellhead. PropX, a proppant delivery system provider, has developed an efficient mobile delivery system that has delivered more than 2 billion pounds of proppant during the past six months, including a record 9.3 million pounds delivered by a single fracturing spread in a 24-hr period. Using a gravity feed system to eliminate dust and reduce the noise of fracturing sand blowoff along with the PropBeast conveyor system, PropX allows the hauling of more sand per truckload on conventional flatbeds for fast unloading as well as the ability to prestage proppant on location in areas requiring long hauls over treacherous roads. Silica dust testing indicates that PropX systems meet or beat the expected 2018 Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations.

FULLY ELECTRIC FRACTURE FLEET COULD LEAD TO COST SAVINGS

In today’s era of pushing for high efficiencies and enhanced economics in shale formations while also being conscious of environmental concerns, little or no options exist in the hydraulic fracturing market. Evolution Well Services provides the ability to reduce overall annualized fracturing costs by up to $30 million per fleet, lower emissions to well below Environmental Protection Agency Tier IV standards, implement a 67% reduction in pump trailer footprint and reduce noise levels to 82 dB. This is accomplished by powering the 48,000- hhp fracture fleet with 100% electricity from a single natural gas-burning turbine. This power density allows overall pad footprint, including all ancillary equipment, to be reduced by 46%. Evolution’s multipatented fleets are also much safer and eliminate the need for “hot fueling.”

DIESEL, NATURAL GAS-OPERATED FUELING UNIT ENHANCES FRACTURING EFFICIENCIES

Frac Shack International Inc. recently released the world’s first combined diesel and natural gas automated fueling unit for hydraulic fracturing operations. The 16-m (53-ft) mobile trailer unit allows operators to safely and efficiently fuel fracture spreads with both diesel and natural gas as well as increase the accuracy of their analysis with modernized line and consumption data. The mobile unit features 12 natural gas lines and 12 diesel lines and includes its own 7,900-gal diesel tank. Frac Shack’s Bi-Fuel Distribution Unit is compatible with LNG, CNG, field gas and pipeline gas. The Bi-Fuel Frac Shack ensures equal, consistent and measurable pressure to each individual pumper, so both fracture service companies and end users can be confident they are achieving the best substitution rate possible. Significant time savings are achieved with no disassembly or depressurizing required. The quick-connect gas connections ensure switching out pumpers is fast and efficient. The combined diesel/natural gas supply reduces costs and traffic on locations by removing the need to have fuel trucks onsite at all times.