Posted on 08/13/2013 9:35:06 AM PDT by thackney
Anyone following the spread of fracking in California should check out an interesting — and frustrating — report this week from former San Francisco Chronicle journalist Rob Collier.
It’s about “acidizing,” an oil production technique that involves pouring large amounts of hydrofluoric or hydrochloric acid down wells. Collier argues that it could be more effective than hydraulic fracturing as a way to unlock the Monterey Shale, an immense rock formation beneath central California that could hold more than 15 billion barrels of oil.
The report, issued by the Next Generation think tank, gives a good introduction to the process and its potential dangers. It does not offer any hard data on how often oil companies are using acidization to wrest oil from the Monterey Shale. Hence the frustration mentioned above.
But that’s one of Collier’s main points. We know very little about how common this practice is in California. State senators didn’t fare much better when they held a hearing on acidization in June.
The practice would receive more scrutiny under a bill from Sen. Fran Pavley to tighten regulations on fracking. The bill would trigger a state study on the potential risks of fracking and other well stimulation techniques, including acidization.
But the bill is facing a tough fight in the legislature. And it has also come under attack from some of Pavley’s allies in the environmental community. On Monday, activists from MoveOn.org and CREDO will gather at Pavley’s district office in Calabasas to urge the senator to withdraw her bill and push for a fracking ban instead.
“Sen. Pavley thinks regulation will protect the environment and the public,” said activist and organizer Lauren Steiner, in a press release announcing Monday’s action. “But regulations cannot make fracking safe.”
Unless you can get free, clean power from unicorn farts, the greens will oppose producing more energy.
Even then, they would likely protest the harmful effects of free energy.
Oh sheesh, yeah: it’s hard enough to overcome the shrill opposition to fracking now. The idea of forcing acids into the ground will make the greens completely freak out.
FRANKIN’-FRACKING wasn’t scaring enough sheeple.
Acidizing must be worse; it uses acid.
Even then, they would likely protest the harmful effects on the unicorns...............
“It’s about “acidizing,” an oil production technique that involves pouring large amounts of hydrofluoric or hydrochloric acid down wells.”
I might have a problem with hydrofluoric acid. It’s some mean stuff... I know it’s way underground, but that stuff can kill you even in small amounts. That’s one acid I’ve mostly always stayed away from.
Acidizing must be worse; it uses acid.......and so do they........They wouldn’t lye............
It’s exploitation, I tells ya.
Know- nothing writer. Acidization does not open the to k because it does not create cracks to let the oil/gas out. It will dissolve the limestone I. Immediate proximity to the shaft but won’t open the formation.
You wouldn’t like to taste anything already existing in that formation. It isn’t made worse for you by adding an acid treatment.
Is this a good idea? That stuff will disolve glass.
How Does Well Acidizing Work to Stimulate Production?
http://www.rigzone.com/training/insight.asp?insight_id=320&c_id=4
Stimulation is performed on a well to increase or restore production. Sometimes, a well initially exhibits low permeability, and stimulation is employed to commence production from the reservoir. Other times, stimulation is used to further encourage permeability and flow from an already existing well that has become under-productive.
A type of stimulation treatment, acidizing is performed below the reservoir fracture pressure in an effort to restore the natural permeability of the reservoir rock. Well acidizing is achieved by pumping acid into the well to dissolve limestone, dolomite and calcite cement between the sediment grains of the reservoir rocks. There are two types of acid treatment: matrix acidizing and fracture acidizing.
A matrix acid job is performed when acid is pumped into the well and into the pores of the reservoir rocks. In this form of acidization, the acids dissolve the sediments and mud solids that are inhibiting the permeability of the rock, enlarging the natural pores of the reservoir and stimulating flow of hydrocarbons.
While matrix acidizing is done at a low enough pressure to keep from fracturing the reservoir rock, fracture acidizing involves pumping highly pressurized acid into the well, physically fracturing the reservoir rock and dissolving the permeability inhibitive sediments. This type of acid job forms channels through which the hydrocarbons can flow.
There are different acids used to perform an acid job on wells. A common type of acid employed on wells to stimulate production is hydrochloric acids (HCI), which are useful in removing carbonate reservoirs, or limestones and dolomites, from the rock. Also, HCI can be combined with a mud acid, or hydrofluoric acid (HF), and used to dissolve quartz, sand and clay from the reservoir rocks.
In order to protect the integrity of the already completed well, inhibitor additives are introduced to the well to prohibit the acid from breaking down the steel casing in the well. Also, a sequestering agent can be added to block the formation of gels or precipitate of iron, which can clog the reservoir pores during an acid job.
After an acid job is performed, the used acid and sediments removed from the reservoir are washed out of the well in a process called backflush.
We are capable of making metals materials suitable for the use. That is how the industry is capable of making, storing and transporting Hydrofluoric Acid in the first place.
Specification for Carbon Steel Materials for Hydrofluoric Acid Alkylation Units
http://www.nace.org/cstm/Store/Product.aspx?id=05116d3d-8400-465e-9b91-ea46473ad71d
If they don’t lye, they won’t saponify and that is why hippies stay dirty.
how do they get it down the well, is what I want to know
If I am not mistaken, Hydroflouric acid is also called Aqua Regia (Royal Water) because it will dissolve gold
(glass too?? what do you put it in?)
Acidizing oil wells isn’t exactly a new process. I think it was started back in 1890s. It is a mature and widely used technology. It is just a new topic for the lame stream media to use as a scare tactic.
http://www.globalspec.com/reference/74453/203279/part-i-preliminaries
http://www.globalspec.com/reference/74452/203279/introduction
Specification for Carbon Steel Materials for Hydrofluoric Acid Alkylation Units
http://www.nace.org/cstm/Store/Product.aspx?id=05116d3d-8400-465e-9b91-ea46473ad71d
Aqua regia or nitro-hydrochloric acid is a highly corrosive mixture of acids, a fuming yellow or red solution. The mixture is formed by freshly mixing concentrated nitric acid and hydrochloric acid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqua_regia
“You wouldn’t like to taste anything already existing in that formation”
I would be more concerned about a spill, and spills will happen.
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