Horizontal Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing: It’s Not Just for Shale Gas Anymore

 No, horizontal drilling is a very well developed technology that has been used for decades.  In fact, the first true horizontal well was drilled in 1929 although it was not economical to drill horizontal wells until the 1980’s.  In fact, Prudhoe Bay in Alaska was developed in 1984 using horizontal wells as were wells in the Austin Chalk in 1985-87.  Horizontal wells were introduced into the Barnett Shale in 2002-2003 and are now the norm.  By the time the first horizontal well was drilled in the Barnett Shale there had been tens of thousands drilled in the United States and in dozens of countries around the world.

All drilling in Texas is controlled and permitted by the Railroad Commission of Texas.  The RRC requires drillers to set surface casing (steel pipe) to a minimum of 200 feet deeper than a fresh water table and to cement the casing in place in order to prevent any contamination of the water table.  If you have any concerns about a drilling operation and your water well, you should contact the nearest regional office of the RRC to express your concerns.  You can find contact information at the Railroad Commission web site at http://www.rrc.state.tx.us .
 

The Barnett Shale spans over 5,000 square miles and 24 counties in North Texas.  The Marcellus Shale is much larger, underlying 50,000 square miles in parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Maryland and West Virginia although not all of it is expected to  yield economic quantities of natural gas.   Geologists say that the Barnett Shale was deposited 290 to 320 million years ago whereas the Marcellus Shale is approximately 400 million years old.
 
The Marcellus is much thicker in some places than the Barnett with the maximum thickness of the Marcellus ranging up to almost 900 feet compared to the Barnett’s up to 350 feet in the core areas (Tarrant, Denton and Wise counties).  The differences in size and thickness place potential recoverable natural gas reserves in the Marcellus Shale at 300 to 500 Tcf (trillion cubic feet) compared to an estimated 50 Tcf in the Barnett Shale.
 
All that said, the Barnett Shale is the largest producing natural gas field in the United States, producing 7% of the total natural gas used in the U.S.  This is because the active drilling in the Barnett Shale began in 2002 whereas drilling in the Marcellus only became active in the last few years. 
 

You should contact the company that you signed a minerals lease with and inquire about the status of the 5 different properties.  It is possible that no wells have been drilled.  It is also possible that some wells have been drilled but not completed and are not in production.  It is also possible that some wells have been completed and are in production but the royalty checks are in process.  Companies can take a few months to compute the “division orders” that determine how much each individual check will be for.  Note that if there is a few months lag that you will be compensated back to the first date of production so that your first check may be larger than subsequent checks. You can also go to the Railroad Commission of Texas web site and look up your properties to see if wells are in production.  On the RRC site at rrc.state.tx.us, go to Data and Statistics then Online Research Query.  You can then go to the county and narrow the search to your properties.

Flaring is a safe method for testing the production capability of natural gas wells. Once a well begins to flow, if a pipeline is not available, the gas stream is often flared to test the performance of the well. During the process the gas flows into a vertical pipe and is lit to test the quality and quantity of gas produced from that well. Flaring may take as little as 48 hours or a few more days. This is done by permit from the Texas Railroad Commission and has been a common practice for many years and is used in other industries as well. Similar to the lighting of a burner tip on a gas stove, the flame is the result of a controlled burn of the natural gas from a well. In this way, the productive capability of the well is confirmed without constructing a pipeline.

Each natural gas company has developed its own mixture. Standard ingredients include water and sand and chemical compounds such as the ones listed in this PDF developed by Energy in Depth: http://www.bseec.org/sites/all/pdf/frac-fluid.pdf

A moratorium would interfere with private contracts between mineral owners and drilling companies. Since these contracts are typically in effect for a relatively short time, this could create a negative economic impact for mineral owners and Barnett Shale residents. Additionally, experience has taught natural gas drillers that production from the wells declines rapidly—about 50% in the first year—so the output would be greatly affected.

A recent study of 28 people in Dish, done by the State Health Department, should be released any day. Preliminary results reported by people who participated in the study indicated that there is no evidence of any illness. Highest levels of benzene were found in the blood levels of people who smoked.