Armor Piercing Fracking Explosions in Your Backyard?
Today three men from the same family lost their lives when a pulling unit exploded in Upton County. It is unknown at this time what caused the explosion. But it could have been caused by armor piercing fracking explosions.
What is known is that armor piercing explosives called “perf guns” are required for fracking. Here are some things I’ve learned about “perf guns.”
- These armor piercing charges are used to blow holes through the steel casing pipe, cement casing and into surrounding shale. Sometimes the charges accidentally go off on the surface causing serious accidents.
- One study limited to 3 suppliers prior to the shale BOOM, found 94 accidents, 49 injuries and 29 deaths due to perf guns.
- Cell phones can set off a “perf gun.”
- Pulling units lower “perf guns” in place and retrieve them.
Industry brags about how powerful “perf guns” are.
Energy Quote of the Day: Power of the Perf Gun:
Perforating unconventional oil & gas wells as part of the hydraulic fracturing process uses armor-piercing charges, Senior Petroleum Engineer for Wagner & Brown Billy Harris… Given the powerful nature of the explosives, some countries have strict regulations controlling their use.
“Perf guns do really well on tanks and armored vehicles. Some folks are very sensitive about this.”
Billy Harris, Sr. Petroleum Engineer, Wagner & Brown
Dose this sound like something you want in your neighborhood?
Does this sound like something you want traveling through your neighborhood? “Perf guns have to be transported to the site.
Bonus questions:
Name the three main causes of induced seismicity (man-made earthquakes) according to industry studies:
- Underground explosions
- Injection
- Extraction
Question: Which of the above is required for the shale boom:
Answer: All of the above.
I hope the industry will take care of the families left behind.
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
- Web |
- More Posts(5121)
” Given the powerful nature of the explosives, some countries have strict regulations controlling [perf gun] use.”
Do I gather from Mr. Harris’ comment here that the U.S. is NOT one of those countries?
If there is one, industry probably has an exemption.
This was written by someone who has limited knowledge of oil field technology. “Armor Piercing Fracking Explosions”…..give me a break…..
By the way, before the press starting publishing half-truths, it was spelled “fracing” which is short for “hydraulic fracturing”. There was no “K”.
More factoids:
– The first fracs were performed in the Hugoton Gas Field (south west Kansas) in the 1920’s or 1930’s.
-Most wells are perforated. This is another technology that has been around since the discovery of oil in the United States. Early wells used nitroglycerin which was lowered into the well and was detonated by impact achieved by dropping a steel bar into the well. Later perforating guns actually used bullets. Current guns use shaped charges which focuses the explosive. And you are correct that it uses the same technology used for armor piercing ammunition. Without perforating, there would be very little oil or gas produced in the USA. Not just shale oil/gas. Conventional wells have depended on this technology for 75 years.
I am all for keeping a watchful eye on energy companies to ensure that their operations don’t impact the environment in a negative way. But you lose credibility when you know so little about your subject.
Thank you for that enlightening comment.
“But you lose credibility when you know so little about your subject.”
I see what you’re saying here.
It’s like the industry PR side lying to communities by telling them industry experiments are “safe and proven,” while the science and engineering side admits that: [“Nope, these are ‘expensive, crude and time-consuming’ experiments using ‘brute force and ignorance,’ and we don’t know a whole lot, our knowledge is “limited.”]:
“‘I don’t think that the actual optimum technology set for producing shale gas has yet been defined — at the moment, we are doing it by brute force and ignorance.’”
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/behind-schlumbergers-smith-deal-a-big-gas-bet/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
So as we are seeing, with the growing number of towns, ckities, ckounties, states, provinckes, ckountries, etck., slamming the door on this admittedly invasive experiment, not only is the industry losing ckredibility when they admittedly know so little about their subjeckt, but while the lies and damages ckontinue, they are losing their sockial lickense as well … pffffffffft.
And, as I’m sure any regulator’s lead counsel will tell you, there are some things the industry doesn’t need to know, rather – they need YOU, YOUR family, and every other water-dependent human – to “shut up.”
“‘Okay, we damaged your water well. We’ll just set you up with potable water through a tank system forever, because, you know, we just spent a million dollars drilling this well that we made a hundred million on. And it’s costing us an extra three hundred thousand. We’re okay.’
Solomon explained more about the industry’s attitude: ‘You know, we don’t need to litigate with you, we don’t even need to know that it was our fault. We’re just happy to pay you. And by the way by doing that you shut up, the regulators stay off our back, we get to do it again down the street. And so that’s the oil company approach on these (things).'”
http://thetyee.ca/News/2014/12/05/Ann-Craft-Fracking-Nightmare/
Sharon, thanks again for sharing your “limited knowledge.”
LOL! Thank you for that enlightening comment, Neighbor.
My pleasure 😉
One thing: I’m glad you guys are finally learning how the English language works. But don’t blame the media for the K in fracking.
Who put the “k” in fracking? The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the fracking truth http://www.texassharon.com/2011/11/28/who-put-the-k-in-fracking-the-truth-the-whole-truth-and-nothing-but-the-fracking-truth/
To Pharel above–Good technical poop, however, you missed one very important point about today’s “fracking” which is distincely different from the “frackling” of old days. Much of today’s fracking is done at deeper depths than in the days of old when the wells were shallower. When the ratio of vertical/horizonal stress in mother earth is such that VERTICAL factures are likely to occur–and this ratio is prevelent in the deeper formations in mother earth. In the old days horizontal fractures almost always occured. Now these vertical fractures can migrate upwards to cause all kinds of unpredicted damages to casing, cement, and eventual migration upwards so as to cause damage to drinking water aquifers. Kind of complicated, but you should be able to be knowledgable about this situation.