I do feel the same way but not as a result of our marketing but inspite of. Why do we never see a press release comparing our savings with other competitors? The marketing is poor and we need a pr firm that will get out there and deliver the message. As I have said before we have a great product which is also the BEST KEPT SECRET!!! That is not good.
Here is another example are we ESPH marketing going to extol the virtues of our equipment or let another opportunity pass:
HEN THE EARTH MOVES Earthquakes rattling energy industry plans Waste disposal from enhanced recovery procedures proves problematic Published: 3 days ago author-image by Steve ElwartEmail | Archive Steve Elwart, P.E. is the Senior Research Analyst with the Koinonia Institute and a Subject Matter Expert for the Department of Homeland Security. He can be contacted at steve.elwart@studycenter.com.Less ? rss feed Subscribe to author feed
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The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has suspended operations at a Youngstown Township fluid injection well after a 4.0 earthquake struck the area on New Year’s Eve, the 11th temblor in the area since March.
The earthquake at 3:05 p.m. was felt as far away as Michigan, Ontario, Pennsylvania and New York, reported Michael C. Hansen, state geologist and coordinator of the Ohio Seismic Network, part of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Geological Survey.
Scientists have determined that the likely cause was fracking – although not from drilling into deep shale or cracking it with pressurized water and chemicals to retrieve natural gas. Rather, they suspect the quakes are caused by disposal of waste water from the operations, done by pumping it back down into equally deep sandstone.
Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is the process of injecting water and proppant – a material such as sand or other particles that prevent the cracks from slamming shut when the injection is stopped – into a well under high pressure to fracture the rock layer underground and release any natural gas or oil that may be trapped inside.
While the research conducted to date does not establish a clear and direct correlation to drilling at the site and seismic activity, state officials believe that there is enough evidence to suspend operations pending further study.
To gather the evidence, the ODNR asked Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory to conduct field research on the problem. The university placed four seismometers in the area to gather data on the seismic activity. In 2011, the sensors recorded 11 events within 10 miles of the wells. It was the 11th quake to hit the area that caused state officials to stop the waste injection operations.
John Armbruster, a seismologist with Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, part of Columbia University, believes the waste from fracking in Ohio has led to the earthquakes there.
“Look at the evidence. Youngstown is an area which doesn’t have a history of earthquakes. This disposal well started operating in December of 2010. Three months later, the earthquakes began and the earthquakes are trickling along. From March to November, you have nine earthquakes, all of a similar size, 2.5, 2.1, and 2.7.”
On Christmas Eve, there was a 10th, magnitude 2.7 earthquake. The location of the quake, about half a mile from the bottom of the well, was sufficient evidence to conclude that there could be a link.
The 11th and largest quake occurred one week later, on New Year’s Eve.
By triangulating the arrival time of shock waves at the four stations, Armbruster and his team determined with 95 percent certainty that the epicenters of the two latest quakes were within 100 meters of each other, and within half a mile of the injection well. The team also determined that the quakes were caused by slippage along a fault line at about the same depth as the injection site, almost 2.8 miles down.
Environmentalists and lawmakers opposed to fracking and the disposal methods are seizing on the seismic activity in Youngstown to urge caution in the use of the fracking process as a way to produce natural gas.
The injection wells in Ohio are similar to ones used in Texas, where a 4.8 magnitude earthquake occurred near drilling sites in the Eagle Ford Shale formation in South Texas in October. The seismic activity in Texas, Ohio and elsewhere may indicate a link between fracking fluid disposal wells and earthquakes.
A University of Texas seismologist also believes that hydraulic fracturing by itself does not cause earthquakes. It is the disposal of the fracking fluids that is the cause of the problem. Once a well is fractured, the fracking fluid is pumped out of the well so that the gas or oil can escape to the surface and be collected. The waste fluid is then reinjected into a disposal well as a method of removal.
Originally, drilling company operators tried to recycle the fracking fluid. The state of Pennsylvania tried to mandate recycling the fluid, but found that wastewater treatment plants couldn’t get all of the toxic material out of fracking water, and the “cleaned up” water returned to rivers wasn’t clean enough. Well operators in the state then decided to ship wastewater to Ohio, where it has been going down into wells.
A 4.8 quake in the 1960s at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Colorado was also linked to a disposal well. Rocky Mountain Arsenal’s deep injection well was constructed in 1961 and was used to dispose of liquid waste. The Army discontinued use of the well in February 1966 because of the possibility that the fluid injection was triggering earthquakes in the area.
Arkansas residents have recently filed five class action cases against energy companies which jointly operate a number of hydraulic fracturing wells in Arkansas. The lawsuits allege that these injection wells have caused several minor earthquakes in the area as well. The plaintiffs in the case claim that since Sept. 10, 2010; the area has experienced 599 temblors in an area that is not known for any earthquake activity. The most significant was a 4.7 magnitude earthquake, which was supposedly the largest to hit the state in 35 years. In March 2011, the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission ordered a temporary shutdown of the wells to allow time to investigate the cause of these earthquakes.
The drilling companies who are defendants in the cases maintain that the earthquakes are coincidental and are not caused by operation of the wells. The companies also point out that in the week following the shutdown, earthquakes continued to occur, although not with the same frequency. Plaintiffs argue that earthquakes would continue to occur since the fluid injected into underground is still there, at high pressure, continuing to exert pressure on the rock formation.
The United States is not the only country that suspects there is a relationship between the fracking process and earthquakes.
In the 1960s, geologists theorized that gold mines in South Africa had created small earthquakes. Mine shafts dug thousands of feet into the earth collapsed, and the “pancake” effect of the collapsing mines caused earthquakes. One of the quakes was measured at 5.2 on the Richter scale, enough to cause major damage to the poorly constructed buildings in the nearby area.
In the United Kingdom, the Cameron government said it will consider “carefully” a report commissioned by the U.K. energy company Cuadrilla Resources that acknowledges recent earthquakes in the country were caused by hydraulic fracturing.
“We will look at Cuadrilla’s report carefully with the assistance of our independent experts and regulators before deciding whether hydraulic fracturing operations should resume,” said UK Energy Minister Charles Hendry. “The potential for unconventional gas is worth exploring because of the additional security of supply and economic benefits it could provide. But its development must be done in a way that carries public confidence.”
The Geomechanical Study of Bowland Shale Seismicity report, an independent study commissioned by Cuadrilla, had several conclusions:
It is highly probable that the hydraulic fracturing did trigger a number of minor seismic events. The seismic events were due to an unusual combination of geology at the well site coupled with the pressure exerted by water injection as part of operations. If these factors were to combine again in the future, local geology limits seismic events to around magnitude 3 on the Richter scale as a “worst-case scenario.”
The report was conducted by a research team under the direction of Hans de Pater, professor of geotechnology at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.
Few geologists are familiar with these induced or triggered quakes. The quakes are usually small and have not been extremely common. However, fracking is being conducted on thousands of wastewater wells, often in heavily populated areas that historically have not been seismically active. That means even small earthquakes that would have gone unnoticed before now draw attention.
The problem of fracking and earthquakes could have a major impact on the nation’s energy supply.
There are two areas in United States that are generating a lot of interest by energy companies for the energy resources they are thought to contain: the Bakken and the Marcellus formations. These formations contain oil and natural gas, but they are locked inside shale formations that need fracking technology to release the hydrocarbons locked inside.
The Bakken formation is an oil shale geologic structure that is estimated to occupy 200,000 square miles underlying parts of Montana, North Dakota and Saskatchewan. The entire formation is deep underground and fracking is thought to be the best method to recover significant producible reserves of oil held within the formation. An April 2008 USGS report estimated the amount of recoverable oil at 3 to 4.3 billion barrels. In 2008, fracking started to be employed in the formation, which caused a boom in production. By the end of 2010, oil production rates had grown so high that it was outstripping the pipeline capacity to ship oil out of the area, hence the need for the Keystone XL pipeline that the Obama administration is yet to approve. The fracking process has led a veteran industry insider to declare the USGS estimates are too low.
The Marcellus formation in extends throughout much of the Appalachian Mountain region in the eastern United States. Like the Bakken formation, the Marcellus formation contains largely untapped reserves, and its proximity to the populated areas of the East Coast makes it an attractive area for energy development.
A 2009 West Virginia University study estimated that the Marcellus formation contained up to 1,307 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas. A Penn State University study estimates that the use of fracking could add a trillion dollars worth of energy resources to the nation’s shrinking energy reserves.
Terry Engelder, professor of geosciences at Penn State has said, “We can go back to wells that are already drilled and played out, and then drill horizontal from there. Reusing old wells has both economic and environmental value.”
However, the residual oil and gas left in depleted wells can only be recovered if enhanced recovery techniques, like fracking, are employed.
“If we want the energy, and I think we do, we have to figure out how to handle this,” says natural resources economist Michal Moore of Canada’s University of Calgary. The alternative is to send such wastewater to water-treatment plants not designed to handle industrial waste, he says.
“This earthquake is a cautionary tale at this point,” Moore says.
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Faith Montgomery I guess this would get a pass because it's *green*???
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap... Geothermal energy developers plan to pump 24 million gallons of water into the side of a dormant volcano in Central Oregon this summer to demonstrate new technology they hope will give a boost to a green energy sector that has yet to live up to its promise. They hope the water comes back to the surface fast enough and hot enough to create cheap, clean electricity that isn't dependent on sunny skies or stiff breezes — without shaking the earth and rattling the nerves of nearby residents. Like Reply 1 day ago ron how about any state that dont allow fracking for natural gas go with out. this means california no more gasoline shipped in to you since you dont allow drilling off your coast. its time the oil companys fight back by not shipping refined gas to these states who dont allow drilling DC should be the first ones cut off. no permits no gas! walk obama where you wanna go no gas for you libtards anywhere. let them all walk. Like Reply 1 day ago 6 Likes babeol What about Carbon Sequestration? If American feels so outraged at water disposal from hydraulic fracturing operations, then why are they silent on Carbon Sequestration? The US Govt is spending BILLIONS of dollars planning to dispose of 9 times all reservoir volume underground in the form of liquid CO2. How could water disposal be bad, but liquid CO2 disposal be good? Why isn't mainstream media talking about this? Like Reply 2 days ago 2 Likes 666georgesoros They will be storing twice the amount of oxygen as compared to carbon, they are morons. If they were serious about eliminating carbon they would build nuke plants to separate the oxygen from the carbon and make diamonds. Not that I support that either, it's wasteful and stupid too, but less stupid than the sequestration plan. Like Reply 1 day ago in reply to babeol babeol The ultimate irony: Media spins 60 year old process (hydraulic fracturing ---- water disposal underground) to be dangerous, while promoting the same process for Carbon Sequestration. If water disposal underground lubricates fault lines and promotes slippage of rock interfaces (earthquake) then how can we inject 9 times the volume of all oil/gas reservoirs in the form of CO2 and not expect similar phenomena? Media spins carbon sequestration as 'Green" and Class 2 injection (water disposal) as 'Brown'. Of course, the average American cannot think at this level and relies on MSNBC. Like Reply 2 days ago 2 Likes Max Honeycutt This is such blatant pseudoscience it is shocking.
The mere temporal coincidence of earth quakes and the occurrence of Hydraulic fracturing establishes nothing, except that these supposed "scientists" are incompetent.
The notion pumping relatively small amount of water into the earth would create enough pressure to cause an earthquake ---moving billions of tons of the earth's crust---is so ludicrous it is laughable.
This is such a basic, elementary error of logic, it is simply stunning.
Did these scientists not also notice that the presence of seismographic sensors also coincided with the earthquakes? So maybe the sensors caused the quakes..... Morons
There must be hundreds, maybe thousands of things that temporally coincide with the earthquakes,
What the scientists have test and establish is a mechanism by which disposing water underground could do set off earthquakes and i assure you they have not done this.
The oil and gas industry should file an injunction against the state, pending a proper showing of proof that pumping water underground causes earthquakes. Like Reply 2 days ago 3 Likes Jim Taipale You seem to be the moron. Obviously there is enough pressure to fracture the rock which in and of itself is a seismic event genious! To fracture rock you have to exceed its inherent tensile or shear strength of these rocks, Gee isn't that what happens during an earthquake?? Go back to your history books & quit commenting on stuff you don't know about. Moreover, the removal of billions of barrels of oil & gas will cause subsidence; i suppose you think that this is psuedoscience as well. Subsidence isn't dangerous, however, but it can cause cracking to foundations if there's differential setting. This is why the Bakken is a good resource because it isn't in an area where you have large populations of people who seem to think all this can be done with zero impact. And if there is impact, out pops the lawyers. Living comfortable lives has consequences people because if we can't grow it we have to mine it. Like Reply 1 day ago in reply to Max Honeycutt 1 Like Max Honeycutt Jim Taipale
Didn't you read the text of the article?
They already admitted the quakes would not be caused by fracking. What is suggested is that it is the disposal of waste water causing the quakes.
Quote: Scientists have determined that the likely cause was fracking – although not from drilling into deep shale or cracking it with pressurized water and chemicals to retrieve natural gas. Rather, they suspect the quakes are caused by disposal of waste water from the operations, done by pumping it back down into equally deep sandstone.
But this is absurd, as the waste water is not pumped down under significant pressure. They need to come up with a testable model. So far they do not have one.
Secondly, the earthquake record only goes back about 150 years. We have no idea how volatile these areas are in the larger scheme of things.
In my view, what these so-called "scientists" are doing is cooking up a cock-eyed theory to stop the oil industry that they hate so much, just like they... show more Like 1 day ago in reply to Jim Taipale 3 Likes Max Honeycutt JIM Taipale
Didn't you read the text of the article?
They already admitted the quakes would not be caused by fracking. What is suggested is that it is the disposal of waste water causing the quakes.
Quote: Scientists have determined that the likely cause was fracking – although not from drilling into deep shale or cracking it with pressurized water and chemicals to retrieve natural gas. Rather, they suspect the quakes are caused by disposal of waste water from the operations, done by pumping it back down into equally deep sandstone.
But this is absurd, as the waste water is not pumped down under significant pressure. They need to come up with a testable model. So far they do not have one.
Secondly, the earthquake record only goes back about 150 years. We have no idea how volatile these areas are in the larger scheme of things.
In my view, what these so-called "scientists" are doing is cooking up a cock-eyed theory to stop the oil industry that they hate so much, just like they... show more Like 1 day ago in reply to Jim Taipale 2 Likes Vegas I'm all for industry, especially in America, especially heavy industry, but I'm not for fracking. There's other way to get the gas out, that doesn't wreck the ground.
Fracking comes off like this, to me anyways, like somebody breaking up my house's foundation. Then my house settles. In the big scale, this also adds new pressure to the ground, making the possibilities for an earthquake more than possible.
I'm for natural gas, but it must be obtained in a new way. And believe me, there are better, easier, safer ways. Mankind just have to invent it! Like Reply 2 days ago 2 Likes
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