![Dustin Bruce, an engineer with Pioneer Natural Resources, gives a speech in the Resources Committee's Lunch and Learn series titled "Hydraulic Fracturing 101" at the Capitol on Thursday. Michael Penn/Juneau Empire](http://jun-cdn.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/superphoto/11024951.jpg "Dustin Bruce, an engineer with Pioneer Natural Resources, gives a speech in the Resources Committee's Lunch and Learn series titled "Hydraulic Fracturing 101" at the Capitol on Thursday. Michael Penn/Juneau Empire")
Boosting oil production with “fracking” is likely to help Alaska get more oil out of older or other challenged resources, legislators were told Thursday.
Using the process formally called “hydraulic fracturing” but better known as fracking can give aging wells “a kick in the pants,” said Dustin Bruce, an exploration engineer with Pioneer Natural Resources.
Bruce defended the practice, sometimes controversial in the Lower 48, saying all the complaints of water well contamination came from “misinformation.”
Fracking has been around for decades, as the process was used on older, traditional vertical wells. It really took off when advances in horizontal drilling technology greatly expanded the areas in which it could be used.
The results, Bruce said, have been great, with rock formations once thought incapable of producing oil and gas becoming economic, while in other cases older oil and gas fields saw their lives extended.
“It’s really brought new life into fields that others have written off,” he said.
And fracking is also the future of oil production, as it is increasingly unlikely that big new conventional oil fields like Prudhoe Bay will be found.
“When they say there’s no more easy oil, they’re right, there’s no more drilling vertical wells with easily extracted large volumes of oil,” Bruce said.
Fracking is already in use in Alaska, with 25 percent of all wells being hydraulically fractured, Bruce said, citing data from the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
Pioneer in 2008 became the North Slope’s first independent operator when it began producing from its Oooguruk field just offshore.
Pioneer is also exploring onshore, and fracking is likely to make those efforts more productive and more likely to be successful.
Drilling in Alaska is particularly expensive, but horizontal drilling allows as many as 40 wells to be drilled from a single pad.
“Horizontal drilling has really opened up the landscape, touching more reservoir from a small area,” he said.
The fracking process creates fractures that go out through the rock, creating fissures through which oil and gas can flow into the well.
The industry in the Lower 48 has been plagued by claims that hydraulic fracturing has contaminated nearby water wells, but Bruce said that’s not happening.
“Honestly, I don’t think any is caused by hydraulic fracturing,” he said.
The companies doing fracking drill through the aquifer to oil and gas far below, and line the borehole with steel pipe and cement to prevent contamination, he said.
The claims of contamination are misinformation, he said.
“You go on YouTube and you see some guy who is lighting a five-gallon jug of what is claimed to be drinking water and you have a flame,” he said.
To protect themselves from misinformation, companies are now testing nearby wells before they drill in case the wells were already contaminated, he said.
Pioneer Alaska’s Public Affairs Director Casey Sullivan said the company was participating in an industry transparency effort to post all of its fracking chemicals online at a site called www.fracfocus.org.
The fluid that is pumped into wells for fracking is almost 100 percent water, but may contain half a percent of chemicals designed to help the process work better. Well specific data on those chemicals are on the site, he said.
The fracking chemicals are mostly simple household chemicals, the sort of things you’d have under your kitchen sink, Bruce said.
What’s not listed on the site are proprietary additives, such used by fracking pumping contractors such as Schlumberger, an oilfield services company working in Alaska.
“We make everything public except for those proprietary chemicals,” Bruce said.
Claims of chemical and other well contamination haven’t been a problem in Alaska, he said.
• Contact reporter Pat Forgey at 523-2250 or at patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.
Comments (18)
Add commentSo.... companies Frack for
So.... companies Frack for Oil. While people Frack for Pleasure ... interesting what this world is coming to.
Fracking is dangerous business if you don't know what your doing
Fracking in your own back yard....hmm are you sure about this? After all the news and the reports of Fracking in the lower 48 has caused such a stir.
People who were victims of fracking the natural gas company did not play fair nor did they pay out for any home and property damages due to fracking.
For anyone who is interested in Fracking I would check out all possibilities of good and the bad before venturing into fracking.
You are Fracked!
Just remember if you get fracked with no rewards look into any companies that have made a lot of money from your own back yard
The real issue
Whether the oil comes from fracking or conventional vertical drilling, the real issue is that Parnell wants to give our oil away.
Does this...
Does this leave anyone saying WHAT THE FRACK? :)
Don't you hate it when people lie about oil companies? ;)
My comments in brackets -
....The industry in the Lower 48 has been plagued by claims that hydraulic fracturing has contaminated nearby water wells, but Bruce said that’s not happening.
“Honestly, I don’t think any is caused by hydraulic fracturing,” he said.
[Honestly???]
... The fluid that is pumped into wells for fracking is almost 100 percent water, but may contain half a percent of chemicals designed to help the process work better. Well specific data on those chemicals are on the site, he said.
The fracking chemicals are mostly simple household chemicals, the sort of things you’d have under your kitchen sink, Bruce said.
[Well, that's a relief!!!]
What’s not listed on the site are proprietary additives, such used by fracking pumping contractors such as Schlumberger, an oilfield services company working in Alaska.
[Wouldn't want the competition to get ahold of those harmless recipes....]
“We make everything public except for those proprietary chemicals,” Bruce said.
[ummm....yeah???]
Claims of chemical and other well contamination haven’t been a problem in Alaska, he said.
[For further reference, here's where the truth lies, according to Mr. Bruce]
http://fracfocus.org/
This link lists the chemicals used (will they work as Kool-Aid flavors?):
http://fracfocus.org/chemical-use/what-chemicals-are-used
Thanks HtheH
Thanks for the links. All should keep in mind that it is not just the stuff going down the holes. A typical frack may inject 50 different chemicals but under the enormous pressures and the geochemistry that occurs more than 250 dangerous chemicals will come back out. That is why many states are starting to regulate "production water" and why it is required to be recycled. Probably also why that particular aspect was ignored by the industry hack above. Good job fact checking Juneau Empire!
Scratching Head and looking cross-eyed
"The fracking process creates fractures that go out through the rock, creating fissures through which oil and gas can flow into the well.
The industry in the Lower 48 has been plagued by claims that hydraulic fracturing has contaminated nearby water wells, but Bruce said that’s not happening.
“Honestly, I don’t think any is caused by hydraulic fracturing,” he said".
Would you trust this with your own life on what Bruce says? Not on my life!
Bruce what planet do you live on? Bruce do you have any fracking in your own back yard?
LM
Bruce says fracking is acceptable because the ground water doesn't light on fire. He said somebody on youtube claimed fracked water burned and Bruce says fracked water doesn't burn.
Can you trust a person that thinks ground water is clean just because it doesn't burn?
Go ahead and drink the fracking water; it probably won't explode.
@Hager
Dude, you hit it on the head! Your thoughts and mine are the same.
And it's been my experience that whenever anyone begins a sentence with "honestly..." then previous sentences are suspect. It implies that he has been less-than-honest with his other claims.
And I really think this article is sugar coated. To say "We make everything public, except the proprietary chemicals" sounds really, really spooky. Those chemicals could be anything. And if they are dangerous to the public, the best way for the public not to learn about them is to call the info "proprietary."
If it's harmless, then why the secrecy? Hmmm?
His choice of words sound sculpted and fluffed by an attorney.
And the comment about kitchen sink chemicals freaked me out. There are many things under my kitchen sink I would feel totally guilty about if I were to dump them down my drain.
Another scenario...imagine a huge oil well below Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay, full of enough oil that could fill the Grand Canyon several times. Now imagine that well totally dry (which it will be one day) and it's now one huge cave under Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay. Now imagine that cave having thousands of cracks around it due to fracking. Now imagine gravity, and an earthquake that sends Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay downward to fill the void that was once a cave that was previously full of oil. Now imagine the Arctic Ocean filling things in.
Gravity can be an interesting thing. I'm not saying this would happen, but it could.
Fracking isn't as safe as this speaker makes it out to be. It comes with many, many risks.
Hiker
I totally agree with you!
"The fracking chemicals are
"The fracking chemicals are mostly simple household chemicals, the sort of things you’d have under your kitchen sink, Bruce said."
Yeah, I got some Draino down there. No problem with that getting into your well water!
Head tilted, looking over top of glasses...
You mean the ordinary household chemicals you put out of reach of small children and pets?
"Get your antioxidants the easy way, it's right in the water".
I bet Dustin plays a mean armpit trombone....
Mr. Bruce lies to
Mr. Bruce lies to Alaskans.
Here is a report from Congress about the unsafe chemicals used in Fracking:
http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default/files/documents/...
Alaska already leads the country in Toxic Chemical Releases
http://www.epa.gov/region10/pdf/tri/2010-report-alaska.pdf
It is so hard to understand
It is so hard to understand what exactly all the politicians are talking about and what they really mean. Everything is way too complicated here, the difference is that one of them lie more and the other do that is a bit smaller scopes.
Do not count on DEC to protect us either
Check out the APDES permits for the Cook Inlet gas platforms.
DEC found that Conoco-Phillips would face too great of an economic burden if they required water treatment of production water, so DEC just authorized a toxic mixing zone around the platforms. If C-P cannot afford to treat water before dumping it in our oceans, then who can?
People who were victims of
People who were victims of fracking the natural gas company did not play fair nor did they pay out for any home and property damages due to fracking.