Posts Tagged ‘DAVID WETHE’

DAVID WETHE Bloomberg News

HOUSTON — Halliburton Co. and Schlumberger Ltd., trying to forestall a regulatory crackdown that would cut natural-gas drilling, are developing ways to eliminate the need for chemicals that may taint water supplies near wells.

At risk is hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process that unlocked gas deposits in shale formations and drove gains in U.S. production of the fuel. Proposed regulations might slow drilling and add $3 billion a year in costs, a government study found. As one solution, energy companies are researching ways to kill bacteria in fracturing fluids without using harmful biocides.

“The most dangerous part in the shale frack is the biocide,” said Steve Mueller, chief executive officer at Southwestern Energy Co., the biggest producer in the Fayetteville Shale of Arkansas. “That’s the number-one thing the industry is trying to find a way around.”

House and Senate bills introduced in 2009 would force producers to get permits for each well. That and other proposed environmental measures would cut drilling by as much as half and add compliance costs of $75 billion over 25 years, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

Biocides are employed because the watery fluids used to fracture rocks heat up when they’re pumped into the ground at high speed, causing bacteria and mold to multiply, Mueller said. The bacteria grow, inhibiting the flow of gas.

“You basically get a black slime in your lines,” he said. “It just becomes a black ooze of this bacteria that grew very quickly.”

Halliburton said March 9 that it’s testing a process using ultraviolet light to kill bacteria in fracking fluid.

About 80 percent of gas wells drilled in North America, including virtually all of those in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, are stimulated or fractured in some way, Tim Probert, corporate development chief at Halliburton, said.

“It’s incumbent on the industry to continue to develop tools and technologies that are compatible with minimizing the environmental impact of the stimulation process,” Probert said.

Copyright: Times Leader