Hydrofracking and the American Propagandist

Comment by Sherry Hart on July 20, 2011 at 8:45am

We who live in the Marcellus Shale region are very aware of the truth in what you say, Curtis.  It is furthered by other groups with agendas who don't care if the anti-drill arguments are based on fact.  As long as it furthers their agenda, they could care less and will assist in propagating the misinformation.  Add to that the local media who have found a new angle and will post every alleged incident to drive up their advertising dollars because negativity sells.

Case in point regarding the media: A couple months back a young hair stylist residing in Bradford County PA, Crystal Stroud, started spouting off that she was suffering medical problems because of living in close proximity to a natural gas well.  She alleged she was suffering from barium poisoning which was causing, among other things, her hair to fall out.  It was front page news for many of the local papers as well as regional groups and she was the "star" of many anti-drill demonstrations, including at least one at the state capitol.  Within the last couple of weeks, it was determined by the State's DEP that, first, her symptoms had occurred before they had even fraced the well, and second, barium had not been used in the drilling process on this particular well.  Of course the final determination of drilling nor fracing being the cause of her woes has been relegated to the back pages of those same newspapers if they seen fit to print it at all.

Of course, all this anti-drill (anti-American energy productivity, if you ask me) started with the young movie producer, Josh Fox.  Where his money came from for the first Gasland is suspect, but unproven.  Oh, yes, did you notice - first Gasland... HBO has apparently seen fit for him to film a second mocumentary by giving him $750,000.  I'm behind on getting my next blog out, but in the scheme of things, with NY's release of the newest SGEIS regulations and some other advocacy and information sharing activities, I haven't been able to fit it in just quite yet.  However, he is "hard at work" getting footage for his next film...  will try to fit in some writing this weekend.

But I diverge... How I wish Curtis wasn't so spot on with this blog.  The general public is just NOT getting the overall big picture.  Complacency and apathy are our enemy, folks.  If you think this isn't true, just do an Internet search on NY and "fracking".  Special interest groups have succeeded in keeping drilling at bay with a moratorium in that state for three years and are continuing to fight it every step of the way.  They have taken on not just the drilling and fracing though, they take on ANYTHING that has to do with NG production - pipelines, waste disposal, water withdrawals, drilling permits...

Sorry for going on and on about this, but NY's craziness has trickled over to PA, with communities attempting through various ways to ban drilling.  Their goal is to take it nationwide.  I believe the chances of this occurring are little to none, but I am also tired of all the suspicion regarding my husband's industry when, especially given the financial state of our nation, many ignorant people are trying to keep American from using their own resources and, quite possibly, keeping us from being a market player with a commodity we might have enough of to sell to other countries.

(Stepping of Soapbox now...) good day!

Comment by Chris Keilberg on July 20, 2011 at 9:59am

It should also be pointed out that many the ominous sounding chemical names the anti-frac propaganda folks point to are actually FOOD GRADE components purchased from the same suppliers and batches that provide them for many foods and beverages on grocery store shelves.

Comment by Drilling Ahead on July 20, 2011 at 5:51pm

Here is a "Topix" post from Dave in Middleburh New York-Wonder why the New York times didn't interview this guy for thier story?

I have a 500' water well which has Naturally occurring natural gas in my water.
You can light the gas on fire from the faucets or in a jar after filling it. There are three things I would like to do, one is to vent off the gas to make the water safe to use in the house. Two, to use the vented gas from the well water, and three to suck out the gas from the well itself to use.

Now I'm a plumber by trade so I know much about how things work and have many ideas in my head but would like some real ideas that have worked before by others who have done this before to save me time experimenting what will work.

I know I can vent the gas with a steel tank that has a vent on the side that is used for the old type well tank that has a bleed back to maintain the level of air in the tank but not use it in that way but to vent out the gas. But how do I get the gas into another tank to use the gas? I need some ideas on this.
I also thought of buying a large 3000-5000 gal plastic tank and pumping up the water and let it settle off the gas and then somehow take off the gas from the top of the tank to use but not sure about that. Then I could use the water from the bottom of the tank with another pump. Now there is another well that is not being used that I thought I could pump the water from the deep well with gas in it in to the shallow well and get the gas out of that well from it rising up to the surface or by putting a vacuum on that well also and use the second shallow well for the water for the house.

Getting the gas out of the well; I don't think there is any presser coming out of the well, so I am going to try to use an old compressor to suck out the gas by putting a vacuum on the top of the well casing. I need some ideas on this and I also thought I may have to pump off the water so that the gas can get out. If I pump the water off how do I do this if the well goes dry and I have the pump running on all the time how do I put it on a cycle to not burn out the pump?

Should I drill the well deeper. Now the well was drilled to 500' and hit no water and then drilled a little bit more and hit water with the gas in it. Should I drill it deeper so that the water goes lower in the well so the gas will rise up out of the well?

I hope someone can give me some ideas on these matters and thank you for your help
Dave

Here is a link to the entire topic

Comment by Sherry Hart on July 20, 2011 at 7:10pm

Curtis and Behind_Timez,

We live less than 20 minutes from Dimock and my husband's rig did much drilling throughout the Springville-Dimock area, so I am well acquainted with not just the technical sides of the issues surrounding the area, but also have friends in that area.  One of my friends, Loren Salsman, resides in the "Consent Order" area and regularly shares his water results with me.  For more of Loren's take on it, see his Letter to the Editor: http://74.95.82.237:591/rconline/FMPro?-db=rconline.fp5&-format... (Wow is that a long link!).

In fact, it's one of my pet projects working with the residents of Dimock in getting the truth out from there.  As BTz stated, lessons were learned the hard way regarding the geology, which led to an extra string of casing being added.  Please know some of the residents, extremely unhappy with how their town was being portrayed in the media, have taken it on themselves to give tours of the local area to NYS and other officials.  Most of these people go away, shaking their heads and stating, "That was not what we have been led to expect".  Loren himself, shares his water quality testing reports (required on a regular basis), and the water is returning to the shape it was prior to the high methane content.

Another group, Enough Already, got its origins fighting the same water pipeline expansion mentioned in Loren's letter to the editor.  Their efforts successfully resulted in the pipeline project being taken off the table.  They continue to work with both O&G companies and state legislative bodies in the best interest of ALL involved.  That's a far cry from most of the "concerned citizens" groups who simply work against any drilling.

As I've said before, I've seen the darndest actions and heard the oddest statements from environmentalists over the years (I have 13 years of working in various ways with the industry or being in or "married" to the patch), but I some of the things I have heard out here would be damned laughable if they weren't being taken so seriously.

Comment by Overshot on August 1, 2011 at 10:53pm

Actually Behind_Timez, your statement

"coal bed methane and natural gas, which are not the same thing at all"

is not accurate.   Methane is methane is methane (CH4), no matter where it is sourced.  It is the principal component of natural gas.  The difference between CBM and what we term natural gas is the primarily the source material and process.   The gas that lights our kitchen ranges, water heaters and CNG vehicles has some mixture of more complex hydrocarbons and indicator gas (mercaptan), but in its purest form is simply methane.

 

But I digress.   The whole point of Gasland is the same thing that Michael Moore does with his tripe, to stir up an emotional response with a lot of allegation and misinformation.   What little factual content that was presented in the movie is unrelated to the issues it proclaims to be representing.  If you really want to see a crowd of anti frack people get their knickers in a knot, ask the following two questions after the movie has completed and the Q/A period has started.

 

1) Why do they show drilling rigs when the hydraulic fracturing process occurs during the completion phase of the well?   Is it because they don't understand the different phases of well development, or is there another reason that they haven't communicated?

 

2) (This is a bit more technical, so it sometimes is lost on the particular audience).   How is it that well fractures that are occurring 1000's of feet below the surface (~10K out here in western ND, eastern MT) can reach aquifers that are only 100's of feet below the surface?    The blank looks on the faces and the results babble of half-baked explanations are the fodder of great fiction.   (If someone CAN explain to me how we can create fractures that reach that far, please contact me, I have a whole herd of engineers that want to talk to you).

 

The American public is not as dumb as the MSM would like to have us think, a lot of people have figured out that this is just FUD being spread by the same people who trumpeted the cause of the Spotted Owl against the timber industry on the west coast (BTW, a fine appetizer if prepared properly, but not nearly enough for a meal).  When people learned the truth about that weak species, this same crowd's credibility when down the crapper.   What needs happen now is the bully pulpit they have in the MSM needs to collapse and the TRUTH,  the bare naked TRUTH needs to be reported.

Comment by Drilling Ahead on October 2, 2012 at 4:40pm

Now from the "Topix" link above

Elizabeth Morris writes;

Hi there,

I'm working on a film project that features biogenic gas that catches on fire.
Would either of you be interested in letting us film your flaming faucet?

Even though the guy has STATED HE HAS NATURALLY OCCURRING METHANE this liberallady still wants to "film his faucet" to fuel her propaganda-it never ends!

Comment by charlie keevert on October 4, 2012 at 10:36am

We live in a world of media that is so uneducared and uneducated people who believe what they promote. I've been around the oilfield for 100% of my life. My father worked in the oilfield and I went with him many times and watch fracing back in the 50's. We live in a world of ignorant people but our world does and will always run on oil. If you don't trust the oil industry park your automobiles and buy a horse.
The terrorests are the media. THE UNEDUCATED MEDIA
http://www.facebook.com/charlie.keevert?ref=ts&fref=ts

Comment by Bill Belz on December 11, 2012 at 3:48am

there has been areas of natural gas coming out of water wells in south texas for a 100 years before fracing'. wells less than 100 ft

Comment