Even as the region’s natural gas boom is driven toward bust by depressed world energy markets, drillers have had a production breakthrough at a Utica Shale well.
Fracking forces apart rock layers. And a‘proppant’in thefrackingfluid, usually sand, keeps the cracks open. But for deep wells, as in the Utica Shale, the weight of 2 miles of earth can squash sand grains and limit output. For a new well in Pennsylvania, drillers used man-made, ceramic beads that won’t crush. The well ‘came in’ last week with record production.
But, there is fluid-flow back afterfracking; ifit includes ceramic beads, does that create an environmental issue? Bob Chase, emeritus professor at Marietta College, doesn’t think so.
“You get that flow-back and you will get some of that propant coming back. But sand, obviously, is just sand. And the ceramic proppant is a silicone material made stronger than sand by baking it. But there are no disposal issues associated with the propant.”
Chase says ceramic beads have been used for years in deep-well areas.
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