The Origins of Fracking
Hydraulic fracturing. Where did it come from and Why is it here now?
In the past decade or so hydraulic fracturing has manifested the headlines with much debate on the future of energy and oil production for the country. Some consider it an environmental evil, while others view this technique as economical gains or as a production treasure that increases efficiency.
Regardless of your view, the question remains… Where did this technology come from?
Hydraulic fracturing, as we recognize it in our media and as we use it in our conversations, has evolved from many experiments over the past 150 years. In some form or another, hydraulic fracturing has been an integrated component of our nations oil history since the mid-1800s. Although the technique has changed over the years, the practice of hydraulic fracturing as defined by the Geological Society of America remains as “a technique used to stimulate production of oil and gas after a well has been drilled” by “injecting a mixture through a well [borehole] under high but controlled pressure… to create small cracks in the rock formation”
The history of this hydraulic fracturing technique will be broken into three segments: pre-hydraulic fracturing, early hydraulic fracturing, and modern fracturing.
Pre-Hydraulic Fracturing
In the early 1860s during the time of the first oil wells, techniques were being explored to revive shallow wells and extend their production life. The first patented idea was an explosive innovation during the times of the civil war by veteran Col. Edward A.L. Roberts, who filled the borehole with water and then lowered an enclosed torpedo in an iron case with dynamite or nitroglycerin. Large amounts of water would immediately be pumped down the well after the torpedo would be detonated to achieve Roberts famous “superincumbent fluid tamping”. This method was meant to concentrate the power of the explosion as it sent cracks through the formations below.
It wasn’t until later in the 1930s when drillers began to explore non explosive alternatives. Drillers began to inject an acid in replacement of the explosives and found the results not only successful, but also more efficient. The acid made wells more resistant to closing and prolonged well life.
Early Hydraulic Fracturing
The turn of the early 1940s brought along practices of hydraulic fracturing that began to take a modern form of what we recognize today. In 1947, Floyd Farris of Stanolind Oil and Gas “conceived the idea of hydraulically fracturing” as he studied the “pressurized treatments being used” on oil and gas wells at the time. Farris’s experiments were unsuccessful, but his ideas created the path for modern hydraulic fracturing techniques.
Experimental success was finally achieved in 1949 by Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company to extract natural gas in loose geological formation by using high volume fluids and propants.
The 1970s was a fracturing time to be alive, a time of true large scale “rise and proliferation” of massive hydraulic fracturing. By the end of the decade, the practice had spread outside the US and was being used in western Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
Modern Hydraulic Fracturing
The modern hydraulic fracturing technique was instituted in the 1990s by George P. Mitchell. Mitchell combined hydraulic fracturing using slickwater fluids with horizontal drilling; fully kick starting the modern fracking age.
Today what is being experienced is a wide-spread use of this hydraulic fracturing technique. By the year 2010 “approximately 60% off all new crude oil and natural gas wells world wide” were adopting this technique in order to increase overall production and efficiency, while also offering 2.5 million jobs worldwide.
