Drilling in Texas’ Barnett Shale is
Drilling in Texas’ Barnett Shale is …
Oil has also been found in lesser quantities, but sufficient (with recent high oil prices) to be commercially viable. Oil and gas operations on leases that have been on production for extended time produce copious amounts of brine water along with the associated oil and gas. Produced water, (any water that is present in a reservoir with the hydrocarbon resource) is produced to the surface with the crude oil or natural gas. Oil production in Texas peaked in 1972 at 1.3 billion barrels per year; it has since declined 73 percent to 351 million barrels in 2004. Natural gas production peaked the same year but has declined only 39 percent, from 9.6 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) in 1972 to 5.9 Tcf last year.
Oil and gas is big business in Texas. Whether it is onshore or offshore, the oil and gas industry can be very dangerous at times. Oil (or in this case, natural gas) cannot move from the reservoir rock to the drilled wellbore unless there is an unobstructed pathway (a combination of porosity and permeability). Fractures offer such a pathway.
Read it all at Drilling in Texas’ Barnett Shale.
Source: BarnettShaleOil.com
Tags: Barnett Shale, brine water, copious amounts, crude oil, cubic feet, fractures, gas oil, gas operations, hydrocarbon, industry, leases, natural gas production, oil and gas, oil prices, oil production, porosity and permeability, reservoir rock, trillion, unobstructed, wellbore
