Posted: 04/11/2011
Author:
By AARON MAY news2@kilgorenewsherald.com
The East Texas Oilfield recently received a taste of the Great White North as Canadian based Gasfrac Incorporated opened the door to their new American operations headquarters in Kilgore this week.
City officials and the Chamber of Commerce were on hand Wednesday for the ribbon cutting ceremony, where Chief Operating Officer Audis Byrd explained the company’s services and how Gasfrac implements modern technology and new methods into the process of “fracking” an oil well.
“What we do that’s different than others is we don’t use any water,” Byrd said. “We use a propane product, like what you buy in the bottles. It comes out of the well and is non-damaging to the formation. When it’s produced back, it’s the same material that came out of the well and in a lot of areas you can flow it down the cells and recapture it and you can either sell it to the public or bring it back to the facility to frac with it again.”
The process of fracking (properly known as hydraulic fracturing) is when pressure is applied to the well bore until the rock is cracked. It can be done with any fluid, from a gas to water and is basically used to break the earth open.
Once the earth is open, continued pumping creates a crack in the rock layer, which can be filled in with a porous material. This process is known as propping.
“That is like building a super highway for the well bore and that is how we can increase production on these tighter rocks,” Byrd said. “This has been going on in the industry for 50 years.”
Byrd explained early frackers used a gelled gasoline to apply pressure on the rocks. However, due to the high flammability of gasoline, the standard process switched to water to prevent dangerous explosions. While propane also is flammable, Byrd said Gasfrac’s process included a closed system that can be controlled remotely using cameras to monitor the gauges.
“We use a closed system and we pressurize the tanks with nitrogen so that we can keep it closed. The old system used open-top tubs. There are still flammability issues, but we’ve got all kinds of safety devices in place to make sure our employees are safe.”
He said the company procedures include setting up a barrier around the machines as they pump the propane down to the rock surface. Cameras monitor the barrier and prevent individuals from getting too close. If leaks are detected the machines can be controlled remotely to fix the problem or stop operations to allow for workers to access the leak.
“Technology has advanced to a point where we can control everything from the trailer,” Byrd said. “If we see anything or smell anything, we can shut it down, fix the problem then get back to work.”
Byrd said the company received a warm welcome from the City of Kilgore and the surround areas. He said Kilgore was selected for the “hub of U.S. operations” because of its central location in the U.S. oil producing fields.
“We’ve done a few jobs in 2009 and 2010 using Canadian equipment that we shipped down here for the jobs. This is our first time to set up a permanent operations center,” he said. “If you take about a 500-mile radius around Kilgore, there’s about 60 percent of the rigs running in the U.S. So it’s a good hub to be able to go in any direction. There are lots of hot areas in South Texas, but that’s within the 500-mile radius.
“This is a friendly area to the oil and gas business. A lot of the support I need for our pumps and other equipment is local here because the oil and gas industry has been here for so long. It’s a good place to get started,” he continued. “We love it here. The weather is great and hopefully we can generate enough business here to keep this our home location for a long time.”
Gasfrac is the second Canadian oil and gas company to locate a facility here in recent years. Stream-Flo, a supplier to oil and gas producers, operates out of a facility at Synergy Park.
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