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Natural gas well completion in the Marcellus Shale

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Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:07.160
completion happens after the wellbore
00:00:09.340 00:00:09.350 has been drilled this is where we
00:00:11.289 00:00:11.299 optimize a well for maximum flow of
00:00:13.420 00:00:13.430 natural gas completion begins with a
00:00:15.910 00:00:15.920 process called hydraulic fracturing or
00:00:18.010 00:00:18.020 fracking for short fracking is a process
00:00:20.769 00:00:20.779 to stimulate natural gas production from
00:00:23.109 00:00:23.119 the tight shale formation below the area
00:00:26.259 00:00:26.269 is being fracked in the Marcellus shale
00:00:28.060 00:00:28.070 reservoir located several thousand feet
00:00:30.220 00:00:30.230 below any groundwater sources
00:00:32.229 00:00:32.239 isolated by millions of tons of
00:00:34.540 00:00:34.550 impenetrable layers of rock and the
00:00:36.520 00:00:36.530 wellbore cemented in casing before
00:00:38.829 00:00:38.839 fracking we test the KC's integrity one
00:00:41.440 00:00:41.450 more time and prepare the site by
00:00:43.420 00:00:43.430 leveling it on every frack site
00:00:45.760 00:00:45.770 Chesapeake constructs multiple layers of
00:00:48.630 00:00:48.640 containment to include placing all
00:00:51.310 00:00:51.320 equipment on secondary containment in
00:00:53.380 00:00:53.390 addition the entire location is
00:00:55.990 00:00:56.000 surrounded by a three-foot earth berm
00:00:58.500 00:00:58.510 when the site's graded in prep the
00:01:01.060 00:01:01.070 completion equipment moves in the entire
00:01:03.430 00:01:03.440 frack job usually lasts several days
00:01:05.609 00:01:05.619 water is transferred to location from
00:01:08.920 00:01:08.930 storage areas we call impoundment it is
00:01:11.949 00:01:11.959 pumped in this black thick continuous
00:01:14.639 00:01:14.649 pre-tested pipe to the location as the
00:01:18.460 00:01:18.470 frack begins water from the steel tanks
00:01:20.680 00:01:20.690 feeds into a blender which mixes it with
00:01:22.839 00:01:22.849 a small amount of chemical additives
00:01:24.639 00:01:24.649 used in fracking the mixture is
00:01:26.650 00:01:26.660 transferred to pump trucks which will
00:01:28.210 00:01:28.220 send pressurized fluids through a
00:01:29.680 00:01:29.690 manifold and deep down hole by way of a
00:01:32.020 00:01:32.030 pressure control device feeding into the
00:01:34.359 00:01:34.369 well called a frack stack on top of the
00:01:36.669 00:01:36.679 wellhead once the initial fractures are
00:01:39.160 00:01:39.170 created in the shale proppant or sand is
00:01:42.100 00:01:42.110 added to open the shale even more and to
00:01:44.320 00:01:44.330 hold those cracks open allowing the gas
00:01:46.419 00:01:46.429 or fluid to escape Chesapeake takes your
00:01:50.080 00:01:50.090 safety and preserving the environment
00:01:51.370 00:01:51.380 very seriously so let's talk about
00:01:54.070 00:01:54.080 what's in the fluid being pumped down
00:01:55.930 00:01:55.940 hole frack fluid is actually more than
00:01:59.260 00:01:59.270 99% sand and water the rest are what we
00:02:02.410 00:02:02.420 call special-purpose additives which do
00:02:04.419 00:02:04.429 things like kill bacteria prevent
00:02:06.490 00:02:06.500 corrosion and stop scale deposits from
00:02:08.710 00:02:08.720 forming in the pipe additives are mixed
00:02:11.199 00:02:11.209 in self-contained systems and are not
00:02:12.970 00:02:12.980 exposed to the surface environment each
00:02:15.760 00:02:15.770 additive is designed to perform a
00:02:17.650 00:02:17.660 specific down hole function
00:02:19.680 00:02:19.690 should not return any appreciable amount
00:02:21.630 00:02:21.640 of chemical to the surface with the
00:02:23.430 00:02:23.440 produced water the entire fracturing
00:02:26.070 00:02:26.080 process for a single well occurs over
00:02:28.290 00:02:28.300 several days and in many stages here at
00:02:30.990 00:02:31.000 Chesapeake we use composite frack plugs
00:02:33.060 00:02:33.070 like this to isolate underground zones
00:02:35.790 00:02:35.800 while we frack this gives us a very
00:02:38.670 00:02:38.680 fine-tuned control of pressure and
00:02:41.130 00:02:41.140 fracturing patterns after our frack job
00:02:44.760 00:02:44.770 we bring in a piece of equipment called
00:02:46.620 00:02:46.630 a service rig or work over rig and
00:02:48.660 00:02:48.670 remove the frac stack from the well this
00:02:51.420 00:02:51.430 service rig also removes the frac plugs
00:02:53.490 00:02:53.500 used to isolate stages in the zone
00:02:55.530 00:02:55.540 during the Frank process once the plugs
00:02:57.990 00:02:58.000 have been removed this will allow all of
00:02:59.610 00:02:59.620 the stages to contribute to the amount
00:03:01.350 00:03:01.360 of gas entering the wellbore next the
00:03:04.350 00:03:04.360 work over rig runs production tubing
00:03:06.060 00:03:06.070 which transports the gas to the top this
00:03:08.460 00:03:08.470 small diameter steel pipe provides a
00:03:10.830 00:03:10.840 vehicle for the gas to travel from the
00:03:12.600 00:03:12.610 production zone to the wellhead a cross
00:03:15.450 00:03:15.460 section of the completed well above the
00:03:17.280 00:03:17.290 production zone shows the many
00:03:18.870 00:03:18.880 protective layers Cement conductor
00:03:21.420 00:03:21.430 casing cement surface casing drilling
00:03:24.690 00:03:24.700 mud and cement production casing and
00:03:26.729 00:03:26.739 then production tubing through which the
00:03:28.620 00:03:28.630 produced gas and water will flow a
00:03:30.600 00:03:30.610 minimum of seven layers of protection
00:03:33.420 00:03:33.430 finally we install the top part of the
00:03:35.640 00:03:35.650 wellhead what we call the Christmas tree
00:03:37.380 00:03:37.390 this equipment gets its name from the
00:03:39.510 00:03:39.520 way the valves are arranged on the tree
00:03:41.190 00:03:41.200 they can all look a little different but
00:03:43.229 00:03:43.239 they have one basic function controlling
00:03:45.360 00:03:45.370 the natural gas flow to the surface the
00:03:48.509 00:03:48.519 top of our casing ends here on what we
00:03:50.340 00:03:50.350 call the B section of the wellhead on
00:03:52.440 00:03:52.450 top of the B sections is a series of
00:03:54.449 00:03:54.459 valves used to regulate and control the
00:03:56.880 00:03:56.890 flow of gas on surface we have the
00:03:58.920 00:03:58.930 bottom master valve a middle master
00:04:00.960 00:04:00.970 valve and a wing valve in addition to
00:04:03.240 00:04:03.250 the wing valve we have a safety valve
00:04:04.949 00:04:04.959 which can be shed in either manually
00:04:07.020 00:04:07.030 on-site or remotely by computer
00:04:09.390 00:04:09.400 activated controls the well initially
00:04:12.390 00:04:12.400 brings up produced brine from the
00:04:14.220 00:04:14.230 fracking procedure the fluid along with
00:04:16.890 00:04:16.900 naturally occurring water is piped to
00:04:18.960 00:04:18.970 steel tank sealed off by double
00:04:20.849 00:04:20.859 containment it's later filtered and
00:04:23.070 00:04:23.080 recycled in fact we reuse nearly 100% of
00:04:27.000 00:04:27.010 these produced fluids in the next frack
00:04:28.529 00:04:28.539 job we'll tell you more in a while about
00:04:30.750 00:04:30.760 Chesapeake's innovative water reuse tech
00:04:33.090 00:04:33.100 they continue to reduce the water needs
00:04:35.490 00:04:35.500 associated with the completion of these
00:04:37.470 00:04:37.480 deep Shale wells this wheel head can be
00:04:40.590 00:04:40.600 used for years even decades as we move
00:04:42.960 00:04:42.970 into the next phase called production
00:04:44.910 00:04:44.920 this phase is where the gas moves from
00:04:46.980 00:04:46.990 the wellhead to processing or purifying
00:04:49.440 00:04:49.450 and onto the sales pipeline

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