Apache wants to fuel frac pumps with natural gas

Apache Corp. says it can cut its hydraulic fracturing fuel costs by 70 percent by using field gas instead of diesel to power the engines driving the big pumps, and it told oilfield service giants Halliburton and Schlumberger to figure out a way to do it. They did, Apache's Mike Bahorich told the Oil & Gas Journal.  "In 2012, the industry will have used more than 700 million gallons of diesel to pump sand and water during fracture stimulation. That’s $2.38 billion spent on diesel at a recent average of $3.40/gallon," the magazine said. The report says the three companies have tested a dual-fuel kit successfully several times. The story is here. Halliburton put out a news release on the project, and a link is here.

In December, we carried a report about using liquefied natural gas to fuel frac pumps on a job in the Eagle Ford Shale. That item can be found here.

-- Jim Fuquay

Comments

[Kim Feil]

For urban drilling, they need to use ATMOS gas because it is cleaner than field gas, is odorized, and accessible in neighborhoods. Thanks for anybody who can get Chesapeake to comment on how fast they will get on board as they are unresponsive in my attempts to contact them.

[Kim Feil]

So how fast can Chesapeake react to save money and my neighborhood’s airshed by the Cowoby Stadium?...they are currently drilling and I hope they frack using the new technolgy...our Gas Drilling Ordinance asks that they employ Best Available Accepted Industry Standard Technolgy, but I’ve found that there is no one from the city who wants to enforce this. I learned about how weak our ordinance really was when I asking Chesapeake to use ventless, pressurized flowback tanks...the city was just fine with them using the traditional OPEN HATCH ones that indirectly vent the well head to the atmosphere which is “supposed” to be against our ordinance to vent like that. It is a sad day when the drillers will only “drill right” when it saves them money. In this case diesel is more expensive, than dirty, field gas.....but dirty field gas is better than diesel with all its particulates.