Peak Oil: Meet PackersPlus StackFrac

Some oil fields require horizontal wells drilled, to reach the oil. But if the wells are not fractured appropriately, the oil that is there may not come out of the well. The Bakken formation in Saskatchewan and North Dakota is a good example.

Despite mounting successes across the Western Sedimentary Basin as well as the United States, the novel technology didn't make much splash until two years ago. That's when Petrobank began applying it in the Saskatchewan Bakken. Unstimulated, a Bakken horizontal well typically makes 10 to 30 barrels per day, hardly an economic return for an expenditure of $1.2 million. When stimulated using earlier technologies, however, water cuts routinely jumped from near nothing to 70% of total production. StackFrac enabled Petrobank to stimulate oil flow with minimal additional water, which transformed the Bakken into Canada's hottest oil play.

...Three years ago, Schlumberger Limited bought a minority stake (30%) in Packers Plus, forging an alliance that's bearing fruit overseas. StackFrac crews have worked their magic in Saudi Arabia, Mexico, West Africa and elsewhere. The first system installed in China improved the well's gas production by about 2,500%, from 250 mcf per day to more than six mmcf, sparking plans for more to follow. "We are currently active in more than 10 countries," says Themig, "and our personnel roster exceeds 200."___Source__via__Brian_Wang

Across North America, well previously considered exhausted are awaiting the application of new production technologies--to squeeze the remaining oil out of the hole. Likewise, across North America and much of the world, oil and gas deposits too hard and expensive to find via traditional seismic exploration technologies, are waiting to be located by PIP and other advanced exploration technologies.

The game of oil and gas production is far from up. It is vital to improve upon exploration and production of oil and gas, to allow bio-fuels time to develop and scale up to the demand. At the same time, other renewables will be climbing the learning curve, developing better technologies of production and utilisation.

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