You’ve probably seen more than a few articles — maybe even a movie or two — about fracking.
If you need a refresher, fracking, also called hydraulic fracturing, is a process to effectively complete horizontal wells.
Horizontal wells are typically drilled more than a mile deep vertically and then extended horizontally by lengths typically ranging from 2,000 to more than 10,000 feet. After production casing is run in the well, it’s completed with a multiple-stage fracking treatment. Water, sand and chemical additives (less than 0.5 percent) are blasted into shale bedrock formations to create hairline cracks that are about 1 mm thick. Sand helps prop open the cracks in the host rock, releasing the flow of natural gas and oil. In a well’s 30-year production life, the fracking process usually takes three to seven days.
We use fracking so we can safely and economically increase our oil and natural gas production.
Typically, we can reduce how much surface we disturb developing an oil or gas resource horizontally by 60-80 percent compared to vertical drilling. That’s because we can drill and complete multiple wells at one location. Horizontal drilling also gives us more location options farther away from occupied buildings.
Fracking to extract oil and natural gas is essential to Black Hills Exploration & Production operations and our local communities. Since we can extract 10 times more energy through fracking, E&P drilling operations are more efficient and productive, which increases our business’ and shareholders’ profitability. Additionally, the states and local communities where we operate also prosper from the economic development we offer through increased state and local revenues, new employment opportunities, and quality of life programs, projects and partnerships.
The oil and gas industry has been using fracking for the past 60 years, and the drilling process is highly regulated by federal, state and local agencies.
We take great pride in our drilling, completion and production operations, abiding by strict water and air compliance standards to safely increase our oil and natural gas production.
For more information on fracking, visit:
Study Fracking
America’s Natural Gas Alliance
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