Fracking in Kansas - Part 3

1947 Gas Well Fracturing Operation

For hydraulic fracturing info in Kansas a great source has been put together by the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS) at this location: http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/PIC/pic32.html.

The picture provided is from the linked KGS circular and is the first experimental fracturing job done in 1947 by the Stanolind Oil company.  It was done on a gas well in the Hugoton Gas Field in Grant County, in southwest Kansas.  There is more information on this operation in the link provided.

Technically the KGS material is very good.  They talk about the real need to oversee and regulate the activity very closely, and  mention areas of the US where problems have occurred due to less-than-aggressive state oversight attention.  Pennsylvania is mentioned as a state too lax in return flow oversight, with Colorado, Wyoming and Texas also missing effective oversight in other parts of the production process.  In the end they state:  

"For the most part, Kansas has not encountered the problems some other states have, and no documented cases of ground-water contamination by hydraulic fracturing have been reported in the state." 

The entire circular to me implies that:  1) Kansas oversight is effective;  2) geologically we're different enough that the same activities that have been problems elsewhere are working OK here;  and 3) we can continue on - business as usual. 

Well, I'm not so sure.  I have to believe there is a huge difference in vertical fracturing of old and horizontal fracturing being done today.  We in Kansas don't yet have the well numbers and longer-term experience in the horizontal fracturing being done in the Marcellus Shale of Appalachian Basin in the NE, or the Bakken in the Dakotas and Montana, or the Barnett in Texas.  What if it takes 15 years for migration paths to translate to the surface?  Just because we haven't seen any yet doesn't mean it's not happening.  And one of those potential conduits has to be all the un- and improperly plugged oil and gas wells of the past in our state.  Nobody yet has gone on record saying these relics are of no consequence.

The water supply needs for fracking are also handled curiously in the KGS circular.  They are compared to irrigation use in quantity and characterized as a single (one-time only) use of 2-4 million gallons of water.  Sounds like not much to worry about.  But keep in mind that there have been 244,000 oil and gas wells drilled in Kansas since 1947.  This past use, at 3 million gallons per well, is a supply need of 732,000 acrefeet of water - all consumptively used and never to be used again.  In the 50 years ahead of us, this could easily reach another 900,000 or 1,000,000 acrefeet due to the accelerated drilling trends - and all of this water is being and will be used outside of the water rights system currently in place.  Don't get me wrong, irrigation uses a lot of water in Kansas, but my point is that oil and gas water needs are not insignificant.

I love the KGS and the work they do, but I'm not completely sold on their assessment of HF in Kansas, yet.  I can only hope they're right on the money... 

 
 

Fracking in Kansas - KGS Rendering

The Kansas Geological Survey (KGS) has created a hydraulic fracturing (fracking) page on their website with a fairly complete synopsis of fracking in the state of Kansas.  They come to the conclusion that fracking in Kansas is not that big of a deal - environmentally - due to the unique geology we have, the abundance of deep injection disposal wells and a Corporation Commission that has regulated the industry for many years.

However, they continually use wording that leaves a lot of wiggle-room, such as "..Fracturing jobs are normally engineered to restrict the fractures to the target formation."  and   "..Although in most cases only a limited number of additives are used.."  and many, many more such examples.  The bottom line, as I have said before, is that if done under the right conditions in the right way, it likely is not a huge risk.  But I'm not sure every state and every operator understands what all these conditions and procedures are.  I'm also not sure the state regulators are keeping up adequately with the advances being made by the producers which KGS says are prodigious.

Anyway, KGS is to be congratulated for the posting of this material.  It is a very good overview containing a ton of basic information from which more meaningful public discussion can continue.  It has also provided me the background to ask the regulators and the industry several more specific questions that I hadn't thought of before.  We all need to insure that the extraction of oil and gas is done responsibly.  On this point I think everyone agrees.

High Plains Information

The Kansas Geological Survey has a great website for all things geology, water, energy and education within Kansas.  But that's not all! 

I'm proud to highlight their High Plains Aquifer Information Network pages which include links to the entire High Plains Aquifer - a one-stop shopping experience for data and information - at least that's the plan.  It is a work in progress, but it has progressed quite a bit over the past 2 years. 

If you're interested in the High Plains Aquifer, you might give this site a spin.  Might save you a lot of time rather than snooping around in and about 8 states.  And don't forget to look at their other pages as well.

PSSST..! It Could be the PST

PST stands for Practical Saturated Thickness - which differs from true saturated thickness.  It actually is pretty important in aquifers or aquifer sections that display a wide variability in storage coefficient and transmissivity.

According to the Kansas Geological Survey, who is doing a study on behalf of the Southwest Kansas GMD 3:

The PST considers only the net thickness of saturated sediments that significantly contribute to well yield from the water table down to the bedrock surface and differs from the saturated thickness (ST), which is the total thickness of saturated sediments between the water table and the bedrock surface. Thus, PST provides a more accurate picture of water availability and may also provide insight into future water-level trends at the scale of an individual well.

You may have 300 feet of saturated thickness in your well, but if half of that is comprised of tight sands, clays or other non transmitting materials, you're in for a surprise down the road.  SW GMD 3 is conducting a pilot study in the two areas shown in the attached graphic.

Drilling logs were used to estimate PST.  The logs used in this study are only from wells drilled into the bedrock surface. 207 logs were used for the Four Corners study area and 48 logs were used in the SE Stevens County area.  By evaluating the driller's logs and assigning aquifer parameters to the sections, it was determined that the pre-development PST fraction of ST was approximately 58% for both study areas.  The fact that only 58% of the saturated aquifer is contributing to well yields will likely impact future management decisions.

Kansas Well Records Available Online

In 1975 the Kansas Legislature required well drillers to complete a well completion form on every well they drilled - regardless of use.  These records were collected since that time and were available upon request, but really not all that available.  They eventually made their way to a computer data set which is now available online (here) within the Kansas Geological Survey website.

This is a searchable and interactive website on the 219,000 well records depository. You can return records by County, or PLSS legal description, which are then sortable by several fields.  The WWC-5 forms contain a lot of information including legal location, depth of well, well construction info, static water level, lithologic log and much more. They are individually scanned or PDF files, so if you're looking for a bunch of them, beware. 

If you're in the market for well info in Kansas, it's a good bet it's contained in this data base.   This material is also good if you're looking for probable well depths and/or static water levels for any particular area(s).  We use it quite a bit in helping the public with their groundwater queries.

Kansas Geological Survey

The Kansas Geological Survey is a wealth of data and information about water in Kansas.  Of particular note is the Geohydrogeology Section found under the first link on their webpage called simply "Water".

Need information about bedrock depths, or saturated thickness, or water levels?  These pages have it.  Need information about the Ogallala?  The KGS has an entire atlas dedicated to the High Plains Aquifer - with maps, graphs and links galore.  I find myself referring questions I get to these pages many times.  This site is also my starting point for most research I do regarding groundwater.

KGS also interfaces with the Division of Water Resources Water Rights Information System (WRIS) and offers the Water Information Management and Analysis System (WIMAS).  This daily updated data base contains all the public information on every water right in Kansas. 

Most of the KGS offerings are utilitarian as well - providing searching, sorting, mapping, statistical and analytical capabilities.  These pages are well worth the time to get familiar with if you need Kansas water or water rights data.