How does the fraccing process work?
Santos uses fracture stimulation (fraccing) as part of the completion process. It is used to accelerate the dewatering of the target coal formation, allowing gas to flow earlier. Explosives are not used. Before the fraccing campaign, a cemented, steel-ling corehole is drilled to just below the target coal formation.There are two way to get access to the target coal formation sealed behind the steel casing. Santos’ preferred technique is to use sand jet cutters (sand and water at high pressure) to perforate the casing. Casing guns perforate the casing by firing molten metal through it. The target coal formation is fracced by pumping formation water (taken earlier from the target coal seam), mixed with a vegetable-based polymer and fine beach sand, into the corehole at a low rate but high pressure. Fraccing causes fine cracks to appear in the coal. The fraccing fluid carries the fine sand into the cracks, and the sand grains prop the cracks open, allowing water and gas to flow. Fraccing
Santos uses fracture stimulation (fraccing) as part of the completion process. It is used to accelerate the dewatering of the target coal formation, allowing gas to flow earlier. Explosives are not used. Before the fraccing campaign, a cemented, steel-ling corehole is drilled to just below the target coal formation. There are two ways to get access to the target coal formation sealed behind the steel casing. Santos’ preferred technique is to use sand jet cutters (sand and water at high pressure) to perforate the casing. Casing guns perforate the casing by firing molten metal through it. The target coal formation is fracced by pumping formation water (taken earlier from the target coal seam), mixed with a vegetable-based polymer and fine beach sand, into the corehole at a low rate but high pressure. Fraccing causes fine cracks to appear in the coal. The fraccing fluid carries the fine sand into the cracks, and the sand grains prop the cracks open, allowing water and gas to flow. Fraccin
Santos uses fracture stimulation (fraccing) as part of the completion process. It is used to accelerate the dewatering of the target coal formation, allowing gas to flow earlier. Explosives are not used. Before the fraccing campaign, a cemented, steel-lined corehole is drilled to just below the target coal formation. There are two ways to get access to the target coal formation sealed behind the steel casing. Santos’ preferred technique is to use sand jet cutters (sand and water at high pressure) to perforate the casing. Casing guns perforate the casing by firing molten metal through it. The target coal formation is fracced by pumping formation water (taken earlier from the target coal seam), mixed with a vegetable-based polymer and fine beach sand, into the corehole at a low rate but high pressure. Fraccing causes fine cracks to appear in the coal. The fraccing fluid carries the fine sand into the cracks, and the sand grains prop the cracks open, allowing water and gas to flow. Fracci
