Document ID: OSHA-2010-0034-4078
Agency: osha
Document Type: Supporting & Related Material
Title: 
Posted Date: 2014-06-10T04:00Z

Conversation Notes between oilfield personnel and ERG personnel regarding activities of hydraulic fracturing personnel. 

		MEMORANDUM

To:	Robert Burt, Robert Stone, Bob Blicksilver OSHA	 
From:	John Eyraud and Chet Fenton, ERG
Date:	May 30, 2014
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Subject:	Conversation Notes Regarding Investigations of Small Hydraulic Fracturing Firm Activities

Discussion with Leslie Savage, Chief Geologist, Oil and Gas Division, Texas Railroad Commission, and John Eyraud, ERG, May 6, 2014.

Yes, there are 1-day frac jobs. Yes, there are operations that can set up in morning, frac for an hour, and leave. This would not likely happen in Eagle Ford and Barnett oil fields but in West Texas, Permian Basin. There are lots of `mom and pop' oil companies, with shallow vertical wells. She, however, does not have a chance to see these operations personally. 

Rick Henderson, Field Supervisor, Michigan Div of Oil and Gas and Minerals.  
5/8/14

Yes, some frac jobs can be done in a day. It depends. These are shallow wells, most have already been drilled and completed, 12,000 wells in Michigan. A few wells still get drilled and fracked, this still occurs. We had 2,000 (wells and fracking as a completion activity) done in 1 year. Now only 50 a year, all in Antrim production zone primarily; these are vertical wells and are hydraulically fractured. Antrim
There is also the Lachine production zone, which is the thicker one. There had two zones fracked.

Companies first had 40 acre spacing and then 80 acre spacing and then to 125 acre spacing. The rule of 5 wells per 640 acres worked well for the field. Where the Antrim is involved, they drilled it up basically. So there is little new drilling now going on.

No refracks of older wells are done here. Only time is when new geologic info is generated that would cause them to produce more and or do something different. 

Not always 1 well on the pad; there's a supervisor's twinning order. There is a zone in upper Antrim, it doesn't occur over as wide an area, and because of pressure difference, sometimes they just drill a new well rather than repair the first well. In those instances, the order by supervisor allows new well drilling as close as 25 feet apart from previous well. So sometimes two wells are on a location. Or there's a stray hole and an offsetting well. 

The frac crews will move sand on these sites, using sand movers. They don't use all those chemicals; these are simpler fracs, but case by case situation. They will bring a big pump. There could be more than 5 or 6 companies on site. There are different service companies on site. They usually don't do test frac. Usually fracking here is a completion activity. 

Takes an hour or few hours to actually frac? Well could be more. Lot of variables. If it's a multistage frack, they often do Lachine on one day and Norwood the next day. They set packers at 60 ft, and then do the Norwood, but have to isolate the zones, so run packers, run in and out. All that tripping takes time but these are still shallow wells. These run 800 to 2200 feet wells. 

Tim Baker, Field Supervisor, Oklahoma Oil and Gas Commission. May 13, 2014

Many frac jobs are done in a day. We have many shallow wells in Oklahoma. There is a lot of shallow production. He could not estimate exactly how much frac work could be completed in a day.