There are millions of tanks all over the world in an almost infinite number of industries, including oil exploration and production. They are being used for transportation, storage, processing and more. From time to time, each and every one of these millions of tanks has to be cleaned. Most of them are located outdoors in places like oilfields, where there is no access to a pump or other oilfield fuel tank polishing equipment. Companies have developed solutions like portable, diesel-powered pumps to make the job easier. As horizontal drilling for shale oil and gas reserves continues to grow, the demand for clean tanks will increase.
New technologies in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have opened up the possibility of exploiting vast reserves of oil and gas trapped inside densely-packed, sedimentary shale rock deposits deep within the Earth's crust. Without this resource, the country faced a complete fuel drought in the next decade.
Now, thanks to new technologies, no longer will there be oil available to fuel us into the 22nd century, America is also free from having to rely on capricious foreign countries for its energy needs. All this has heavy price. Although the state-of-the-art of shale oil drilling is improving all the time with the aim of reducing its impact on the environment, there remain concerns about the fracturing process triggering earthquakes and contamination of public water supplies.
The process of hydraulic fracturing involves drilling a hole deep into the Earth's crust into underlying shale rock formations and then powerfully forcing a slurry of sand, water and chemicals into the rock to create fractures through which gas and oil flow up to the surface once the downward pressure is released. There are so far seven main shale oil plays throughout the country. These are: Marcellus, Granite Wash, Eagle Ford, Niobrara, Andarko-Woodford, Bakken and Permian.
Slightly more than half of the investment in these seven fields is going into two major plays: Eagle Ford and Bakken. Wells of the Bakken shale play, located in Western North Dakota and Eastern Montana, are approximately 10,000 feet deep. The brittle and easily-harvested shale formations of Eagle Ford in Southern Texas produce at depths between 4,000 feet and 14,000 feet.
About 25 percent of the oil and gas E&P investment has been poured evenly into wells in the Marcellus Shale and Permian Basin. The Permian exists in western Texas and eastern New Mexico. It contains the thickest deposits of the Permian geologic period, hence the name. The Marcellus Shale is found in Pennsylvania. This is one of the most shallow deposits, drilled to a depth of only 6,300 feet.
The remaining fraction of the shale oil investment pie is divided amongst Granite Wash (Oklahoma-Texas panhandle), Andarko-Woodford (Oklahoma), and Niobrara (Nebraska). Granite Wash reserves are the deepest reserves, at approximately 15,000 feet.
An unfortunate consequence of increased drilling activity is the increase in road traffic fatalities. In the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford alone, during 2014 there were 696 fatalities and a total of 8,600 serious accidents in which vehicle occupants were killed or suffered life-changing injuries. The busiest time for road traffic accidents is around 5:00 a. M. This increase has been attributed largely to crashes involving civilian vehicles and semi-trucks.
New technologies in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have opened up the possibility of exploiting vast reserves of oil and gas trapped inside densely-packed, sedimentary shale rock deposits deep within the Earth's crust. Without this resource, the country faced a complete fuel drought in the next decade.
Now, thanks to new technologies, no longer will there be oil available to fuel us into the 22nd century, America is also free from having to rely on capricious foreign countries for its energy needs. All this has heavy price. Although the state-of-the-art of shale oil drilling is improving all the time with the aim of reducing its impact on the environment, there remain concerns about the fracturing process triggering earthquakes and contamination of public water supplies.
The process of hydraulic fracturing involves drilling a hole deep into the Earth's crust into underlying shale rock formations and then powerfully forcing a slurry of sand, water and chemicals into the rock to create fractures through which gas and oil flow up to the surface once the downward pressure is released. There are so far seven main shale oil plays throughout the country. These are: Marcellus, Granite Wash, Eagle Ford, Niobrara, Andarko-Woodford, Bakken and Permian.
Slightly more than half of the investment in these seven fields is going into two major plays: Eagle Ford and Bakken. Wells of the Bakken shale play, located in Western North Dakota and Eastern Montana, are approximately 10,000 feet deep. The brittle and easily-harvested shale formations of Eagle Ford in Southern Texas produce at depths between 4,000 feet and 14,000 feet.
About 25 percent of the oil and gas E&P investment has been poured evenly into wells in the Marcellus Shale and Permian Basin. The Permian exists in western Texas and eastern New Mexico. It contains the thickest deposits of the Permian geologic period, hence the name. The Marcellus Shale is found in Pennsylvania. This is one of the most shallow deposits, drilled to a depth of only 6,300 feet.
The remaining fraction of the shale oil investment pie is divided amongst Granite Wash (Oklahoma-Texas panhandle), Andarko-Woodford (Oklahoma), and Niobrara (Nebraska). Granite Wash reserves are the deepest reserves, at approximately 15,000 feet.
An unfortunate consequence of increased drilling activity is the increase in road traffic fatalities. In the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford alone, during 2014 there were 696 fatalities and a total of 8,600 serious accidents in which vehicle occupants were killed or suffered life-changing injuries. The busiest time for road traffic accidents is around 5:00 a. M. This increase has been attributed largely to crashes involving civilian vehicles and semi-trucks.
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