According to a report of TPH, the new fracturing technology, especially electric fracturing and turbine fracturing, will lead the trend of fracturing operation in the next five years, replacing 90-120 conventional units.
One main reason has been manifested by research statistics that the cost of hydraulic fracturing in North America accounts for about 15% - 40% of the total cost of a shale well. Currently, facing a volatile oil price and floundering economy, new technologies are essential in helping global operators to raise efficiency, save cost and eventually survive this battle.
The whole predication of TPH is actually coming into reality as BJ services has decided to give turbine fracturing a shot in February, 2020 by taking a field trial in the Haynesville Shale. The turbine-powered hydraulic fracturing pump, innovatively developed by the China-based Jereh Group, was specifically designed to produce less greenhouse gas emissions along with lower maintenance costs, improved mobility as well as less noise.
The turbine fracturing pumper is equipped with a 5600hp turbine engine and a 5000hhp plunger pump that feature higher power and efficiency than regular diesel-powered ones. As thus, equipment can be reduced by 43%, with less space occupation as well.
More importantly, Jereh turbine fracturing pumper can be fueled by multiple sources such as LNG, CNG, and field gas, bringing down greenhouse gas emissions by eliminating idling during non-operating periods. The combination of using in-field natural gas, and the elimination of engine idle time can reduce total fuel costs by over 80%, compared to conventional diesel-fueled units.
As a compliance to strict requirements of environmental protection and gas emissions, the equipment is also an effective tool to curb flaring, where excess natural gas is burnt off at wells directly and are not connected to pipelines for market consumption.
Another significant feature of the turbine fracturing pumper is its noise suppression capability, which is lower than 85dB, meeting stringent noise reduction mandates across North America.
After 4 months of operation, the turbine fracturing pumper just accomplished a 1,000-hour field trial in June. The field trials met or exceeded all key performance measures and underscore the strength of Jereh’s technology and manufacturing capabilities.
Apart from turbine fracturing, electric fracturing has drawn much attention within the industry too.
Just last month, the new generation 7000hp electric frac pumper went offline and passed factory test in Yantai, China. The product is developed to better serve long-time, high-pressure, large-displacement operations. It owns the biggest power within China, which is up to 7000hp, 3 times of regular 2500hp diesel frac unit.
Considering the limited operation space of the well sites located in mountainous areas, Jereh developed the electric fracturing equipment with the design concept of high power density. Therefore, the power density of electric frac pumper is up to 134kW/t, the largest in the world and more than twice that of conventional diesel drive counterparts.
This means it only takes 9 electric fracturing units now to accomplish the same amount of work that required 18 sets of diesel-driven fracturing equipment in the past. As thus, the operation needs not only less space for operation, but also less cost for purchasing and maintenance.
At the same time, special customizations were made for fracturing manifold, sand blender and sand conveying equipment to better cater to clients’ needs.
For example, the performance of sand blender is 15% - 20% higher than that of diesel drive equipment under the same specification; sand conveying equipment changed the traditional methods of crane hoisting and bag breaking, delivering a safer and more efficient supply of fracturing sand.
Jereh’s electric fracturing solution has gone through actual field trial and significantly improved shale gas production in China. Last year, during the fracturing operation of Sichuan Wei 202H40 platform, the electric fracturing solution broke the efficiency record of shale gas fracturing operation in Sichuan and Chongqing areas, where 5 shale gas wells achieved a production leap of 5 million m3/d.
In 2020, Jereh 10,000hp electric fracturing trailer and 5000hp electric fracturing skid have started to participate in key shale oil projects in China, helping to accomplish maximum fracking, 11 sections a day in Bohai Bay.
Facing unstable external forces, Jereh responds to all changes with constant innovation and keeps pursuing better technologies to deliver a step-change in environmental and operation efficiency, which will hopefully lead the next trend in the industry.
