Fayetteville Shale Play To See New Frac Process

Oilfield services giant Schlumberger said Friday it has introduced a new fracturing process in the Fayetteville Shale that will result in safer and cleaner drilling operations, decreased operating costs and reduced production time at rig sites.

Schlumberger, which has headquarters in Houston, Paris and The Hague, is the world’s leading oilfield services company supplying technology, project management and information solutions that optimize performance for customers working in the oil and gas industry.

Schlumberger has local offices in Fort Smith and Conway, where it is a major partner of Fayetteville Shale leader Southwestern Energy. Since the company opened its 20-acre regional facility opened in Conway in 2005, Schlumberger has become a staple at drilling sites in central Arkansas, providing a range of well services for Southwestern and other shale operators.

In the oil sector, Schlumberger is considered the inventor and leader of well logging, the process of drilling, completing, producing and abandoning an oil or natural gas well.

In the company’s 10K filing Friday highlighting fourth quarter and year-end financial results, Schlumberger quietly revealed it has introduced a new proprietary polymer-coated cable solely to conduct "perforation jobs for fracture stimulation operations in the Fayetteville Shale."

"The new cable, which does not require grease injection during pressure operations, has enabled one additional fracture stage to be completed per day, resulting in reduced costs and decreased time to production as rig-up and rig-down operations are safer, shorter, more efficient and cleaner," the company noted in the filing.

Hydraulic fracturing and other drilling techniques have become a source of controversy in the Fayetteville Shale and other unconventional shale plays. Some central Arkansas landowners and environmentalist have complained that the water and fluids used in the fracturing process is a danger to groundwater and could contaminate underground sources of drinking water.

Others have claimed that the fracturing process and drilling of wells to depths of more than 10,000 feet is the major reason for the increased number of earthquakes in Arkansas. However, the Arkansas Geological Society has said it could not tie earthquakes to natural gas drilling, but would further investigate wastewater injection in the shale as a possibility.

Lawrence Bengal, director of the Arkansas Oil & Gas Commission, said he is not familiar with the new process. Based on language in the Schlumberger filing, Bengal said he is not sure if it lessens the environmental impact.

“They may just have changed the mechanics of delivering the chemicals,” Bengal explained.

However, he did say Halliburton, Schlumberger and other companies operating in the Fayetteville Shale Play are working to develop a cleaner process.

“I understand that all of those companies are doing research, or maybe even have already, developed more environmentally sensitive chemicals,” Bengal said.

Schlumberger’s fourth quarter earnings easily beat Wall Street expectations and lifted the oilfield service firm’s shares in early trading on Friday.

For the period ended Dec. 31, Schlumberger reported a profit of $1.04 billion, or 76 cents a share, up from $795 million, or 65 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding charges, Schlumberger’s earnings rose 27% to 85 cents versus 67 cents a year ago. Revenue rose 58% to $9.07 billion. Analysts expected the oilfield giant to report earnings of 77 cents on revenue of $8.7 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.