Resumen de Oilfield minerals: Extracting what lies beneath
Oilfield minerals aid the process of extracting natural oil and gas from beneath Earth's surface. For many years, lubricants such as bentonite and weighting agents like barytes (barite) have been used in conventional drilling while others, such as frac sand and sintered bauxite and kaolin, have seen demand increase as a boom in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) took off in the US and further afield. Ahead of IM's Oilfield Minerals Outlook: Middle East, Emma Hughes, Deputy Editor, takes a look at some of the key minerals used in this end-market.
Unlike barite and bentonite, which are both used in the conventional and non-conventional drilling process, frac sand, as the name suggests, is only used in fracking. The sand is a proppant material, which is used to'prop' open fractures made in shale rock during the fracking process. These allow natural oil or gas trapped in the rock to flow to the well surface.
The fracking process consists of both horizontal and vertical drilling. First, a vertical hole will be drilled down to around 10,000ft (3,048 metres), which is where the shale bed can be found. The second drilling stage is horizontal and takes place at a'kick-off point', which is where the shale formation begins. This stage takes place at around 10,000ft and can stretch from around 1,000-10,000ft (304-3,048 metres) depending on the company's requirements.
