Oil and gas drilling companies such as Triple Diamond Energy Corp. must rely on a variety of methods to extract oil from the earth. The Barnett Natural Gas Field is one location that required some major advancement in order to tap into the oil in the region. The area consists of  a very hard sedimentary rock called Shale, a fine grain rock that was formed by the accumulation of clay.  Due to the difficulty in extraction in the area and the heavy cost involved, the Barnett Shale Gas Fields were largely untapped until recent years due to the improvement in extraction.

Hydraulic Fracturing

One of the methods used to extract natural gas in the Barnett Shale region is Hydraulic Fracturing, a method first developed in the United States in 1948. Hydraulic Fracturing uses a simple process that creates fractures that extend from a borehole into rock formations.

A hydraulic fracture is formed by pumping a fracturing fluid into the well bore. This pumping is done at a rate that is sufficient enough to increase the pressure through the bore hole that fractures the rock formation surrounding it.

A solid proppant is added to the fracture fluid so that the fracture remains open even after the injection stops. The proppant that is pumped into the fracture is generally round sand. The sand is chosen as a proppant as it is higher in permeability than the surrounding formation. Because of this feature, the propped hydraulic fracture becomes the channel in which the fluids are bought back to the well.

Directional or Horizontal Drilling

Another extraction method for Natural Gas in the Barnett Shale region is directional or horizontal drilling, a method of drilling non-vertical wells. Horizontal drillers drill along a well path that is provided by researchers, engineers and the geologists.

This well path is shown to the drillers prior to the start of the drilling. Once the drilling commences, periodic surveys are done with the help of a camera. During the process, survey data such as the as inclination and azimuth of the well bore is collected.  

Majority of the area of the Texas Barnett Shale Gas Field is covered by the city of Forth Worth, a major metropolitan area. Horizontal drilling is critical in this area so as to not adversely affect the residents.