Flaring.

Can someone with experience answer a question here. My good friend lives by the McRoberts well in Darlington Twp., PA. They drilled, fracked and later came back to get the flowback water.

They never flared. He had thought, as did I, that flaring was necessary after flowback. Can someone please explain whether that is true, or not?

Thanks, in advance.

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Permalink Reply by paleface on November 14, 2012 at 11:50am

Thats I believe what Brian has told me ,there could be fluid from the end of the horizontal to the well head,if the well has sufficent presure to clear this on its own and the gas is dry than they might not choose to frac.

Permalink Reply by Brian Powers on November 15, 2012 at 10:11am

paleface - It's not simply a matter of sufficient reservoir pressure to lift a vertical column of fluid from the production tubing to initiate reservoir flow; the reservoir rock must contain usable and marketable hydrocarbon and have sufficient volume and permeability to allow recovery of the oil and gas. A frac or any other stimulation technique is an expensive investment; my favorite well types were those requiring no stimulation, just install the production tubing and hanger, install the tree, connect the surface flowline and production choke, unload the well and start selling product.

 

Brian

Permalink Reply by paleface on November 15, 2012 at 10:29am

 Thank You Brian.

Permalink Reply by cheliped on November 15, 2012 at 12:01pm

Brian,

Thanks for all the information on flaring.  I understand the process much better now.  I am still a little confused on why that particular well has been flaring for such a long period of time.  Can you tell anything about a well by how long the flaring process takes?  Is it normal for it to flare this long? Thanks again for all the info.

Permalink Reply by paleface on November 15, 2012 at 1:43pm

 Brian if the fluids have burnt out in a flare will the flame change to a different color? Thank You

Permalink Reply by Jim Litwinowicz on November 15, 2012 at 4:42pm

To take plaeface's q a little further...will the color vary by the % of wet gas/condensates? Can you tell how "wet" the gas is by the color of the flame?

Permalink Reply by Brian Powers on November 16, 2012 at 4:02am

The queries below from paleface and Jim ask about the colors of the flare while burning and the things that could be inferred. Relatively dry gas burns a nice orange color, slugs of water create white steam clouds, and slugs of liquid hydrocarbon (oil or condensate) burn very bright orange with black smoke. Unless a separation/ collection system for the liquids is used in conjunction with an orifice metering system for the gas, very little quantitative rate or yield information can be inferred by flame/smoke color or slug duration.

My favorite time to flare onshore was late at night or very early in the morning to enjoy the warmth of the flare and to feel the resonance of the roar from the gas exiting the flare pipe at sonic velocity (above the speed of sound).

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