Is Ashtabula High Risk Area???

For the life of me I could not figure out why no one has yet to drill horizontally in Ashtabula Co. when  the maps show it a good area.

Been doing a lot of reading on the internet and came across this article from March 2002 in the Geotimes.

http://www.geotimes.org/mar02/NN_quakes.html I'm just wondering if this is why there hasn't been any drilling in Ashtabula? Is Ashtabula high risk for this type of deep drilling? I hope this isn't the case but after reading this it kind of makes me wonder.

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Permalink Reply by James Foster on July 19, 2014 at 7:20am

I thought that I had read somewhere that some research has been/is being done in earthquake prone areas to see if water/fluid can injected to allow for smaller earthquakes so that we can control the timing and magnitude.  This research must be going on in unpopulated areas or using models because the danger of this in a populated area would be tremendous.  Anyone else ever see or hear about this?

My cousin has been working in geophysics and earthquake research his entire life and I know that predicting earthquakes has been a goal for many years but it has been an allusive conquest to date. Many universities around the world have seismographs in the geology department.  At one time most of them were connected to nothing and no one but the university students and professors ever saw the data.  My cousin and fellows set out to gather all the data from all of these seismographs by going to each university and providing needed equipment and training.  The data then could all go to IRIS in Washington DC to be evaluated and the universities then also received the data so all of their professors and students could participate in research to understand and possibly predict earthquakes like we do with hurricanes and tornadoes.  This research has been ongoing for 30 years or more and of course many other projects have been going on for many years with little success to date in predicting earthquakes.

http://esd.lbl.gov/research/projects/induced_seismicity/primer.html

Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on July 19, 2014 at 7:53am

No such work that I've heard of in northeast Ohio James.

Must not be 'an earthquake prone area then'.

There was the injection well incident in Youngstown which they called 'minor' in nature.

There were also incidents caused by the salt mines beneath Lake Erie that I've heard of that were also called 'minor' in nature.

You hear tell of any such work ?

Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on July 19, 2014 at 1:44am

Windmills (Don Quixoti variety).

More hurdles being built to give pause.

In other words diversionary BS marketing control to buy time to manipulate, lobby for and secure more landowner punitive legislation to secure control of mineral development / recovery rights for as near zero expense as possible.

Everybody needs to wake up.

How much more evidence do we need to see / understand that landowners / consumers / the general public are getting ripped off and those ripping us off want to maximize their rip off rewards.

They want it all and they want it for nothing.

Only IMHO as always.

Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on July 19, 2014 at 8:11am
Guess I didnt spell it right.

Don Quixote spelled correctly.

From 'The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'.

Sorry about that 'Don' !
Permalink Reply by ji on July 19, 2014 at 3:40am
Ashtabula County may be higher risk than other counties because it has over a hundred Rosé Run Formation oil and gas wells that are drilled deeper than the Utica. This means that the Utica has lots of open boreholes through it that could potentially cause some problems for upper formations if there was communication between them and the Utica during frackng or producing. I talked to ODNR about this a couple years ago. Special spacing requirements from Rose Run wells was being talked about then if Utica was drilled. When Rose wells were drilled Utica was not thought to be of any use so they did not case off through it. Ashtabula County has more Rose Run wells than any other county.
015334grltd9mPermalink Reply by 015334grltd9m on July 19, 2014 at 4:30am
Ashtabula will surprise all.
Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on July 19, 2014 at 4:32am

No vertical casing through the Utica to the Rose Run ? ?

That's a revelation.

Thought casings always had to be extended to the producing interval to prohibit the vertical bore from collapsing into itself.

So, the concern is that fracturing the Utica P.P. or Trenton intervals will also disturb the Rose Run vertical to the point of inducing a quake ?

Permalink Reply by ji on July 19, 2014 at 4:39am
Production string pipe goes through Utica but no cement or casing. Non concern for earthquakes just gas and liquid migration to upper formations.
Permalink Reply by David Perotto on July 19, 2014 at 4:56am

Could it also act to reduce pressure in a Utica horizontal frac completion? If true, that could lower production?

Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on July 19, 2014 at 5:26am

I can see it detracting from the 'efficiency' of  the fracturing procedure but it seems to me that the overburden geo-pressure would remain to lift the production.

You see I'm not reading the 'frac.' pressure as doing anything but fracturing the 'rock' at the interval being frac'd. And I'm reading the lifting pressure as the natural geo-pressure induced by the overburden / earth above. Seems to me there would be a lot of pressure induced by the 5500 feet of earth above.

How much frac. pressure could be lost ?

Any 'too nearby' Rose Run well would also have an overburden geo- pressure of it's own - and it seems to me that pressure would be greater than any geo-pressure at any higher intervals including the Utica.

Just my read / opinion on it.

Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on July 19, 2014 at 5:16am

So you say no quake risks posed by fracturing the Utica then afterall  - just migration ?

Migration risk then detracting from any 'too nearby' deeper Rose Run well ?

The quakes were what the original post was concerned with as I read.

Migration to upper intervals may stimulate shallower wells then as I think about it - right ?

Permalink Reply by ji on July 19, 2014 at 5:20am
Migration that could damage Rose Run casing which wasn't designed for Utica development pressures.

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