If unconventional natural gas is a revolution in the making, so are the services required to make it happen. Industry spending patterns are shifting, with much bigger investments now being poured into operations below the ground.

Traditional ways of doing business are changing. Multiple wells are drilled from single sites, known as “pads,” to tap the new gas target. The old oilfield rhythm of busy winters and quiet summers is also changing as work grows in the warm seasons.

Despite the economic downturn, there is even a hint of a gas counterpart to the former oil sands labor shortage in the air. There is a risk that in the near future Western Canada will find itself short of powerful hydraulic equipment needed to make the networks of underground channels that make unconventional gas deposits flow. This would be a blow to exploration and production companies, but possibly a considerable financial boon to service companies with the right stuff to do the rock fracturing, a field known as “fraccing” in the industry.

The specialty is a well stimulation technique which improves production from geological formations where natural flow is restricted. Hydraulic fracturing pushes a mix of water, sand and some soluble chemicals into well bores at high pressure, both to spread cracks across the formation and hold them open for gas and oil to flow.

Originally a simple operation, fraccing has evolved into a high industrial art that uses multi-stage techniques in horizontal wells, reports Dave Russum, geosciences vice-president for AJM Petroleum Consulting. “Between the heel [start] and the toe [end] of a horizontal well, you isolate an interval close to the toe and frac that region,” Russum says. “Then you move back towards the heel, isolate another interval and do another frac.”

The technique is a powerful production tool. “This breaks up a lot of rock, making a lot more gas available. These new technologies are enabling us to access a whole lot more low-permeability [poorly flowing] rock than you would ever be able to reach with a vertical well,” Russum says.
In the old days of vertical drilling, producers generally fracced just one or two zones per well. With today’s technology, it is possible to frac a single well up to 17 times. A well that requires so much work would likely have a horizontal reach of 3,000 metres or more.

Analyst Kevin Lo of FirstEnergy Capital Corp. estimates that fraccing just one of EnCana Corp.’s Horn River shale gas wells in northeastern British Columbia requires a crew equipped with more than 30,000 horsepower of compression. In Western Canada, there is perhaps 800,000 horsepower available.

“We do not believe that there will be sufficient capacity to perform all of the jobs necessary” if B.C.’s Horn River and Montney shale gas drilling hot spots grow, Lo says in a research note. He also worries about the heavy lifting required to deliver enough fraccing materials. Fracturing a single horizontal well in the new unconventional gas reservoirs can require up to two thousand tonnes of sand.

Dale Dusterhoft, a senior vice-president at Trican Well Service Ltd. describes FirstEnergy’s estimates of requirements for the new gas production as conservative. “Some of the Horn River wells require up to 45,000 horsepower of compression,” Dusterhoft reports. “With 10 holes per pad, you may have 40,000 horsepower tied up for 10 weeks.”

The Trican executive predicts, “There will be shortages of equipment when we get up to full development of the shales.” If it happens, the squeeze will be a plus for service companies like his, which will then charge premium day rates, but a worry for the gas producers in the region.

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