WorldWide Drilling Resource

32 MARCH 2019 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Aries Industries Boris Holmes has been hired as the company’s first ever Rocky Mountain Regional Sales Manager. John Kudis has been pro- moted to the new position of National Accounts Manager. KevinHastings has rejoined the company as Western Regional Sales Manager. Heron Instruments announced the hiring of Jeff Tweedy as Quality / Production Supervisor. He is a certified ISO auditor and has extensive knowledge of product lifecycle management. Ring Power Corporation Florida-based Ring Power Corporation has appointed David Alban president of the company, while Randal L. Ringhaver will remain chairman and CEO. Alban has held various leadership roles since joining Ring Power in 2001. Since 2015, he has been leading from his position as COO. Epiroc USA LLC, a productivity partner for the mining, infrastructure, and natural resources industries, has acquired the assets of Noland Drilling Equipment, a U.S. distrib- utor of water well drilling equipment and related parts, services, and consumables based in Roanoke, Virginia. “Epiroc and Noland Drilling Equipment have had a strong distribution relationship for many years,” said Rob Root, Epiroc VP, product support and service centers. “The addition of the Noland Drilling Equipment location and team to Epiroc will strengthen our footprint and capabilities in the U.S. water well drilling segment in our drive to provide the best in water well products, parts, and services.” Hydraulic Fracturing and Earthquakes Adapted from Information by ConocoPhillips Understanding how earthquakes occur is important in the drilling industry. The planet’s crust is comprised of slow-moving tectonic plates which grind against each other, gradually building and storing energy. When the stress becomes great enough, the crust shifts along fault lines, releasing energy and causing earthquakes. According to the United States Geological Survey, millions of earthquakes occur around the world every year. Of those, 500,000 are actually detectable; 100,000 can be felt by humans on the surface and measure a magnitude 3 or more on the Richter scale; and only about 100 of them cause damage. Can hydraulic fracturing cause earthquakes? The short answer is yes. In fact, several human activities such as construction, agricultural, mining, and other industrial activities can cause them. However, most triggered or induced seismic events are mild and rarely felt. Over two million wells have be hydraulically fractured since the 1940s. Seismic events caused by the stimulation process are typically a million times weaker than what’s necessary to be felt, measuring -2 (below zero) on the Richter scale. Earth- quakes measuring less than a magnitude 2 on the Richter scale are often referred to as microearthquakes. They aren’t felt at the surface, cause no damage, and can only be detected with sophisticated, sensitive equipment. Although there have been cases of seismic activity caused by gas and oil oper- ations which could be felt, they were generally associated with injection wells, not the production or fracturing process. Of the more than 172,000 gas- and oil-related in- jection wells in the United States, only a small percentage have displayed seismicity strong enough to be felt; most of those cases involved modification of fluid injection activities which mitigated the seismicity. Several companies, including ConocoPhillips, are actively working with independent researchers to discover a science- based solution to minimize the probability of human-induced felt seismicity. In Texas, this includes working with the state and other companies in the industry to install and manage seismic monitoring equipment in the ground at dozens of locations across the state. Analyzing the data from the network helps to monitor earthquake activity. G&O Industry Announcements