Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Practical Ways to Conserve Energy

With energy prices across North America escalating, consumers are looking for practical ways to reduce their electrical and natural gas bills. Any household can save up to 50% of their electrical bills by doing just a few simple things.

One way consumers can decrease their household electrical bills is to be made aware of a type of energy consumption referred to as phantom load. Phantom loads are electrical appliances that still use electricity even when they are turned off. Phantom load appliances include anything with a digital clock such as DVD players or VCRs, stereos, and microwaves. Also, computers, printers, monitors, and fax machines all draw on power when plugged in. A simple solution is to use power bars that have on/off switches. Connect stereo systems & entertainment systems to the power bar, and turn the power bar off when not in use. This will not harm your electronics at all. Attach your entire computer system to a power bar or two. If you leave your computer on all the time, at least put the monitor, printer, speakers, scanner, etc, etc on a power bar and turn that off. If you turn your computer off anyway, put it all on a power bar.

Heating is generally one of the largest single consumers of electricity. Another thing to do to reduce your heating bill is to insulate your hot water tank. You can buy insulation kits at any hardware store. Make sure your hot water tank is located somewhere warm. If the tank is outside in an unheated garage, it will lose even more heat.

Use hot water wisely. The first run of hot water that takes a minute to reach the faucet is tremendously wasteful, as this simply heats up the water in the pipes, with only a fraction of that water reaching you.

Turn the thermostat down at night and when you are away from the house during the day. Consider installing a programmable thermostat which will heat the house up before you wake in the morning, turn it down during the day, and then warm it up again before you come home from work. This will let you save on heat, yet not have to come home or wake up to a cold house

Use insulating curtains on windows during the night. Inspect and resolve any drafts that are the result of defective weather stripping around doors and windows. Have your furnace and hot water heaters serviced regularly to ensure they are operating at peak efficiency. Close off rooms that are not in use, and turn off the heat or block the registers.

Consider adding a solar-thermal hot water heating system. Capturing the infrared energy from the sun is a simple, extremely efficient process. A modest-sized solar collector can provide a significant quantity of the domestic hot water used in a home or business.

These are just a few examples of ways you can reduce your energy usage. Although the myriad of methods may seem overwhelming, implementing even just a few can save you thousands in the years to come.


Chris Jent is the chief marketing officer of Triple Diamond Energy Corp. Triple Diamond Energy specializes in acquiring the highest quality prime oil and gas properties. For more information, visit http://www.triplediamondenergycorp.blogspot.com.

Environmental Concerns on Oil Extraction Methods

The global dependence on oil and resources is unquestionable. Extracting these resources deep below the Earth’s surface can be extremely difficult, if at all possible. Advancements in extraction science have allowed drillers to reach oil previously unreachable. However, certain techniques employed have caused concerns among environmental scientists.
In the process of drilling into an oil or natural gas reservoir, debris and other matter may clog the bore hole preventing a majority of the oil reserves from being extracted. Hydraulic fracturing is a technique that creates new pathways for oil to be released by injecting water mixed with chemicals underground at high pressures. The pressure of fluid being injected is greater than the pressure in the formation. This causes the formations to crack or fracture and the oil or gas flows more freely out of the formation. Scientists are concerned that some of the injected fluids may remain trapped underground long after the oil is removed.

Stimulant fluids used in this technique are combined with chemicals. One commonly used stimulant fluid is diesel fuel, which contains benzene, ethyl benzene, toluene, xylene, naphthalene and other chemicals. Even a small amount of a chemical such as benzene can contaminate significant amounts of underground water. Studies have linked exposure to benzene with cancer, birth defects, and respiratory disease.

Hydraulic fracturing is commonly used in coal bed methane production areas. Many coal beds contain aquifers which meet the standards to be considered underground sources of drinking water. Since hydraulic fracturing is being used in these areas, these underground sources of drinking water are at risk of contamination from harmful chemicals. Studies have shown that 20-40% of the fracturing fluids remain in the rock indicating that contamination is not just a short term problem, but one that could continue for years to come. These chemicals not only affect the drinking water but have adverse effects on the geological formations, such as causing decreased permeability.

Companies, such as Triple Diamond Energy Corporation, are now implementing safer hydraulic fracturing practices to decrease the risk of drinking water contamination. Some of those practices include using sand and water in the stimulant fluid without any additives, using non-toxic additives, and eliminating the use of diesel fuels. Lining the backflow pits with impermeable coatings around the borehole, which reduces re-absorption of fracturing fluids, as well as collecting and storing these back flow wastes in steel tanks are some other examples environmental exposure to potentially harmful chemicals can be dealt with.

Implementing measures such as these will not only help our nation meet its goals today, but also ensure a safe and healthy environment for future generations.

Chris Jent is the chief marketing officer of Triple Diamond Energy Corp. Triple Diamond Energy specializes in acquiring the highest quality prime oil and gas properties. For more information, visit http://www.triplediamondenergycorp.blogspot.com.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Dynamic Gas Pulse Loading - A Better Solution

Setting up a drilling platform is a costly endeavour. It is important that the maximum amount of oil or gas be extracted from the reservoir and the fastest rate possible. Running the crews around the clock isn’t enough to accomplish this task. Once the initial oil or gas is released from a reservoir the hydrostatic pressure will drop and the flow rate will be reduced or stop completely. Oil and gas further away from the drill site may not have a clear path to the borehole. Well drillers have come up with a number of techniques to solve this problem.

Hydraulic fracturing, and acidizing are the most commonly used methods, however, The idea behind these two techniques is to create fractures in the rock thereby increasing the radius the well is able to draw oil or gas from. However, certain circumstances may dictate these methods unsuitable. One problem is that they involve using large quantities of fluids, which certain formations may be sensitive to. They may not actually create fractures on an outward horizontal plane.

The Dynamic Gas Pulse Loading (DGPL) system generates high-pressure gasses, which induce and propagate multiple fractures in the targeted zones in very short time frames. The resulting hot gas, contained by a liquid column in the wellbore, expands to generate a fracture network extending from each perforation tunnel in the treatment zone. The DGPL system uses mechanical pressure gauges to monitor the fracture response of the formation. Time-dependent pressure recording provides a more detailed picture of the fracture process. The system is lowered into a well on an electric wire line or by a modified tubing conveyance. A down hole pressure sensor connected by wire to the digital recorder system at the surface provides instant access to the data and does not risk damage to the digital recorder.

Some would argue that dynamic gas pulse loading is a better method to increase the flow rate of gas and oil wells. Certain benefits are obvious. A DGPL system eliminates the need for large storage tanks at the surface and pump trucks. Most importantly, drillers are able to control the direction of the fractures. This eliminates the possibility of damaging the reservoir with hydraulic methods that may only create fractures in a vertical direction, and possibly rendering the well unusable.

Triple Diamond Energy Corporation and others will most surely benefit from continued scientific research in the field of well stimulation.

Chris Jent is the chief marketing officer of Triple Diamond Energy Corp. Triple Diamond Energy specializes in acquiring the highest quality prime oil and gas properties. For more information, visit http://www.triplediamondenergycorp.blogspot.com.

Stimulation Techniques used in Oil Drilling

Fictional media depictions of oil drilling have given the general public an inaccurate picture of the ease with which oil is removed from its rocky reservoirs. Typically it is not all gushing geysers in response to a little drilling. In actuality an oil-bearing formation may contain a large amount of oil, but low flow rate as a result of low permeability or blockage from debris may slow the extraction process. This is especially true for tight sands, oil shale, and coal bed methane. There are two major categories of stimulation techniques used by oil drillers to help alleviate this problem and restore flow of fluids from the reservoir to the borehole. They are called hydraulic fracturing, and acidizing or matrix treatments.

Hydraulic fracturing is a method that creates new pathways for the oil to travel by injecting fluid underground at high pressures. This causes the formations to fracture, and the oil or gas flows more freely out of the formation .Typically, in order to create fractures a mixture of water, proppants (sand or ceramic beads) and chemicals is pumped into the rock or coal formation. Eventually, the formation will not be able to absorb the fluid at the same rate that it is being injected. At this point, the pressure created causes the formation to crack or fracture. The fractures are held open by the proppants, and the oil or gas is then able to flow through the fractures to the well. Coal bed fracture treatments use between 50,000 and 350,000 gallons of various stimulation and fracturing fluids, and anywhere from 75,000 to 320,000 pounds of proppant during the hydraulic fracturing of a single well.

Chemicals commonly used in combination with stimulant fuels include diesel fuel, which contains benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, xylene, naphthalene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, methanol, formaldehyde, ethylene glycol, glycol ethers, and sodium hydroxide. This fracturing method is performed above the fracture pressure of the formation and creates a highly passable flow path between the reservoir and the borehole.

Acidizing involves injecting the formation with acid, typically hydrochloric acid, which causes the rock to dissolve opening rock pores and allowing fluid to flow more easily. Matrix acidizing is administered at a high rate, but at treatment pressures below the fracture pressure of the formation. This allows the acid to saturate the formation and amplify the depth of treatment while averting further breakdown of the reservoir formation. These methods are sometimes combined to create an acid fracture treatment.
These important techniques are helping companies like Triple Diamond Energy Corporation to get the maximum benefit out of their wells, by reducing costs and environmental impact of oil and gas drilling.

Chris Jent is the chief marketing officer of Triple Diamond Energy Corp. Triple Diamond Energy specializes in acquiring the highest quality prime oil and gas properties. For more information, visit http://www.triplediamondenergycorp.blogspot.com.