They're part of oil's comback: Hydraulic oil fracking underway in Tamaroa's outback
62-year-old Lenny Wilson has been around oil for more than 40 years.
Up before dawn. Long drives. The pungent smell of thick, black Illinois crude. Heavy pumps and even heavier drilling rigs. On some days there are easy drives to the well work site. On other days, unforgiving mud and cold. The constant dangers of working around heavy cables and methane gas.
"You mean REAL work," smiles Wilson as he and hands Wesley Key and Chris Gustafson, his grandson, work to bring largely dead or low-producing oil wells in Southern Illinois back to life.
They are employees of Campbell Enterprises Oil Field Service of Carmi, but live in McLeansboro.
Lenny said years ago "I drove a wrecker," but he got tired of the grind and pulling up to traffic accident scenes full of tragedy and heartbreak. "I drove trucks. I did everything," says Wilson, a man's man who knows the business of oil and drills and wells like the back of his hand.
On Tuesday, Tamaroa residents saw truck after truck of water and sand navigate the back roads to get to the site of the fracking operation about four miles northeast of Tamaroa. The worksite is on private property across from retired Rep. Wayne Goforth, just north of East Tamaroa Road. It is neither Goforth's property nor project off Watermelon Road, but it gives you a reference point.
It is their life's work and grandson Chris says he will make it his if time bears out their belief that the technology of "fracking" or "fracturing" the shale in Southern Illinois is environmentally safe and their work is allowed to continue. So far, Illinois lawmakers are largely on board.
The first step in extracting oil from shale involves drilling vertically to reach the shale layer. Drilling can hit depths of 1,000 feet or more. Drilling can then continue horizontally, extending hundreds of feet from the vertical shaft. Often the vertical and horizontal components of the well are lined with steel casing, cemented in place.
"When we drill down so far, you start testing and you can just tell (you're there)," he says.
The horizontal extension of the casing is then perforated, often using explosives. Thereafter, water, carrying sand and proprietary chemicals, is injected into the well at high pressure.
Southern Precision Sand, Inc. near Cutler is one the companies processing the sand for fracking operations across the midwest.
The water encounters the shale through the perforations, generating a series of small fractures in the rock (hence the nickname, "fracking"); the sand in the water keeps the cracks open, while the chemicals enhance release of oil or gas from the shale. The injected water flows back up to the surface when the pressure in the well is released following completion of the fracking procedure. Then the well starts to produce oil.
On Wednesday morning the three men were waiting for the well to finish bleeding return water from the boring back up to the surface and into a holding lagoon constructed nearby. The sand stays in the ground. From there the contaminated water will be pumped back into tanks, transported from the site and properly disposed of at a treatment plant.
Sometimes there are only a few fracture stages. Other times, it may take many attempts.
Drillers developing a well must take exceptional care to minimize contact between the wellbore and the surrounding aquifer.
Care must be exercised to protect groundwater from spillage and to guard against potential leakage from the ponds.
With this part of the operation behind them, Wilson said his crew should know "in a day or two" if they were successful.
This is a relatively small fracking operation but, if successful, a well that produced oil decades ago could be producing again--as much as 80 barrels a day.
Even though an operation like this might cost upwards of $100,000 or more to complete, with domestic oil prices of about $93 a barrel it makes it worth the investment and the effort over time.
The oil is pumped from the well to large storage tanks within eyesight to the west. A truck will come every day to empty the storage tanks and account for the oil. Landowners receive royalties.
Their are issues of mineral rights and permitting and meeting recently passed Illinois regulatory requirements. There are debates about environmental safety and well water contamination. Time will prove the oil and natural gas industry right or wrong.
But, Wilson and his men believe in American energy independence and on one of God's sylvan acres northeast of Tamaroa that is happening.
"We will be here for couple more weeks," said Wilson.