Frackers Go Electric as Negative Gas Prices Spur Switch
- Pumps powered by natural gas are alternative to diesel engines
- Move may help producers cut costs amid investor pressure
At a natural gas production site, water and sand are mixed and then pumped through the tubes at pressures over 6,600 psi into the well during fracture stimulation, at the Marcellus Shale formation in Camptown, Pennsylvania.
Photographer: Julia Schmalz/Bloomberg
Thrifty drillers have found a new use for the glut of natural gas that’s sent prices for the fuel below zero in America’s biggest shale patch: Use it to power fracking operations.
For decades, explorers have used massive diesel engines mounted on tractor-trailers to shoot a mixture of water, sand and chemicals down wells and blast open layers of oil-soaked shale rock. That’s changing now that soaring output has crushed gas prices, especially in West Texas’ Permian Basin, where the fuel is a byproduct of crude oil extraction.