BACKGROUND Studies of unconventional gas development (UGD) and preterm birth (PTB) have not presented risk estimates by well development phase or trimester. OBJECTIVE We examined phase and trimester-specific associations between UGD activity and PTB. METHODS We conducted a case-control study of women with singleton births in the Barnett Shale area, Texas, from 30 November 2010 to 29 Novembe...

Wastewater produced by hydraulic fracturing (" fracking ") for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale is already overwhelming disposal options and will continue to do so as gas development increases, according to newly published research. The investigation did not evaluate environmental consequences of the wastewater. But lead author Brian Lutz, an assistant professor in the Kent State University D...

Abstract. Good project planning provides the basis for successful offshore well drilling projects. In this domain planning occurs in two phases: an onshore phase develops a project plan; and an offshore phase implements the plan and tracks actual progress compared to the initial plan that was created onshore. The reuse of project plans is already prevalent within the oil and gas industry. A Per...

In this work, the life cycle economic and environmental optimization of shale gas supply chain network design and operations is addressed. The proposed model covers the well-to-wire life cycle of electricity generated from shale gas, consisting of a number of stages including freshwater acquisition, shale well drilling, hydraulic fracturing and completion, shale gas production, wastewater manag...

Increasing evidence suggests that chronic noise from human activities negatively affects wild animals, but most studies have failed to separate the effects of chronic noise from confounding factors, such as habitat fragmentation. We played back recorded continuous and intermittent anthropogenic sounds associated with natural gas drilling and roads at leks of Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus ur...

In this study, a 1-D transient state mechanistic model of cuttings transport with foam in inclined wells has been developed. The model is solved numerically to predict the optimum foam flow rate (liquid and gas rate) and rheological properties that would maximize cuttings transport efficiency in inclined wells. A detailed sensitivity analysis of the effect of gas and liquid flow rates, drilling...

Advances in directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing have sparked a natural gas boom from shale formations in the United States. Regulators face a rapidly changing industry comprised of hundreds of players, operating tens of thousands of wells across 30 states. They are often challenged to respond by budget cuts, a brain drain to industry, regulations designed for conventional gas developm...

Colloidal Gas Aphrons (CGA), consist of gas bubbles with diameters ranging from 10 to 100 micron, surrounded by a thin aqueous surfactant film. This fluid combines certain surfactants and polymers to create the systems of microbubbles. The function of surfactant in CGAs is to produce the surface tension to contain the aphrons. Also, a biopolymer needs to be considered in the formulation as ...

Shale gas extraction involves the drilling of organic-rich, lowpermeability shale and then stimulation of hydraulic fractures that allows gas to be produced. Methane in aquifers located above the shale strata, for instance, in Pennsylvania, United States, has been attributed by some to be the result of contamination caused by the hydraulic fracturing process. The work by Osborn et al. (1) descr...