Oil & Gas 360® received an email from a reader, asking us to think about the spelling of the word Frac versus Frack.  Now, dear readers, we are in the Frac camp.  For a couple of reasons.  First, there’s no “K” in fracture stimulation technologies.  A recent article written by Bloomberg used the “K” version of frac: “EnTrans International LLC, a manufacturer of equipment used in fracking, delayed selling a $250 million bond, according to three other people with knowledge of that transaction.”  We’re okay with their usage since that is their policy, but we would kindly ask them to consider the “frac” version as we believe it is correct.

In Schlumberger’s Oilfield Glossary the world’s largest OilService (our spelling version) company spells frac as “frac.”  Click here for the words that start with an “F.”   The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) spells frac as “frac” in their glossary.

So we thought we would take some fracturing liberties with the word frac, and applied our thinking as if Billy Shakespeare were writing about the word “frac” today:

‘Tis but thy Frack name that is mine enemy?
Thou art a word, though not spelled correctly.
What’s Frack? Is it a word that writers are more comfortable using in print because they know not? Or have turned the bit to the right?
Frac is measured in quantity as in “50 frac stages” or in length “fraced 8,000 feet of horizontal zone,”
Or as a noun as in “we used fracing gel to increase the IP rate.” O, Frac is a name that drillers use and others despise!
Alas and alack, those who despise still benefit from the increase in their tax revenues!

What’s in an oilfield name?  Pumpjack.  Swivel.  Christmas Tree.  BOP. Slick Water.  That which we call a Frac
By any other name would still deliver the oil and gas for the world, and that is the sweetest sound there is!
So readers and writers, Fracing is, because Fracturing were not spelled with a “K.”
Accept this dear perfection which you write and owes to ol’ Billy Shakespeare.
Without that pretentious “K” as if it’s a scarlet letter.  Henceforth people, doff that “K,” and drill ahead.
Which for that fracture stimulation which brings in the crude and gas is so sweet, which is another way of saying,
“Keep Calm and Drill On!”

 


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