Technology

Similar to the freeze-thaw process that creates frost heaves in winter, our patented system freezes formation water downhole, causing it to expand and crack the rock, opening up new passageways for hydrocarbons to flow into the wellbore. After all, ice moves mountains, doesn’t it?

Our process uses concentric coiled tubing, or alternatively jointed pipe and coil tubing to circulate a refrigerant along the length of a horizontally drilled wellbore. The refrigerant, liquid CO2, flows through the annulus between the two tubulars freezing the surrounding water in the wellbore. This creates the expansion force that radiates outward a full 360 degrees. Use of a concentric coil tubing in this process prevents the refrigerant from coming in direct contact with the water being frozen. It also provides a means of moving the freezing process along the length of the wellbore even though the outside tubular is frozen in place. The internal coil is moveable, like a retractable aerial on a car, so it can be positioned strategically along the lateral.

Conventional fracing tends to produce simple horizontal cracks, requiring proppants as a buttress to counteract gravity’s tendency to close that type of fracturing. Triple D’s technique creates radial fractures which propagate vertically and won’t close once freezing is removed, eliminating the need for proppants.