“How many stages?” asked Decker.
“Nearly a hundred,” said Baker.
“Good God,” said Jamison. “Why so many?”
“We’re going down a long way, and we have to break up the rock in just the right manner and direction.” He went to the small window and pointed out. “Those trucks will pump the fluid mix into the wellhead through all those connected pipes. Now, we’ve also got an artillery van where they prep the necessary explosives and attach the detonating gun to the perforating gun.”
“An artillery van,” exclaimed Jamison. “Sounds like you’re going to war.”
“We are in a way, against some really tough subterranean rock that’s a zillion years old and has never been disturbed before. We pump the gun down to blast fractures in the rock. Then the perforation device extends fissures or cracks that reach into the oil deposits, sort of like fingers poking in to get something. Then we drop a ball down and seat it in a plug. That isolates the area we’re interested in, and that’s when we start blasting fracking fluids into the rock cracks and fissures.”
“What do the fluids consist of?” asked Decker.
He led them back over to the screens. “It’s a pretty well mapped-out mixology of stuff. Sand and fresh water make up ninety-nine-point-five percent of what we put down the hole. The rest are chemicals—biocide to kill bacteria in the water so it can’t foul the product, then other chemicals to provide viscosity to the liquid. Guar gum, magnesium chloride, barite, hydrochloric and citric acid, ethanol and methanol, sodium erythorbate. All this stuff has different purposes. Some help with gelling, others with iron control, corrosion counteractor, clay stabilization, friction reducer, crosslinker, and the list goes on and on.” He grinned. “Hell, some days I feel like I’ve got my degree in chemistry three times over. These graphs over here chart the PSI in the pipe. We use regular sand, which we refer to as the proppant, to start with, and then change over to ceramic sand, which holds the fractures open longer.” He glanced at Decker. “Like your ‘stent’ analogy to unblock an artery. We use about two hundred fifty thousand pounds of proppant per stage.”
“That’s a lot more than a sandbox full,” noted Decker.
“Which is why you see all those trucks hauling it in,” replied Baker. “Without sand none of this works. Natural sand comes from Wisconsin. The ceramic stuff is imported from China.”
“So the Bakken region is chock full of oil and gas?” said Decker.
“Northwest corner of North Dakota hit the jackpot for fossil fuels. All told the state is pumping about two million barrels of oil a day. To give you some perspective, the Saudis alone do around twelve million barrels a day. The Middle East in total has about half the world’s total proven oil reserves. And over forty percent of the natural gas.”
“Which is why everyone pays attention to what goes on there,” noted Decker.
“So most of the oil is trucked out?” said Jamison.
“No, a lot of the oil captured here actually gets transported out via the Dakota Access Pipeline, which is a lot cheaper than trucking it to a train. But that pipeline is filling up fast, so they’re building another one.”
Jamison said, “And this is one of Stuart McClellan’s operations?”
“That’s right.”
Decker said, “The Air Force station is close to here. And the Brothers’ Colony.”
“Yep. McClellan’s rigs are the only ones hereabouts except for one company also located near the Air Force station.”
“What about all the gas flares?” said Jamison. “Isn’t that wasteful?”
“It is,” conceded Baker. “But there aren’t enough pipelines here to transport the gas. And even if there were, the gas up here has a high percentage of hydrocarbons. Pipeline operators hate that because it can clog the pipe.”
“What’s the solution?” asked Decker.
“They’re coming up with a technology to separate the methane from the hydrocarbons right onsite.”
“Do any problems come up with fracking?” asked Decker.
He nodded. “Something called a ‘screen-out’ is fairly common. That happens when the sand plugs up the perforations. The pump automatically shuts down when that happens because the PSI spikes and the warning bells go off.”
“What do you do to fix it?” asked Jamison.
“We open the well and force up lots of barrels of fluid that we just sent down to clean up the blockage. If there are more serious issues, like a well needs some type of invasive intervention because it’s deteriorating, equipment has corroded, or the reservoir conditions have changed, then we call in a workover rig. They’ll drop in a wireline to lower both measurement and testing equipment to see what the issue is and arrive at a solution. They can usually find an answer and get it back online.”
Decker looked impressed. “And here I always thought you were just a guy digging holes with a shovel.”
Baker grinned. “Well, I did my share of that too, back in the old days. Now it’s all technology and science and engineering. But, hey, I’ll take working inside a trailer with my own toilet and AC in the summer and heat in the winter any day.”
“Quite the operation,” noted Jamison.
“How long do you see yourself here, Stan?” asked Decker.
“Long enough to save up what I need to retire and to help out the kids and their education. Then I’m heading to Florida, chucking my cell phone into the ocean, and I’m going fishing. And I’m not going to stop till I croak.”
“Now, tell me what you remember about this guy who talked about the time bomb,” said Decker. “His name was Ben?”
“Yeah, least that’s what he said.”
“Last name?”
Baker rubbed his face and sat back in his chair. “I’m not sure. It was over a year ago and there were a lot of people around and I’d been drinking.”
“And you’re sure he was in the Air Force?”
“Yeah, he was in his official cammies and he told me he was assigned there.”
Decker said, “What if we can show you pictures of people who worked there? Would that help?”
“It might, yeah. But how are you going to do that? I was in the military. They don’t like giving out info to nobody.”
Decker glanced at Jamison. “We’ll think of something.”
“HOW ARE WE GOING to get Colonel Sumter to give up his list of personnel?” said Jamison on the drive back. “He hasn’t even gotten back to Kelly on his earlier request. And I don’t see us getting a search warrant. We have no probable cause. And on top of that, this Ben guy was military; he’s not there anymore anyway. It’s all Vector personnel now.”
“So let’s dial up some help.” Decker pulled out the device Robie had given him.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Apparently, a hotline to Batman.”
He hit the green button. Within two seconds, Robie answered.
“Yes?”
“Need some help. Wondering if you could provide it?”
“Tell me what it is and I’ll see what I can do.”