Why ‘theMost Important Energy Innovationof
the 21st Century’ Is Important toYou, Plenco,
America and theWorld!
Y
ou’ve heard about hydraulic fracturing in Mike
Brotz’ remarks at the annual employee meetings
last year and again in April this year, but do you
really understand how “fracking” as it is called for short,
is impacting your life, Plenco, Wisconsin and the world?
This is really big!
As a result of fracking, theUnitedStates has uncovered
natural gas reserves thatwill heat yourhome andmakeour
country energy-independent for the next 100 years! The
price of natural gas has drop by 50-to-80 percent since
fracking emerged, and as a result, we havemore thanwe
need. America is rapidlybecoming an exporter of energy,
turning the tables on our recent dependency on unstable
Middle East countries and other foreign regimes for our
energy.
In this inaugural issueof thenew
PlastiScope21
electronic
newsletter, we are focusing on future developments that
affect Plenco and you. Hydraulic fracturing and its
revolutionary impact on all of us are certainlynear the top
of the list!
And you are there, employed at a company providing
phenolic resins that coat the fine white sand vital to the
fracking process.
The technology and process of extracting natural gas
andoil from shale rock, some6,000 feet below the surface
of the earth andwell belowmunicipal water wells usually
found at 1,000 feet, has been around since the late 1940s.
But recent technological advances four years agomade its
extraction financially viable.
That’swhere the intriguing story begins.
As we said, hydraulic fracturing is not new. The
first commercial application likely occurred in either the
Hugoton field of Kansas in 1946 or nearDuncan, Okla-
homa in1949. In theensuing60years, theuseof hydraulic
fracturing has developed into an amazing technology.
Expertsbelieve60 to80percent of allwellsdrilled in the
United States in the next ten years will require hydraulic
fracturing to remain operating. Fracturing allows for
extendedproduction inolder oil andnatural gas fields.
It also recovers oil and natural gas from formations that
geologists once believedwere impossible to tap.
Now, how does Plenco fit into this amazing picture?
Plenco pastille phenolic resin is an important part of
many of the hydraulic fracturing operations that are
expanding dramatically across the United States and
internationally. Oil andnatural gasproducers improvewell
yields using hydraulic fracturing fluids containing round
specialty sands coated with phenolic resin. The industry
refers to these sands as proppant or frac sands.
The hydraulic fracturing fluid containing the proppant
Use inHydraulic Fracturing
PlencoResinUsedTo
Coat Proppants
Our pastillephenolic resin is an
important part of many of the
hydraulic fracturingoperations that
areexpanding dramatically across
theUnitedStates and internationally.
Hydraulic fracturing toextract natural
gas from oil shale is hailed as amajor
way todecreaseU.S. reliance on
foreign energy. Reserveswill meet
U.S. natural gas demand for 100
years, based on industry estimates.
3
ShaleFractures
USDW
PrivateWell
MunicipalWater
Well: < 1,000 ft.
Additional steel
casings& cement
to protect
groundwater
Protective steel
casing
Approximate distance
from surface: 6,000 ft.
