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ecorpStim Successfully Fracks PA Marcellus Well Using Baby Oil

baby oilEvery now and again eCORP Stimulation Technologies, or “ecorpStim” as they are known, reappears with a press release to announce they’re still around. The last such time MDN covered the company was in July 2014 (see ecorpStim Says New Manufacturing Process Lowers Non-Water Frack Cost). ecorpStim’s technology uses non-flammable liquefied propane as the fluid for fracking. It has the benefit of turning back into a gas and coming back out of the hole–captured and sold at a profit (or captured and re-used). One issue is, of course, the cost–although ecorpStim says they have worked hard to lower the cost. Another issue is potential flammability. However, last year ecorpStim began experimenting with “light alkanes” as an alternative fluid for fracking. In everyday language, light alkanes are “baby oil.” A big plus with using baby oil is that it’s nonflammable. It’s also safe for human ingestion and totally safe for the environment. ecorpStim released an announcement yesterday to say they have successfully fracked a Marcellus Shale well in Fayette County, PA using their new baby oil process…
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ecorpStim Says New Manufacturing Process Lowers Non-Water Frack Cost

Every now and again eCORP Stimulation Technologies, or “ecorpStim” as they are known, pokes its head up to say, “Hey, we’re still here and we still have a great non-water-based fracking solution!” To which we always say, “Great!” However, non-water-based solutions have a common problem: they’re really expensive. ecorpStim’s technology uses non-flammable liquefied propane as the fluid for fracking. It has the benefit of turning back into a gas and coming back out of the hole–captured and sold at a profit (or captured and re-used). ecorpStim poked their head up again today with their latest press release to say they’ve figured out how to lower the cost of their technology…
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ecorpStim Waterless Fracking Newsjacks UN Water & Energy Report

ecorpStim, a company that has pioneered an interesting waterless fracking technology that uses non-flammable liquefied petroleum gas (propane) to replace all water and chemicals used in traditional fracking, continues their newsjacking ways. We told you last December how the company gloms onto big news stories and tries to tie themselves to the story–as if the story were about them when it isn’t (see Waterless Fracker ecorpStim (Mis)Uses Newsjacking for Attention). We hadn’t spotted any more cases and thought they had wisely decided to cool it with the newsjacking. But we were wrong.

Yesterday ecorpStim issued a new press release to call attention to themselves via a recently issued UN report on water and energy. Yes, in one sense you can say ecorpStim’s technology offers a solution to a teeny tiny portion of the water issues raised in the report. Frankly, shale drilling uses a small fraction of the water used by other forms of energy extraction and even by agriculture and golf courses! Shale drilling’s use of water in no way endangers water supplies. Look, we applaud creative “hey look at me” marketing. We like the ecorpStim technology! However, we take a dim view of useless marketing that doesn’t advance the very serious issues facing our industry. You decide which this is…
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Checking in on ecorpStim’s 100% Waterless Fracking, New Video

checking inecorpStim has poked their heads up again to try and catch a bit of attention for their innovative waterless fracking solution. A press release issued yesterday by the company (full copy below) touts a new short video about their technology and promises that their “non-flammable propane stimulation” solution, developed in “2013,” will roll out in field demonstrations by “the end of this year.” We gave the video a watch a liked it (see it below).

MDN has had our eye on eCORP, ecorpStim’s parent company, since 2012 when they attempted but ultimately failed to cut a deal with landowners in Tioga County, NY to lease a large swath of land and potentially use a waterless fracking technology (from Canadian GASFRAC) to avoid New York’s ongoing moratorium (see Tioga County, NY Lease Deal with eCORP Falls Apart). It was after the wheels came off that deal that ecorpStim changed gears to develop their own waterless fracking solution.
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Waterless Fracker ecorpStim (Mis)Uses Newsjacking for Attention

MDN has followed eCORP Stimulation Technologies (“ecorpStim”) for some time now with interest (see our previous stories about eCORP here). ecorpStim has pioneered a waterless fracking technology that uses pure propane–supposedly non-flammable and very safe. We applaud their inventiveness and their tenacity it trying to catch attention for their technology–a technology that costs a lot more than water-based fracking.

What we’re a bit unsettled by, though, is the way they’ve taken to newsjacking. What’s newsjacking, you say? It’s a recent trend in marketing of issuing a press release or otherwise injecting your company (or yourself) into a prominent news story not about you or your company in order to capture attention for you or your company. ecorpStim has been doing that lately. And the way they do it makes you think the big news story is perhaps about their company–when it isn’t. Two cases in point…
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ecorpStim Tries to Interest France in Waterless Fracking Tech

In April, MDN told you about progress with a new waterless method of fracking that uses 100% nonflammable propane fracking fluid. The technique was developed by eCORP Stimulation Technologies, a subsidiary of eCORP International (see Non-Flammable Liquid Propane Used for 100% Waterless Fracking). ecorpStim, as they call themselves, doesn’t seem to have had much luck in finding drillers in the U.S. to use their technology–no doubt because it’s so cheap to use water for fracking.

Sensing there may be an opportunity, ecorpStim recently went on a field trip–to France–to present their technological “break through” to members of the French Parliament. You may recall the French Supreme Court recently upheld a countrywide ban on hydraulic fracturing–at least fracking that uses water (see France’s Fracking Ban ‘Absolute’ After Court Upholds Law). Since water fracking isn’t an option in France, ecorpStim is hoping the French will consider a slightly more expensive, non-water option for fracking…
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eCORP Tests New Waterless LPG Fracking Method on First Shale Well

Last year MDN told you about a deal in Tioga County, NY between landowners with 135,000 acres and drilling company eCORP to use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, or propane) fracking as an alternative to water-based fracking. The deal, which had a complicated structure with the landowners as part-owners of the venture, fell apart (see Tioga County, NY Lease Deal with eCORP Falls Apart). One of the interesting aspects of that story is that by using a non-water-based fracking method, eCORP may have been able to proceed with drilling ahead of New York’s much-delayed new fracking regulations. However, that theory never came to a test.

Here’s the new news: eCORP was going to use GASFRAC’s LPG fracking technology in Tioga County. Since that time, a newly formed subsidiary of eCORP called eCORP Stimulation Technologies has developed its own LPG fracking technology that uses 100% propane and zero chemicals or additives of any kind. eCORP fracked the very first shale well with the new technology in December…

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