G'day Bazzle, I have to agree with you, last time my commpressor had water in the lime it reduced the pressure at the grinder - only got half the speed. BUT the important thing is that the flow is reduced on purpose, firstly for the reason of abrasive proppant as already disussed and the other is that if you release at high pressure when you return frac fluids, you end up pushing back fluids back into lower pressure fractures.
The point is here, that the experts decided to return the frac fluids NATURALLY. This normally indicates the quality and good potential of a well as a commercial producer BUT has the negative side effect that it takes longer to return the fluids with many alternate opening and closings of the choke to allow frac fluids to leak out, settle into the bottom of the well and then brought to the surface. All that in addition to high risk of damaging the well head by abrasive proppants.
The other quicker more expensive way is to employ a coil rig to vacuum the frac fluids and proppants to the surface by means of the coil hose.
IMHO I think the process how things have progressed, is positive rather than negative - although management could do with a shakeup to explain processes a little more clearly avoiding confusion. Perhaps this could be an issue to bring forward at the GM.
GDN Price at posting:
7.4¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held