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903 Well Site Completion and Servicing Safety
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Isolation

Once a stage is fully fractured, workers isolate it from the rest of the well by inserting a plug into the well. This requires wireline operations.

Frac tanks bonded to each other and grounded. Photo credit: Universal Well Services

Flowback

After the entire well has been fractured, workers decrease the pressure at the wellhead and drill out the isolation plugs. A mixture of fracturing fluid and gas or oil flows back out of the well through flow lines into pits or tanks.

Drilling out the plugs will require wireline operations, snubbing, or coil tubing procedures. See Wireline Operations, Snubbing, and Coil Tubing for further information. We will cover those special processes later in the course.

Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.

2-8. What procedures are performed to get the mixture of fracturing fluid and gas or oil flows back out of the well?