Frac
Hydraulic fracturing — pumping water, sand, and chemicals at high pressure to crack the rock and release oil and gas from shale.
Frac, short for hydraulic fracturing, is the completion step that makes shale wells produce. Crews pump a mixture of water, sand (the proppant), and chemicals down the wellbore at very high pressure, cracking the rock around the lateral. The sand holds those cracks open so oil and gas can flow back out. Without it, tight shale and other low-permeability rock yields almost nothing.
A modern horizontal well is fractured in many stages along the lateral — often dozens. The frac is usually the most expensive part of a completion, and the count and size of stages strongly influence how much a well will produce.
For mineral owners, frac activity is a near-term sign that royalty income is coming, since wells typically start producing within weeks of being fractured.