What is a minifrac?

Rathlin have applied to perform a "mini fall off test" on each of their wells.

This is also known as a minifrac in the industry.  [Halliburton]

So what is it?

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It is well worth remembering that the industry loves to conflate/obfuscate and often uses unnecessary technical detail to do this.

Frack Off considers fracking to be shorthand for the entire life cycle, supply chain and process of getting oil and gas out of shale. Exploration will lead to Production unless it is opposed, which inevitably requires horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in tens of thousands of wells across large areas of the UK.

A mini-frack is a loose term for something that includes a DFIT but could be used to describe anything up to full HVHF.

A DFIT is a Diagnostic Fracture Injection Test, it involves the introduction of liquid into the well and pressurisation to the point where fractures are created in the target formation (rock). A DFIT or Mini-Frack will require significant pressure so most of the equipment required for full scale HVHF.

See: http://www.spidr.com/oil-and-gas/DFIT-Testing/page128.html

HVHF is High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing usually involving Slick Water (chemical additives) and Propants (sand to hold the fractures open) and may involve multiple stages (multiple target formations). HVHF is qualified by the use of more than 1 million gallons of fluid.

Cuadrilla are the only company to have performed HVHF in the UK with their six stage HVHF of  a vertical well at Preese Hall in Lancashire (8,399,000 litres = 2,218,781 US gal). The treatment caused seismic activity that deformed a 200 foot section of their well casing and they are abandoning that well.