John W. Ely 
Frac Without a K 

The book titled FRAC without a K is actually the third edition of the initial book written in 1985. I got the inspiration for the initial book , titled Stimulation Treatment handbook, form working with a young Engineer who was in distress because of cheating on frac treatments. The original book was designed to instruct personnel on how to oversee fracs-basically understand what was going on and what to expect from the service company. There was, sadly, felonious activity going on in the oilfield and I took it upon myself to do what I could to stop this behavior. The activity was pretty well eliminated when the very large lawsuit occurred between Parker and Parsley and BJ Services occurred in the late 80’s. Without going into details the lawsuit was settled for 270 million dollars which was a huge sum in the late 80’s.
I have included the 1994 edition 2 to show the improvements and advances that have occurred in our industry in 27 years. I include the second edition to show where my mind might have changed but also to allow a younger generation to see where we came from. I placed a lot of emphasis on historical changes as well as discussing at length the waterfrac revolution. My very subjective comments on waterfracs, small sand and actual design of slick water treatments is indeed controversial but not to me.
I can state there is nothing equivalent to this book in our industry. You can find books with massive amount of equations or sales pitch phenomena but nothing anywhere as readable as FRAC without a K. I have included hopefully for your enjoyment, war stories and pictures and descriptions of directional kill blowouts I have attended worldwide.

About the author

Mr. Ely started his career with Halliburton Co., in 1965, working as a technician for the Analytical group while completing his college work. He graduated from Oklahoma State University in 1968 with a Batcheler’s in chemistry. On returning to Halliburton, Mr. Ely served as chemist and senior chemist in fracturing research before transferring to International Operations in 1973. While in fracturing research, he was instrumental in the development of the first high temperature fracturing fluids. He also developed nonaqueous energized systems. In 1973 he transferred to his first assignment overseas was in south Iran as a district engineer. In 1975, he was promoted to technical adviser, Eastern Hemisphere, and transferred to Bahrain. He traveled and worked in eleven Mideast countries in this position. In 1976, John transferred to Dubai, U.A.E. The following year, he was promoted to technical adviser, International Operations, and was based in Duncan, Oklahoma where his primary duty was to coordinate all phases of research with international field operations. Ely joined Nowsco Services in 1980 as Engineering Manager. His responsibilities included overseeing chemical and mechanical research and coordinating training for field engineers.
In 1985, John joined S.A. Holditch and Associates as Vice-President of Stimulation Technology. In addition to designing and supervising hundreds of stimulation treatments, he was involved in research on fracturing fluids under the auspices of the Gas Research Institute. Additionally, he served as an expert witness in areas involving completion and stimulation of oil and gas wells.
In May 1991, John founded Ely & Associates Corp. This company provides a blend of practical and technical expertise on well completion, stimulation fluids and equipment, and reservoir analysis. John holds several patents and has numerous publications, including the first and second edition of books titled “Stimulation Treatment Handbook/ An Engineer’s Guide to Quality Control”. He is also a contributing author to the 1989 and 2020 issue of the S.P.E. monograph on hydraulic fracturing (Recent Advances in Hydraulic Fracturing), writing chapters on hydraulic fracturing fluids. He has also published a chapter in the “Modern Fracturing” publication by BJ Services. Mr. Ely typically teaches hydraulic fracturing 3-5 times a year. Ely and Associates has become known as the premier fracture design and oversight organization in the industry. Particularly in the last 20 years, John has become recognized as the leading expert in the design and implementation of the water fracs. Ely has designed literally thousands of water fracs using technology learned while exploiting both source rock reservoirs and tight conventional rock. His “Waterfrac Sweep” process has been successful in shale, tight sands, and fractured carbonates. Mr. Ely is a member of the American Chemical Society, The Society of Petroleum Engineers, and is a fellow of the American Institute of Chemistry. He was the recipient of the prestigious John Franklin Carll award for excellence in petroleum engineering for 2020. In 2021, he was awarded the Legend of Hydraulic Fracturing award at the SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Conference.