1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to fueling systems for hydraulic fracturing equipment, and more specifically to a system and method for automatically fueling equipment and reporting important information in a real time for fracing hydrocarbon wells.
2. Description of Related Art
Fracturing of hydrocarbon wells requires great amounts of pressure. Diesel, natural gas, and or a combination of those driven pumps are utilized in order to generate pressures sufficient to fracture shale deposits. This equipment is located remotely and require refueling several times during a frac job. Conventional systems for fueling hydraulic fracturing equipment use trucks and pump fuel into saddle tanks from the trucks as required to keep the saddle tanks full. Alternative conventional systems bypass the saddle tanks of the hydraulic fracturing equipment and provide a pressurized fuel line and return line for each piece of equipment. Conventionally data is monitored on a per site basis typically relayed from the single sale pump to a user, therefore no one knows how much fuel each piece of equipment is using in relation to the rest of the fleet. Conventional systems and methods for fueling hydraulic fracturing equipment have disadvantages. First, stopping the frac to refill saddle tanks cost time and money. Second, different frac pump engines require different fuel pressures to operate, and keeping over a dozen pieces of equipment operating at different pressures is difficult. Third, the space at a fracturing site is limited and conventional systems require multiple hoses snaked in and around the pumps and various trailers. Thus, there exists significant room for improvement in the art for overcoming these and other shortcomings of conventional systems and methods for automatically fueling hydraulic fracturing equipment.
While the assembly and method of the present application is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the invention to the particular embodiment disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present application as defined by the appended claims.